Jive Coffee – Peter Bernstein

This is a very popular Peter Bernstein composition which he's performed many times (including the four video performances above—click on the video shown, and you'll see the other videos to click on and view). Although inspired by and based on the changes of the 1925 standard Tea For Two, Peter creates a whole new world to explore, putting you in 5/4 with an infectious four-measure rhythm section vamp figure. He then further surprises you, modulating his four-measure pattern up a half step for the start of the melody. The rhythm section groove divides the measures into three beats followed by two beats, as in Dave Brubeck's Take Five.

The equally infectious melody is relatively simple and diatonic to the chord progression. The down-a-half-step intro is used as an interlude between soloists, also reappearing as a vamp for a drum solo before the out head, and as an ending.

The available lead sheets show the basic melody, but the examples below detail ways Peter has performed it. He always has fun with the melody, exploring it in many different ways, and we've shown his interpretations of the first four measures of the melody from four different performances:


On the original Larry Goldings recording, Peter stretches out the grace notes at the beginning of the measures to eighth note triplets. He adds similar grace notes to beat 4 on these measures; the arrows indicate that the grace notes are on the downbeat. These fourth beats are anticipated with an extra low E♭ 8th-note.


The slightly slower "Signs Of Life" recording is closer to the lead sheet's melody, but Peter again anticipates the fourth beats with another low E♭.


This version from Jazz Baltica 2006 is faster. Peter adds the grace notes on the fourth beats (becoming a 16th-note triplet on the second measure), but does not add the low E♭ anticipating them on the first two measures.


This even faster version comes from a Village Vanguard performance in 2013 with the same trio from the first recording. Peter plays the melody more freely, with triplets instead of grace notes throughout and laying back on the third and fourth measures.

For a detailed description of this song and Peter's interpretations of the melody, click on the first album cover. This quartet recording, like all subsequent versions, begins with solo guitar one time through the vamp before the rest of the band comes in.

This live version is around the same tempo as the "The Intimacy Of The Blues" recording (first album cover). Peter plays the melody with grace notes rather than triplets, most similar to the Jazz Baltica version (see the video under album 1). Everyone stretches out here, with an extended drum solo over the intro vamp; the same vamp is also stretched out at the end, bringing the track to an epic 19 minutes in length.