Earl Hines and "Rosetta"

By Jeffrey Taylor

One of the proudest moments of Earl "Fatha" Hines's career took place
in 1976, when he was invited to perform at a White House dinner in
honor of the President of France. Mter an evening chatting with Betty
Ford and Clint Eastwood, Hines sat down at the piano in the East Room
and launched into "Rosetta."
"Rosetta" had been composed by Hines and his arranger Henri Woode
over forty years earlier. That the pianist chose this tune for such an occa-
sion, and at this late stage of his career, says much about its prominence in
his life. Only "Boogie Woogie on the St. Louis Blues" held the same pride
of place in Hines's performances. He revisited "Rosetta" hundreds of
times, in solo performances, with vocalists, and with groups of varying
sizes. But though the association of a jazz musician with a "signature" tune
is not unusual, Hines's relationship with "Rosetta" was complex and
unique.
On October 6, 1939, at the end of a lengthy band session for the
Bluebird label, Hines recorded four solo versions of "Rosetta."l Only the
third take was issued at the time, coupled with Hines's solo version of
"Glad Rag Doll," recorded ten years earlier. The first two (rejected) takes
are presumed lost, but the fourth was included many years later on an LP
reissue by RCA-France. 2 The two available performances, placed side by
side, capture Hines's relentless virtuosity and innovative musical mind,
and provide a fascinating example of how a jazz musician can revisit the
same melody and chord structure from two perspectives. But the record-
ings also raise larger issues of context, for they are closely linked both to
the tune's creation and subsequent performance history and to Hines's
working life as one of the most gifted band pianists of his generation. In
addition, Hines's 1939 versions of the tune dramatically capture the ways
in which he had, in less than a dozen years, revolutionized the very genre
of the piano solo.
The nature of the two solos also raises intriguing issues about the place
of transcription in jazz research. Much of my discussion here is rooted in
a study of my own complete transcriptions ofthese recordings. 3 The incor-
poration of such scores into the study of jazz is now widely accepted in the
scholarly community. Yet, though the use of notated excerpts to illustrate
specific analytical points is a familiar aspect of academic discourse, study
of complete transcriptions raises additional issues. When one is confronted
with the entire "text" of an improvised performance fixed neatly on the
Current Musicology, nos. 71-73 (Spring 200l-Spring 2002)
© 2002 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
78 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

page, it is difficult not to evaluate the score through the aesthetic lens of
Western art music. The issue is particularly conspicuous in piano tran-
scriptions, for they can appear deceptively clean. Although the transcriber
must wrestle with rhythms, chord voicings, and other issues, the notes on
the keyboard are invariable; unlike other solo or ensemble transcriptions,
the reader is not continually reminded of the inadequacies of Western no-
tation to capture bends, growls, scoops, and other jazz techniques related
to pitch and timbre. A complete piano transcription easily lends itself to
structuralist interpretation, for it is tempting to evaluate the performance
based on the integrity of its overall form: the use of effective contrast be-
tween strains or choruses, facility of modulation, pacing of important
events, motivic development, and so on. Yet, though Western aesthetic
standards are not wholly inappropriate for a pianist so steeped in the clas-
sical tradition as was Hines, his artistry as a soloist must also be evaluated
by different criteria.
As I have written elsewhere (J. Taylor 1992, 1998,2000), Hines was a
pianist who relished testing himself and his audience, a feature vividly cap-
tured by Gunther Schuller in his observation that "listening to Hines is
always like standing at the edge of a precipice in a heavy wind" (Schuller
1989:284). Though his solos seem at times to teeter near structural inco-
herence, this feature is not a symptom of an erratic musical mind nor
an inexperienced performer but is rather the very essence of his improvi-
sational style. Hines's brinkmanship posed substantial challenges for my
role as transcriber, for rarely have I encountered a musical art more resist-
ant to being captured in notation. Yet, the more time I spend with the
highly artificial musical "texts" I have created, the more I am struck that
the scholarly and ideological issues surrounding transcriptions may rest
less with the process itself (the results of which, as most scholars agree, are
highly subjective, pallid representations of the original recordings) and
more, as both Ingrid Monson and Paul Berliner have suggested, with how
the texts are used to make analytical and aesthetic observations about the
improviser's art (Monson 1996:133-91; Berliner 1994:11-12). In this arti-
cle, therefore, I am suggesting that the "Rosetta" transcriptions be used less
as "complete works" for study and more as windows into the ways in which
Hines engages with and signifies upon the tune, its performing history, and
his own musical artistry.4 When his work is viewed this way, these two tran-
scriptions provide a fascinating guide, however conjectural at times, to the
moment-to-moment unfolding of a great musical imagination.

