Bet – Doug Watkins
A fresh melody on the changes of an old standard (Somebody Loves Me) and two different ways of performing it. Minus You audio for all instruments available.
- Recording: Hank Mobley - Introducing Lee Morgan With Hank Mobley's Quintet
- Recorded on: November 5, 1956
- Label: Savoy (MG 12091)
- Concert Key: F
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Trumpet - Lee Morgan
- Tenor Sax - Hank Mobley
- Piano - Hank Jones
- Bass - Doug Watkins
- Drums - Art Taylor
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Video
- Bassist Nick Dunston practices by playing along with the Minus You track.
Don Sickler explains, "It's a tradition with jazz composers to borrow a chord progression from a popular composition, a 'standard' that they like to solo on, and create their own fresh melody. I've had a lot of fun with Doug Watkins' Bet, because the source of the chord progression has stumped a lot of players—it's the 'changes' of Somebody Loves Me."
Recorded when Doug was only 22, the melody is played by trumpet and tenor sax on this recording date, with the bass walking. This composition can also work great with "everyone" (horns, piano and bass) playing the melody, with the drummer filling in the cracks. The Wyands/Johns piano-bass duo album above demonstrates a further variation.
Recorded when Doug was only 22, the melody is played by trumpet and tenor sax on this recording date, with the bass walking. This composition can also work great with "everyone" (horns, piano and bass) playing the melody, with the drummer filling in the cracks. The Wyands/Johns piano-bass duo album above demonstrates a further variation.
"Introducing Lee Morgan With Hank Mobley's Quintet" was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Hackensack Studio.
Doug's fellow Cass Tech High School classmate and close friend, also a great bassist, Paul Chambers, had success in 1956 recording two of his classic compositions that were written in this style: Visitation (rec. March 3, 1956) ("All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm" changes) and Whims Of Chambers (recorded September 21, 1956) (Blues changes). Watkins and Chambers were not related, just the best of friends (see Mr. P.C: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers
by Rob Palmer), although many references may state they were related.
On February 5, 1962, the jazz world lost the then much in-demand bassist Doug Watkins at the young age of 27, as the result of a fatal automobile accident. Obviously, dying at such an early age, Doug didn't get a chance to write that much original music. On this, his only recording of Bet, the melody is played by horns.
Doug's fellow Cass Tech High School classmate and close friend, also a great bassist, Paul Chambers, had success in 1956 recording two of his classic compositions that were written in this style: Visitation (rec. March 3, 1956) ("All God's Chillun' Got Rhythm" changes) and Whims Of Chambers (recorded September 21, 1956) (Blues changes). Watkins and Chambers were not related, just the best of friends (see Mr. P.C: The Life and Music of Paul Chambers
by Rob Palmer), although many references may state they were related.On February 5, 1962, the jazz world lost the then much in-demand bassist Doug Watkins at the young age of 27, as the result of a fatal automobile accident. Obviously, dying at such an early age, Doug didn't get a chance to write that much original music. On this, his only recording of Bet, the melody is played by horns.
- Recording: Don Sickler - Don Sickler Quartet featuring Daryl Johns
- Recorded on: January 31, 2010
- Label: jazzleadsheets.com (JLS 1001)
- Concert Key: F
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Trumpet - Don Sickler
- Piano - Michael Cochrane
- Bass - Daryl Johns
- Drums - Steve Johns
Video
- Bassist Nick Dunston practices by playing along with the Minus You track.
Don Sickler explains, "It's a tradition with jazz composers to borrow a chord progression from a popular composition, a 'standard' that they like to solo on, and create their own fresh melody. I've had a lot of fun with Doug Watkins' Bet, because the source of the chord progression has stumped a lot of players—it's the 'changes' of Somebody Loves Me.
"It also seems like a melody that Doug would have played on the bass. When I showed it bassist Daryl Johns (13 years old at the time), he agreed; it would be a good one for trumpet and bass to be featured together playing the melody. You'll hear on the audio excerpt that on this recording, both the piano and drums fill in the cracks. It also works great with the piano also playing the melody (in octaves), leaving more wide open spaces for the drummer.
"To make our quartet recording we all read from the jazzleadsheets.com lead sheets. Daryl read from the C bass clef edition. We did a couple of things differently. We started right off with the melody, so we ignored the indication of four bars drums up front. Also, with the bass playing the melody, we felt a little slower tempo sounded better, so we recorded it at ca. 172. Daryl made just a few changes: he walked out of the last note of the melody for the first soloist, and, to end the recording, he played a low root instead of the last melody note."
"It also seems like a melody that Doug would have played on the bass. When I showed it bassist Daryl Johns (13 years old at the time), he agreed; it would be a good one for trumpet and bass to be featured together playing the melody. You'll hear on the audio excerpt that on this recording, both the piano and drums fill in the cracks. It also works great with the piano also playing the melody (in octaves), leaving more wide open spaces for the drummer.
"To make our quartet recording we all read from the jazzleadsheets.com lead sheets. Daryl read from the C bass clef edition. We did a couple of things differently. We started right off with the melody, so we ignored the indication of four bars drums up front. Also, with the bass playing the melody, we felt a little slower tempo sounded better, so we recorded it at ca. 172. Daryl made just a few changes: he walked out of the last note of the melody for the first soloist, and, to end the recording, he played a low root instead of the last melody note."
"Don Sickler Quartet Featuring Daryl Johns" was recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs.
Don Sickler: "This was a very special recording session for me. I got to take bassist Daryl Johns (at age 13) to his first session at engineer Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio.
