Victor Feldman: from Piano to Vibraphone
The application
How related are piano and vibraphone? How can we see the similarities in this genre? Can language and improvisational/compositional ideas be the same regardless of what instrument we play?
We are very lucky to have a clear example of this with one of the most prolific musicians for both the genre of jazz and hardbop, and for this double instrumental approach.
Who is Victor Feldman?
Victor Stanley Feldman (1934-1987), started the music career very soon, as a child prodigy, showing his talent as a piano player in shows and occasions made by the father in his hometown, in England.
After following diverse music schools and institutions, he moved to the U.S. in 1955, dedicating his creative process to tours and the composing activity, collaborating with the best musicians in the scene of the time, such as Scott LaFaro, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis.
It’s maybe hard to find where it happened in this hasty and full production, that this personality could work and switch between two apparently unrelated instrument like vibraphone and piano. But already starting from his drums teacher, Carlo Krahmer, who still in the U.K. was encouraging “Vic” to focus on the vibraphone after hearing him in several band settings, and the influence of rhythm and famous personalities like Milt Jackson had on Feldman’s playing, we can start to build the connections pretty quickly. It becomes then even easier if we start to analyze and approach his compositional ideas in the two different instruments and transferring improvisational ideas between this two extremely peculiar instrument realities.
History and development
To explain the best how ideas between the two instruments are related, we are going to go through three songs written by Feldman, and compare their writing style and approach with parts of the solos he took on the vibraphone.
The first song we are going through is a very popular and famous one among jazz musicians, often forgotten about the composer himself being Victor Feldman.
“Seven Steps to Heaven” [1] was written in 1963 in collaboration with Miles Davis, and can be found as a song in the homonym album by the Miles Davis Quintet, released in the same year.
As we notice from the score, we have a first section of the song consisting of an INTRO and an A section, presenting a very rhythmical and staccato theme. The chord changes are pretty standard and linear, giving the opportunity to the listener for a clear and followable harmonic base.
The second part, B, of the tune, is presented in contrast with the first one, giving linear and singable phrases to the melody, always following a simple cadence concept in the harmony, but going away from the key center of C major by minor thirds, to Eb major and Gb major. After that, the tune goes back to A section, to which solos follow on the structure chord progression.
In this version of the recording [2], the song is presented in another setting, with Feldman playing vibraphone. In his solo, happening from minute 2:32 to minute 4:03, we can clearly see some resembleance between his soloing style and the song one.
Especially in this passage, happening at 3:07, we can see not only the connection to the song, but also to a very typical piano playing concept, where the main melody is played by the right hand, supported by quartal or similar type chords with the left hand, following the chords and in a very rhythmical way.
Other examples that give a hint about transposing his piano playing on the vibraphone are all the bebop language phrases that Vic plays in the same way and style that usually it’s played on a piano, for example here, in a very fast passage at 3:34 of the same song:
The second composition that we will analyze is called “Evening in Paris” [3]. This song, as the title of the album “Vic Feldman On Vibes” suggests, finally presents Feldman entirely playing on the vibraphone.
Being this album published in 1957 and being it the first publishing of this artist playing on the vibraphone, we can clearly notice different approaches, both regarding playing and composition, that come directly from what Feldman, until just some years or even months before, was applying starting from the piano.
First of all, analyzing again the theme, we can see how Vic blends the vibraphone with the rhythm section, leaving the melodic part to the horn instruments and literally using the vibes as an accompanying and rhythmic instrument. This is happening both in the INTRO and in the A section (0:00-0:41).
In the B section, the vibraphone doesn’t play at all, except for the end, where it doubles the melody before going back to the A section.
What is interesting about this kind of arrangement, is not only that vibraphone keeps its integrity as a solistic and melodic instrument, but also that it’s present, in the same moments where it’s playing one-note lines, as a rhythmic integration as well. If we listen to most of the piano parts in these styles and years compositions, this is exactly what happens, but mainly often, if not always, when piano is a comping instrument, in a chordal way and poly-note accompanying.
After a rhythmic interlude, vibraphone solo happens (1:25-2:31). What we can see in the solos it’s really the early stages of trying to transpose on vibraphone different pianistic techniques and fashions. Playing mainly in a higher register, the application of lots of be-bop language, grace notes and a very linear dynamic playing, with accents and lines typical of the jazz soloing fashion on the piano (see image below).
In the last example, “Wilbert’s Tune” [4], we can pretty much have the confirmation of what happened in the previous piece.
The INTRO (0:00-0:08) is again very rhythmic, and it involves the whole band in a together groove, which happens at every beginning and end of the theme (considering also the end of the song itself), and here, the vibraphone is even more coagulating with the other instruments, playing both voices of the main melody.
The A section (0:08-0:39) is focused on a very simple and linear melody and common changes, where vibraphone takes now the part of the melodic instrument together with the horns.
In the extract from the B section (0:39-0:55) showed above, we can notice a big contrast with the A section. Louder dynamics, swinging accompaniment and a language motif going down by whole tones, with the harmony following. Also here vibraphone takes the melodic part. After B, A is repeated and the solo section happens.
Between the solos, we have a very peculiar INTERLUDE (2:17-2:34), played by the whole band, which gives us a breath and a clear distinction between the soloists by giving a pedal break, to which follows another 4-bar section filled with language lines, altered chords and syncopated hits, where vibraphone can be heard as one of the main voices and most “cutting-through” instruments, making it, once again, another very important element.
Conclusion
There would be need and space to add many other elements and examples of this musician and of how he contributed to the shaping of the vibraphone, but from here we can already have a basic, but clear idea about how, and from what, this instrument got a big development, making Victor Feldman a significative figure that connected two apparently distant and not connectable instruments to each other, opening the vibraphone to new and interesting possibilities in the jazz landscape.