"Rosetta"'s story begins in 1932, when Hines (1903-1983) met pianist

and composer Henri Woode while on tour in Kansas City. Hines hired
Woode as an arranger, and he created several notable showpieces for
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 79

the pianist's band, including 1932's raucous "Sensational Mood." As Hines

recalled, "Rosetta" was inspired by Woode's girlfriend:

He was crazy about a girl called Rosetta. Whenever I wanted him, or

asked the guys where he was, they used to say, "He's with Rosetta."
Finally I got a bit mad, and told him to have Rosetta come where we
were playing, and she could eat and drink and I'd pay for it. Then he
heard a little phrase I made one night on the piano, .and he worked
it into a tune we wrote together. We dedicated it to her and called it
"Rosetta" and it became a big hit ... (Dance 1977:76)

The passage suggests that the tune represents a kind of signirying on

Hines's improvisational style. As for the nature of the phrase that caught
Woode's ear, it may be the drooping fourth in mm. 2-3 and 4-5 of the
tune's A section-one of the melody's most distinctive features (see exam-
ple 1 for the complete melody line and accompanying harmony). This
idea surfaces occasionally in other improvisations of the same time, where
its "open" sound complements the horn-like conception of Hines's right
hand. It is hinted at near the end of the second eight-bar phrase in
Hines's solo on "Sensational Mood," and more overtly referenced in the
third chorus of 1932's "Down Among The Sheltering Palms" (take 1) (ex.
2).5 (In this and other examples, where noted, I have transposed from the
original key to F to facilitate comparison with "Rosetta"'s original melody
line.) In addition to the descending fourth motive, the passage also sug-
gests the repeated "A" in the fifth and sixth measures of Hines's tune. The
gesture also plays a prominent role in other melodies that Hines wrote or
co-wrote, including "A Monday Date" (1928), ''You Can Depend On Me"
(1932), "Straight to Love" (1941), and "Am I Too Late?" (1947), inviting
speculation that these tunes also grew out of improvisations.
The tune was submitted for copyright on February 3, 1933. Ten days
later, Hines's band made four takes of it for the Brunswick label, in an
arrangement by saxophonist Cecil Irwin. Two of the takes featured an
Armstrong-style vocal by trumpeter Walter Fuller, who was so delighted
with the success of the number that he later named his daughter Rosetta
(Dance 1977:168). Hines's group recorded the tune again in November of
1934, in a somewhat updated (and faster) arrangement by bassist Quinn
Wilson. In 1935 the tune was formally published by Joe Davis, Inc. in a
piano/vocal version, with an undistinguished verse that is rarely if ever
played, and the tune began to enter the country's band repertory. By
1942, it had been featured on twenty-two recordings by other performers
(Crawford and Magee 1992:60-61). All but six of these are instrumentals,
a result, perhaps, of rather clumsy lyrics. Most likely because of the tune's
80 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

Example 1: "Rosetta." Words and Music by Earl Hines and Henri Woode © 1933, 1935
(Renewed) MORLEY MUSIC CO. This arrangement © 2002 MORLEY MUSIC CO. All
Rights Reserved.

