- Home > Practice Tunes > Jazz Mando - Jitterbug Waltz
WELCOME ALL - In this debut workshop we'll take a look at Fats Waller's tune Jitterbug Waltz. I first heard this done on an old Eric Dolphy recording in the 70's but it has been performed and recorded many times on many instruments (Fats played it on a Harlem church organ). The melody lends itself to the mandolin and there are nice versions of it available by Jethro Burns and Peter Ostroushko that I know about. I have bumped the key up to D (from Db).
This melody is like a fiddle tune in that it seems to work best
when played over and over, so it becomes ingrained in your "muscle
memory". I've recorded an arrangement with another mandolin playing
a third above, and (on the out chorus) a lead mandolin on the melody and
two other mandolins playing in thirds but coming in on the last eighth
note of the first measure, creating a 'round' effect. The bass line I
like to use on this tune (also sounds wonderful on a mandocello for
quartet players) is as follows:
Bass line:
Here are some chord voicings to try out:
On the turnaround (meas. 29-32) I use these voicings to keep the A note ringing at the top of the chords:
For the ending I usually play a ritard on meas. 61-63 (D maj 7, G min. 7, D), but there are lots of clever ways to take it out.
There are many good books on jazz improvising (I recommend Jerry Coker's books for beginners) and any in depth discussion on this subject would be outside the scope of this article, but here are some ideas for playing over these changes:- Accentuating the change from an F# in the D maj7 (meas. 1-4) to an F natural in the G 9 (meas. 5-8) gives a bluesy feeling and echoes the melody. In general the first 12 meas. of the tune alternate between good old D major scale and D Dorian (b3 & b7).
- Arpeggiating or otherwise emphasizing the C7 #11 in meas. 23 provides a nice chromatic touch.
Waltz on,
Will Patton
