@@davidadu8559 Yeah, Miles and Coltrane were close. But what the commenter is pointing out is that Coltrane's time playing with Miles in his band (mid to late 50's) never overlapped with the period Herbie spent playing with Miles (mid to late 60's)
@@danielkim7790 herbie did play with both Coltrane and miles, if I can recall correctly they were all in the same band (l might be wrong, correct me if I am)
@@davidadu8559 You are wrong. As I literally just said, their time in Davis's band never overlapped. Coltrane left Davis's group for the last time in 1960 and Herbie didn't begin playing with Davis until 63 when he was only seventeen. Feel free to google it if you don't believe me
Don’t play the “BOTTOM NOTES”. That’s why we have a Bass Player in the band to do that. Herbie misinterpreted the obvious but he took the scenic route to eventually do what Miles advised him of.
@@vova47But it provides stability to chords, makes them feel fuller and more stable. But the instability is good in jazz because it gives you more places to go after a chord without it feeling like a big change on ideas. At least that’s what I think about it
@@JoseGarcia-yh4tu Because on dominant chords, the 5th and the 9th can both be flatted OR sharped and it still sounds good. Blowers love to mess with those two notes. But if someone else is playing the straight 5th or 9th at the same time, it can sound really horrible.
@@JoseGarcia-yh4tu The 9th is the fifth of the fifth, so not only does it add something fat and sweet to the root, it anricipates a modulation through fifths should things move in that direction. Now, I LOVE it. But I'm an amateur. I get to love the simple and easy stuff, and my friends are like, wow man you can totally improvise! No I can't. I've got a few simple tricks is all. Imagine skydiving without that parachute. You've got to go to the next level, invent the answer to whatever is playing out here and now. Musicians won't actually DIE if they fail to invent a fresh answer, but it's not a good night. So that's why the real musicians won't settle for the butter notes. I totally will. I'm just not in that class.
It's the same thing as Louis Armstrong once said : "i don't play all the notes of a melody, just the best ones". In teresting that this concept comes from two trumpet players....
That particular piece of advice was probably just for Herbie. Obviously Miles had an incredible ear and mind for music. The advice he had for HH wouldn’t be the same advice he had for another player.
I remember Miles being interviewed about HH, and he said something like “I’d point at Herbie to take a solo, and I’d immediately regret it because he always had to play all 88 keys”
Probably Miles ment ''bottom notes'' as in ''use Bill Evans' rootless voicings, don't use the fifth and root, use more tensions'' . Very ironic if you look at Herbie Hancock's story from that point of view...
Y.T. Sobriquet your argument makes no sense because the word butter note was only used to describe the third and seventh of the chord after Herbie Hancocks story.
Paul Legende Ridiculous. They said that long before his story. Wow how clueless can you get. “Don’t play the bottom notes”. Ha! Yeah sure, that’s what Miles said.
Paul Legende Herbie thought he said butter but he actually said bottom. Absurd. I don’t give a shit how raspy and whispery Miles’ voice was, Herbie Hancock can hear the difference between a Dsus4sus2 chord and an Amin7 chord without the root based solely on the context of the notes around it and you think he couldn’t hear the difference between the word butter and bottom spoken directly into his ear? Foh.
TacoTacoTacoTaco You must not be black. That all “makes sense” but butter is a black slang term, meaning smooth or The Shit (“Damn that ride is straight butter”). Miles wouldn’t use some corny and obvious term like bottom notes...he said butter meaning the chord’s “sweet spots”...i.e. the notes that clearly define its tonality. Smh.
It means don’t get complacent with your improvisations. It’s really easy to get comfy and play the things you like over and over, but then it gets stale and you get bored, but sometimes you get stuck. I play multiple instruments and it’s nice to take a break from one for a while because I feel fresh when I come back and I can discover new lines. I’d get really frustrated only playing one instrument, but I’d probably be better sticking to one if I’d push through the boredom and stale riffs.
Like when Monk would say, "Don't play the bullshit notes." It's pretty much the same as when a classical composer does "note spinning." In basketball, there was a play-by-play announcer who used the term "fiddlin'-and-diddlin.'" Just as there are intervals when you can have have great music without sound, there others when you can have sound without music--and that's even without cacophany.
I literally thought this was going to turn out as having been Herbie just mishearing Miles having said "don't play the BOTTOM notes". Like maybe he was inhabiting too much of the lower register during his solos, thereby muddying it out, and he just wanted him to play higher so he'd be more in the lead when he solod.
Its a checkpoint in life. Sometimes someone says a word or two that shapes the rest of your life. My friends told me you have a huge ego. After that i was on a quest.
Yeah, I definitely hear him saying to not overplay the progression, and color up the notes that you do play. I think he also meant to "trim the fat", meaning to stay true to the song and to the style. I have found that jazz cats like Miles are really passionate about the music they write and play, and with jazz, there are "rules" (written and unwritten) to follow. That's what I take from it.
This is very timely for me to watch this. I've been making some soup and I forgot to put in the butter. Soup making is the time to put in the butter. MMMMMmmmm.