F D7 G7 F E7

r r I J rta) r r I .J ,J J I"
17 Am E7 Am Dm7(,5) C G7 C C7
, ~j J J I~r I'V 1°I r r IF I'r t ~ JI
r r I'" OJ OJ I'"
25

,& r (
F C+7 F

i'V r r IJ j; I)
D7 G7 C7

r r I J j J IJ j J I
F

I ,1
Ii

-----
Example 2: Earl Hines, "Down Among the Sheltering Palms" (July 14,1932), A3 (i.e., third
chorus), mm. 13-16. Transposed from Ak
8 va _________ _ --
,----------------------,

association with Hines, thirteen of these recordings feature pianists in

prominent roles. And, significantly, six feature the artists most responsible
for shaping the art of the piano solo during the 1930s-Art Tatum and
Teddy Wilson. Indeed, besides Gershwin's "Liza," "Rosetta" is the only
tune both Tatum and Wilson recorded as soloists prior to 1942.
By the time he made his first solo recordings of "Rosetta" in 1939, the
tune was a cherished friend. Trombonist Trummy Young, who joined the
Hines group not long after the first band recording was made, once re-
marked that "Earl liked that tune so much we used to play it two or three
times a night sometimes. He just fell in love with the tune" (Dance
1980:40). But though Hines clearly had emotional attachments to the
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 81

piece, like other musicians he must have also been drawn to its wide range
of possibilities. Beyond the distinctive sighing fourth figure in the melodic
line, musical details ofthe tune show superb craftsmanship (ex. 1). Cast in
the familiar 32-bar AABA form, harmony, melody, and rhythm work to-
gether to create drive to the end of each eight-bar phrase. The first four
measures are made notable by the shifting of harmony under a single
pitch: in measure 2, under a held C in the melody, the harmony shifts
from tonic to dominant with a raised fifth. The inspiration for this effect
may have come from Victor Herbert's "Indian Summer" (1919), a tune
Hines returned to frequently in later years (Dance 1977). The first three
bars enrich the F tonality with tension, rather than creating harmonic mo-
tion. In the last five bars of each A section, however, both harmonic and
melodic rhythm increase in speed. The harmony, beginning with the D7
chord, moves through a series of secondary dominants until the tonic is
again reached at measure 7. The idea of shifting harmonies under a single
pitch (the A in mm. 5-6) is continued throughout this passage, with the
melody line featuring diminutions in the rhythmic pattern. This tension
between melody and harmony is underscored by Quinn Wilson in his
1934 arrangement, in which the brass punch out a new chord at the
beginning of each measure.
The bridge modulates to the minor iii (A minor), a distinctive move,
though not unheard of (a similar key change occurs in "I Never Knew"
of 1925 and "More Than You Know" of 1929, among other examples).
Recordings suggest that the melody of the bridge was less fixed from the
outset. The Hines band versions present an instrumentally-conceived
line that lacks a strong sense of melody, and even in Fuller's first vocal the
trumpeter seems to be making up the tune as he goes along. Certainly,
most performances avoid the trite phrasing of the melody as presented in
the 1935 sheet music, but this may simply reflect the tendency of Swing
Era soloists and arrangers to abandon a tune's melody at the bridge.
Hines's two 1939 takes of "Rosetta" are intriguing examples not only of
his improvisational approach, but of his recasting of the piano solo, a
process he had begun in his revolutionary 1928 solo recordings for the
QRS label. Though much has been written about various stylistic trajecto-
ries in pre-1940s jazz piano (stride, boogie-woogie, swing, etc.), as well as
their important practitioners, less has been made of the evolution of the
jazz piano solo as a specific genre-one with its own rules and performance
history. Because pianos can stand alone in performance, a uniquely varied
literature and performance practice has developed around them in jazz.
Since pianists could duplicate both the role of solo instruments (in the
right hand) and the backing of a rhythm section (in the left) they were
prized by club owners (or party hosts) with limited funds to spend on live
82 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