"Doug Watkins had recorded Bet on Hank Mobley's session in Hackensack, at Rudy's first studio, when Doug was 22 years old. Fortunately, Doug got to record quite a bit with Rudy, both in Hackensack and also in Rudy's Englewood Cliffs studio, before a fatal automobile accident took him away from us at the age of 27. Daryl felt very honored to be the first one to record Bet as one of the melody instruments, by the same engineer who recorded Doug."
Don Sickler: "This was a very special recording session for me. I got to take bassist Daryl Johns (at age 13) to his first session at engineer Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio.
"Doug Watkins had recorded Bet on Hank Mobley's session in Hackensack, at Rudy's first studio, when Doug was 22 years old. Fortunately, Doug got to record quite a bit with Rudy, both in Hackensack and also in Rudy's Englewood Cliffs studio, before a fatal automobile accident took him away from us at the age of 27. Daryl felt very honored to be the first one to record Bet as one of the melody instruments, by the same engineer who recorded Doug."
Bass Melodies (Daryl Johns, bassist)
Learning bebop melodies on the bass can be a valuable exercise even if one does not wish to specialize or regularly perform in this particular jazz style. The quick-moving eighth note lines, stuffed to the brim with well placed chromatic passing tones, are simultaneously difficult to conceive of yet surprisingly easy to get under your fingers. Since the motion is mostly stepwise, these melodies fit well using standard double bass positions and fingerings.
Bet was originally recorded on trumpet in the 1950s, yet here on Daryl Johns' recording the melody was augmented with the bass and as you can hear, it works marvelously well. This can be a great training tool for the upcoming bassist to help develop more language on the instrument, and it would also work excellently as a bass feature on a concert, recording, audition or any other performance situation.
Learning bebop melodies on the bass can be a valuable exercise even if one does not wish to specialize or regularly perform in this particular jazz style. The quick-moving eighth note lines, stuffed to the brim with well placed chromatic passing tones, are simultaneously difficult to conceive of yet surprisingly easy to get under your fingers. Since the motion is mostly stepwise, these melodies fit well using standard double bass positions and fingerings.
Bet was originally recorded on trumpet in the 1950s, yet here on Daryl Johns' recording the melody was augmented with the bass and as you can hear, it works marvelously well. This can be a great training tool for the upcoming bassist to help develop more language on the instrument, and it would also work excellently as a bass feature on a concert, recording, audition or any other performance situation.
Play along using our lead sheets with these exclusive audio tracks. Ignore the four-measure drum intro on the lead sheet: the count off sets you up to play the melody. See the Description notes for other details.
mp3 minus melody (get the lead sheet for your instrument)
-- count off
-- play the melody with the bass clip
-- solo (accompanied by bass and drums) [1 chorus]
-- solo (accompanied by piano, bass, and drums) [1 chorus]
-- solo (accompanied by piano and brushes) [1 chorus]
-- play the head out
mp3 minus piano (C treble clef lead sheet)
-- count off
-- comp behind the melody clip
-- take the first solo [1 chorus]
-- comp for the trumpet solo [1 chorus]
-- comp for the bass solo [1 chorus]
-- comp behind the head out
mp3 minus bass (C bass clef lead sheet)
-- count off
-- play the melody with the trumpet clip
-- walk on the piano solo [1 chorus]
-- walk on the trumpet solo [1 chorus]
-- take a solo [1 chorus]
-- play the head out
mp3 minus drums (C treble clef lead sheet)
-- count off
-- melody [1 chorus] clip
-- piano solo [1 chorus]
-- trumpet solo [1 chorus]
-- bass solo [1 chorus]
-- head out [1 chorus]
As recorded for jazzleadsheets.com clip
-- melody
-- piano solo
-- trumpet solo
-- bass solo
-- out melody
mp3 minus melody (get the lead sheet for your instrument)
-- count off
-- play the melody with the bass clip
-- solo (accompanied by bass and drums) [1 chorus]
-- solo (accompanied by piano, bass, and drums) [1 chorus]
-- solo (accompanied by piano and brushes) [1 chorus]
-- play the head out
mp3 minus piano (C treble clef lead sheet)
-- count off
-- comp behind the melody clip
-- take the first solo [1 chorus]
-- comp for the trumpet solo [1 chorus]
-- comp for the bass solo [1 chorus]
-- comp behind the head out
mp3 minus bass (C bass clef lead sheet)
-- count off
-- play the melody with the trumpet clip
-- walk on the piano solo [1 chorus]
-- walk on the trumpet solo [1 chorus]
-- take a solo [1 chorus]
-- play the head out
mp3 minus drums (C treble clef lead sheet)
-- count off
-- melody [1 chorus] clip
-- piano solo [1 chorus]
-- trumpet solo [1 chorus]
-- bass solo [1 chorus]
-- head out [1 chorus]
As recorded for jazzleadsheets.com clip
-- melody
-- piano solo
-- trumpet solo
-- bass solo
-- out melody
Doug Watkins
March 2, 1934 – February 5, 1962
An extraordinarily prolific bassist with a tragically short life, Detroit jazzman Doug Watkins was known for his sublime tone and unique phrasing. Doug cut his teeth on the Detroit jazz scene, where he was very much in-demand. He left to tour with James Moody in 1953, then returned to play with the Barry Harris Trio. In 1954, Doug settled in New York, where he continued to be a popular choice for recording sessions, especially when his closest friend (often mistaken for a cousin) Paul Chambers was unavailable. Read more...