There was this guy at the bass playing with Herbie back in the days, his name was Joe "Butter" Willis, and Miles saw that him was playing the exact solo all the time...
I think this is also why Tommy Wiseau's The Room works. A lot of the scenes are missing the "Butter Notes" and therefore shocks you, but in a good way :)
His approach to playing is so sophisticated. I think of this often when I read some comment (and man are there a ton of them) on video of a song by The Who or the Rolling Stones saying "This is *real* music! Not like what the kids listen to today!" And all I'm thinking is "Man, that's three major chords in 4/4 time for three minutes. Have you ever heard jazz? Those cats would laugh at you calling that the 'real' music." Don't get me wrong. Rock music is my favorite kind of music, and I love the Stones and the Who and the whole roster. But it's so funny to think that millions of people think "Satisfaction" is as high as music can climb.
Back in the day, my father talked to me like that, starting as boy of 8 or 9. He'd say something to me without explaining himself. His tone said I was to figure it out. His body language and facial expression assured me he was done talking. Looking back 50 years I can say It' was a wonderful way of teaching and learning. I usually figured it out. Sometimes 20 years later. ; )
Miles autobiographies reads FYI that Miles as young child in his way to school witnessed lynchings in his home town of East St Louis. I hope pple know how such negativity can affect a young child and I hope pple will try reading about one of the most documented musicians in the World. Blessings
Maybe Miles did not have a specific meaning in mind, but was using a random word to disrupt the rut Herbie was in and kick him into creative mode, which is what happened.
Miles also told him"don't try to fatten up with whaling blubber runs...one of the best compliments miles said years later to hancock was "your not getting any blubber!"
As an OG, ( old guy)...:)...It breaks my heart to see this music laying near death, I remember when nearly every radio station on AM and FM were playing great music...We had so many great stations; Now; here in philly, only RTI after 6pm weekdays can you hear any deep jazz. I was more of a prog head, being a teen in the 70's...Jazz was a 60's thing but; only recently; ( the last ten years) have we been able to explore it...And Man, Herbie, Miles, Thelonious, Coltrane, Weather Report, Return to Forever...It's a lifetime of music...I feel sorry for anyone that listens to one single second of Rap, hip hop, tik tok, autotune, bubblegum, pop bullshit...That's a second wasted...
Deductive reasoning, by Jose, I think he’s got it! But seriously, I’m trying to think of who’s ever given me any good advice and I can’t really think of anyone. Or, expanding the term, advice, into a practical nonverbal sense, advice, has come to in terms of good job opportunities: from learning to be a real barista to learning the ins and outs of the grocery business. Nowadays, though, I’m grappling with a transition from an out-of-work worker to an entrepreneur and business leader - while it isn’t actually overwhelming, it does feel entirely like a lonely world. It’s a tedium, I’m in - will I bite the dust or will I eventually get my proposal out to enough eyeballs and ears for flint to crackle a brush? I’ve been ready to bite it since 2012...
In film terms, I equate this with not showing someone crying. That's the audience's role. Remember the audience. They're participating. Slang is the short cut to your brain. Don't answer the question, say something, either vocally or by a look that suggests the answer. And keep practicing. When a song writer writes a melodic line, he ain't done. He still has to write the complementary line, and still take it to the bridge. Think like they do. Not endless noodling, but a direction. Think Cannonball.
My jazz buddy stopped playing the butter notes. He's on a health kick and now playing margarine notes. I told him he should play I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to fake everyone out.
Some very humorous and insightful comments here. There's another short RU-vid clip that shows Miles glaring at Herbie. Those comments are also entertaining.
If you watch Herbies award winning performance of a song for you, I like to think the message was passed on to Christina Aguilera, because he subtly plays cords and runs that gave her less opportunities to oversinging the song as she normally does and made it one of her best performances. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J3Dd3PUZuhs.html
He actually said „don’t play the bottom notes...“ meaning leaving bass key out, so the band would sound tighter. Herbie confirms himself in a different video.
Theory... The Minor Pentatonic Scale leaves 2 notes out of the Major Scale. "That" is what makes it work with other "Modes" so well. I "think" maybe he may have been talking about those. Otherwise you have to be very careful where and how you use them to stay "Modally" correct. Sometimes you can include them and sometimes not, depending on the tune. One example of that is the song "Little Wing" - Jimi Hendrix. If you include the "Butter Notes", you MUST change "Modes" with the chord changes and if you don't it sounds funny. Maybe?
This is really pissing me off. I've been incredibly frustrated since I watched this video. I believe my playing may be 40% butter notes. I have no idea how to stop without spending more time than I have. But all I can hear now is butter notes. 35 years I haven't really cared all that much...now it's all I hear. Thanks Herbie!
Betty Botter bought some butter But she said 'this butter's bitter' If I put it in my batter, my batter will be bitter But a bit of better batter will make my batter better So Betty Botter bought some butter Better than her bitter butter, put it in her batter She put a bit of better butter into her batter, made her batter better