entertainment. But though their choice of instrument could be financially

lucrative, piano soloists also faced the challenge of building a satisfYing,
swinging performance without help from other ensemble members, rely-
ing on their own ingenuity to achieve variety and their own internal sense
of time to maintain tempo and momentum. Still, though these challenges
were daunting (and not always adequately met by pianists of the 1920s and
'30s), they also lent the piano solo genre its uniqueness as a self-contained
expression of improvisational creativity. Ajazz piano solo was (and is) the
work of a single imagination, one with complete control over the shaping
ofthe event.
The first generation of jazz solo pianists, born in the 1890s (Jelly Roll
Morton and James P. Johnson, among others), came of age in the ragtime
era, and their solos tended to remain strongly rooted in that tradition.
Often, these musicians featured instrumental specialties, multi-strained set
pieces in which certain key elements remained in place during perform-
ance. For example, if one compares Morton's seven solo versions of his
own "King Porter Stomp," recorded over a seventeen-year period, it is clear
that though the performances vary considerably, many features always stay
the same-chiefly introductions, breaks, interludes, and endings, as well as
specific melodic and harmonic material. 6 In short, the performance
approach in these solos held much in common with that of the prejazz pi-
ano rag. When these musicians turned to other repertory-most typically
popular songs and blues-their renditions often also seemed "arranged" in
the sense that the number of choruses, introductions, interludes and tags,
key regions, and general stylistic approach were decided upon in advance.
And, as Henry Martin has suggested, even when seemingly spontaneous
invention occurred, it may not have been "improvisation" in the sense that
the term was later used in jazz, but rather the employment of variational
patterns that had been carefully worked out (Martin 2000).
When Earl Hines first turned to the piano solo genre he could not help
drawing partly on this performance legacy. He had made contact with
nearly all the important early jazz pianists during his formative years:
as well as encountering James P. Johnson and Luckey Roberts in Pitts-
burgh, he met Willie "The Lion" Smith and Duke Ellington on a trip to
New York with Lois Deppe in 1923, and Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton
became close friends during his early years in Chicago. But unlike most
jazz pianists active in the 1920s, Hines had established a prominent career
before he made any solo recordings. Johnson, Morton, and Waller had all
made piano rolls near the beginning of their professional lives, and solos
loom large in their early discographies. Hines's first recordings, however,
were made with an ensemble, Deppe's Serenaders, and these were fol-
lowed by band recordings led by Johnny Dodds, Louis Armstrong, and
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 83

others. Most of these recordings featured Hines's unaccompanied work,

in introductions, breaks, and occasional choruses. But before 1928, he
had never been called upon to record an entire solo performance on ei-
ther piano roll or disk. The reason, however, was apparently not lack of
opportunity but simple disinterest on Hines's part. In fact, Hines often
maintained that audience demand had made him a soloist:

I was always known as a band pianist and a band leader. I never did
want to play no solos. I wanted to be the band leader and just play pi-
ano and choruses now and then. But the public kept pushing me out
there until I finally had to go in the woodshed and learn how to play
piano by myself. (Hines 1980)

Hines put his feelings even more strongly when recalling a 1928 session
with Armstrong:

Now I was just accompanying Louis and the next time the guys say
"Oh, why don't you make a piano solo?" I say, "I don't want to make
no piano solo." ... I said, "Man, I don't want to be sitting up here
playing by myself." (Miller and Rusch 1976:4)

Just two years before his death, when asked whether he often played the
beautiful 1904 Steinway he kept in his apartment (a gift from San Francisco
Chronicle editor Scott Newhall) Hines responded, "No, not really. I never
got much pleasure out of playing alone" (B. Taylor 1981). Though the
comment may reflect Hines's reliance on audience response, it also sug-
gests a craving for the interaction of the bandstand, for the joys of commu-
nal music-making that initially draw many artists into the jazz tradition.
Perhaps no part of Hines's background and training is more crucial to
understanding the entire sweep of his solo artistry than his early develop-
ment as an ensemble pianist, for it informs both improvisational method
and overall conception. Because of his early experiences, Hines came to
solo playing relatively unencumbered by the structural and formal conven-
tions established by his contemporaries. When he did reluctantly turn to
the solo genre, it became simply a chance to explore musical territory
beyond the limitations imposed by ensemble performance. For example,
while discussing with Stanley Dance another 1939 solo performance, "The
Father's Getaway," Hines noted that he was "enjoying being away from
the band and, as the song says, 'free to do the things I might'" (Dance
1980:44). Hines's solos on band recordings seem eager to burst the con-
fines of thirty-two bar form, and the piano solo provided that freedom, giv-
ing greater reign to his imagination so he could explore ideas without
84 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

worrying whether his compatriots would follow his train of thought. For
that reason, Hines's solos are not conceived "compositionally," as were
many solos by Morton, Johnson, and their contemporaries, who often
shaped their performances into works that lent themselves to publication
in simplified sheet-music versions. It is impossible to imagine a notated
version of either the "Rosetta" solos or any of the solos that precede them,
beyond a transcription. Neither are Hines's solos "arranged" in the sense
that he developed a specific approach to frequently-played pieces (as did
Art Tatum for many of his favorite tunes). In fact, Hines suggested that
such a process would be incongruous with his aims as a musician:

I always felt that to be a "soloist" you should have piano arrange-

ments and that's something I didn't want. Because I play strictly
from the heart ... never the same. Whatever feeling I have at the
time, that's what comes out. (B. Taylor 1981:3)

This claim is fully borne out by the two "Rosetta" performances. By 1939,
the tune was one of his most requested numbers, yet, remarkably, neither
recording hints of rote. A comparison of the overall procedure followed
by Hines in the two solos illustrates the looseness of his conception (fig. 1).
Though they share key regions, the shape of the two solos shows marked
contrast: the first offers three choruses in F and one in E~, whereas the
second presents two in each key, and the placement and length of the in-
terludes is also substantially changed. One senses that Hines simply
lodged the melody and chord progression in his mind and took off, using
the structure of the tune as a springboard for a flight of musical discovery.
In the truest sense, these solos are music of the moment-glimpses of
Hines's creativity that, were it not for recording technology, would live on
only in the memories of those fortunate enough to be present when they
were played.
Hines's lack of experience playing and recording piano solos may also
explain why, unlike the work of Morton, Johnson, and other masters of
what Martin Williams has called "three-minute form," these performances
often show little awareness of the time limit demanded by 78-rpm records.
In a famous example, "Fifty-Seven Varieties" of 1928, Hines claimed he
was unaware of even being recorded until a recording engineer whispered
in his ear to "put in an ending, put in an ending" (Miller and Rusch
1976:4). The result is remarkable in that it does not sound appreciably
different than many of Hines's other solos, many of which seem prema-
turely aborted-as if he could have continued in a similar vein for several
more choruses had not the recording engineer signaled him to stop. In "I
Ain't Got Nobody" (1928), this makes for a serious miscalculation (and a
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 85

Figure 1: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6, 1939), Takes 3 and 4, formal schemes (number
of measures in parentheses).

Key Take 3 Take 4

F Intro(8) Intro(IO)
Al(32) Al(32)
A2(32)
FtoU Interlude 1 (4) Interlude 1 (8)
E~ A2(32) A3(32)
A3(32)
In terlude 2 (8) Interlude 2(10)
A4(32) A4(32)
Tag(4) Tag(S)

miraculous save): apparently unaware time is running out, Hines launches

into a third chorus, then deftly twists the first eight bars of the tune so that
they sound like the last eight. By 1939 Hines had grown more adept at
accommodating the time limit, but one still often senses a delight in cross-
ing the finish line at the last possible moment. Particularly in the tag of
Take 4, the listener is given few indications the performance is drawing to
a close un til the final bar.
Hines's development as primarily a band pianist not only influenced
his improvisatory process and general conception of the piano solo but
also played an important role in the development of his stylistic language.
As he pointed out in many interviews, his famous "trumpet style," in which
right-hand octaves approximate the timbre and phraseology of brass play-
ers, took shape initially during his playing with ensembles during the
1920s:

We didn't have amplification then and the piano could hardly be

heard, cause they didn't take the front out or the top off. So when a
guy gets finished playing those loud instruments over there and here
I am tinkling, I said, "Oh man, I got to do better than this." So I
started playing my trumpet style and people began to hear me. A lot
of guys started using that same particular style because it cut through
the band then. I was playing octaves and they could hear me and I
was pretty fast with it too. (Rock 1978:28)

