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      Chart #1 Minstrale from: ZERO
 

This is a lead sheet style chart of a composition entitled "Minstrale". It is featured on the CD Greg Osby - Zero. (BN# 7243 4 93760 2 1) The vertical structures are typical "Jazz style" voicings. I have provided common chord symbols familiar to most improvising musicians although many of the vertical structures do not directly adhere to the usual standard of notational labeling. The symbols themselves reflect only a composite representation of the sound that is produced. The total form basically suggests a 14 bar blues. The blues feeling is dictated by the so-called four chord in bar five. This element is what western music theorists use to define a blues. I am of the opinion that blues is a feeling that is broader than any rigid sense of form. It is not to be contained within the static rigidity of a style or popular classification.

It was quite common for many of the field blues or Delta blues musicians to play songs deeply steeped in the blues feeling without ever going to a prescribed four chord. Another element that was key to their expression was the liberal utilization of variable lengths of the forms in successive (chorus) cycles. Using this open framework, the level of suspense and resolution is heightened. Also, any accompanyists must lend a mindfull ear as musical cues were apt to be issued without warning - thus launching the soloist or complete ensemble into totally unanticipated areas of the blues structure. It was critical that one did not allow themselves to become "locked" into a set pattern or chorus structure.

From Art Forum