Though this aggressive octave technique had become somewhat more re-
strained by 1939-Hines seemed to absorb some of the subtleness of
touch that Wilson and Tatum brought to the jazz piano idiom-it remained
an instantly recognizable feature of both his band and solo style. In the
86 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

climactic final chorus of Take 3 of "Rosetta," for example, he uses the

technique to create a powerful melodic line that drives the performance
inexorably into the tag.
Still, though Hines's distinctive sound grew partly out of a desire to be
heard in the ensemble, he also learned ways to integrate his piano work
skillfully into an arrangement without overpowering his fellow musicians.
Indeed, Hines's band experience may have influenced the remarkable
sense of space in much of his solo playing. Perhaps even more important,
the rhythmic disruptions, beat displacements, and occasionally wayward
turns in the harmonic progression that are so crucial to Hines's edgy, per-
plexing style seem to have evolved in the ensemble context. One notices,
for example, in an early performance such as 1928's "Savoyagers' Stomp"
(recorded with Carroll Dickerson's Savoyagers), how much Hines plays off
of the admirably secure rhythmic foundation of Zutty Singleton's drum-
ming as he continually tugs at the time and inflects the harmony with col-
orful twists. Significantly, when Hines recalled his fascination with playing
"close to the edge" (and occasionally tumbling over), he usually described
its occurrence in an ensemble context:
I was always exploring and trying to find something else. Sometimes
I was lost and didn't know where I was but I'd keep going around
until I caught up. I'd do it purposely. I'd have a rhythm section and
they never did know where I was half the time. Bass player's talking
to the guitar player saying "where's he at now?" I used to have fun
like that. (Hines 1980)

It may be that Hines's remarkable internal "clock," whereby he could

achieve shocking feats of rhythmic audacity and never lose the beat, were
first developed while working with a rhythm section. Both "Rosetta" per-
formances are permeated by the shifted accents, rhythmic displacements
and suspensions, and other perversions of the basic meter that are so es-
sential to Hines's approach.
The point is that, even though Hines's solo work was created in musical
isolation, the idiom he developed betrays a highly interactive sensibility,
both in style and conception. In her insightful book Saying Something: Jazz
Improvisation and Interaction, Ingrid Monson sees musical interaction in
a jazz performance-defined at a variety of musical, social, and cultural
levels-as (among other things) a key to a revised aesthetic method for
evaluating the art> of jazz. For perhaps obvious reasons, piano solos do not
figure prominently in her discussion. Yet, I would suggest that such a
concept of interaction in several broad senses informs Hines's "Rosetta"
recordings, though they are ostensibly the work of a single musician. Mter
noting the presence in these recordings of an improvisatory art shaped
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 87

largely in an interactive context (as well as the ramifications of that art's

removal from its context), I will now focus on a complex of specific and
interrelated features: the ways Hines converses "across time" with (and sig-
nifies on) both earlier band versions of "Rosetta" and his ensemble's
arrangements in general; the ways he engages the melody and chord
structure of his own tune in each performance; and, in the case of the
fourth take, how he comments and builds on ideas presented in a
performance that took place moments earlier.

For a musician who saw himself first and foremost as a band pianist, it is
not surprising that Hines's work in the solo piano idiom should reflect the
context in which he was working night after night. Occasionally, his en-
semble work was carried over to the piano solo idiom. The syncopated in-
troduction to his band's 1932 recording of "I Love You Because I Love
You" (Take 1), for example, contains the seed of the introduction he uses
for his solo performance of "Down Among The Sheltering Palms" (Take
1), recorded later in the same session. And certain gestures explored in
the solos make their first appearance in Hines's solo choruses on ensem-
ble recordings. The whirling tangle of notes that Hines plays in bars 21-24
of his solo chorus in "A Monday Date" (on the 1928 recording with Jimmie
Noone's group) reappears in both solo versions of the same song, and in
precisely the same place in the tune. 7
The ways in which earlier band versions of "Rosetta" played into
Hines's 1939 solos on the tune can be seen graphically in Take 3.
Throughout both solo versions, Hines saves his most capricious flights of
fancy for the minor bridge, perhaps relishing the distinctive harmony of
these eight bars or sensing an opportunity to deviate from the melody. In
the last two bars of the bridge in the second chorus of Take 3, he executes
a descending, largely whole-tone idea in straight eighth-notes (ex. 3), a
passage that elicits special comment in a popular jazz history text (see
Porter and Ullman 1993:127). Though it is a startling moment, a similar
idea appears in Hines's solo chorus on the 1934 band recording of the
tune, in precisely the same place in the chord structure, and is suggested
as well in a series of descending ninth chords that he plays behind the sax
solo in the final chorus-again at the same place in the original tune.
Apparently this lick was connected in Hines's mind not just to earlier
band performances of "Rosetta" but to a specific place in the harmonic
outline.
Another striking connection may be seen between the 1934 band
recording and the first four measures of the bridge in A3 of Take 3 and
A2 of Take 4 (exx. 4a and 4b). In the first example, an extended trill on E~
is accompanied by punchy, syncopated right-hand octaves-an effect not
88 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

Example 3: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6, 1939), Take 3, A2, mm. 23-24.
straight eighths _____________________________________ ---,

1\ :e ~~ h.~ ...~ b...~ h*"~ ---...

~
,-- ~
mp

:
rf- rf:. ~ ~~ i ~-!L ih'. /1.;'. ~

...-

Example 4a: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6,1939), Take 3, A3, mm. 16-20.

1\ l l f., l

.., v.... .... ~!~ ...

!''- >~
!''- ~
/
>- >- >- >-
tr(q)
:

Example 4b: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6,1939), Take 4, A3, mm. 17-20.
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 89

unlike the device Art Tatum enjoyed using on the third strain of "Tiger
Rag."8 In Take 4, Hines seems to refer back to the sense of stasis provided
by this trill, but instead of this gesture he creates a whirling chromatic fig-
ure in the right hand that is accompanied by sustained chords in the bass.
These passages hint at the intriguing ways Hines might recall an idea
from a previous take and expand on its basic premise. However, the ideas
go back even further: both the trill and the whirling right-hand figure are
first hinted at during Hines's solo on the 1934 band performance, as well
as behind Fuller's vocal on the same recording-the latter instance sug-
gested that Hines did not consider the gesture purely a soloistic device.
And, as in the previous example, they occur in precisely the same place in
the tune.
Previous band performances of "Rosetta" are not the only sources
Hines interacts with on these solos. Other aspects of his band's arrange-
ments occasionally bleed into the recordings. The fact that the band's per-
formances were on his mind at the time of the two "Rosetta" solos is
shown by his reference, in the second Interlude of Take 4, to part of the
melody of "Lightly and Politely," which had been recorded directly before
the solos. And earlier in the same solo, Hines employs another device that
had appeared in several of his band's arrangements: a reiterated domi-
nant pedal. The device appears briefly in "XYZ," recorded earlier in the
same session, where arranger BuddJohnson uses it as a transition between
the third and fourth choruses. But the idea is placed much more promi-
nently in the final section of "G. T. Stomp," recorded three months before
the "Rosetta" solos, with a gradual piling-up of B~s that leads to the climac-
tic entry of Walter Fuller on a high E~ tonic. Hines had also used the de-
vice extensively in "The Father's Getaway" from late July 1939, where he
built an entire chorus out of the idea. In Take 4 of "Rosetta," however, use
of the dominant pedal is noteworthy not just because it shows how Hines
mined his big band performances for ideas but also because he character-
istically twists it to his own innovative ends. His placement of the gesture
effectively blurs the dividing line between the first and second choruses,
presenting what seems at first like an interlude but ends up being part of
the next chorus (ex. 5).
Hines's two "Rosetta" solos are rather different than his earlier improvi-
sations on tunes by other composers, and it is interesting to speculate how
much of this contrast is due to the fact that Hines uses his own tune as a
basis for the performances. In the days of ragtime and early jazz, at least,
pianists viewed certain pieces as their own special property, even if they
eventually made their way into the mainstream repertory (Eubie Blake's
"Charleston Rag" and James P.Johnson's "Carolina Shout" would be good
examples). Certainly, Hines must have felt pride in his tune, in addition to
90 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

Example 5: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6, 1939), Take 4, AI, mm. 31-32 and A2, mm.
1-2.

~~ r~ r~ r~ ~ ~,H....

~
"
..
:
'5"
~ _-:i ,"'-'I' ~ -=r ~-=r:jf-,d. _-:i ' ~
-
t
maintaining a deep sense of its inherent possibilities. But I think the famil-
iarity both Hines and his audiences had with the tune, as well as the pianist's
"ownership" of the piece (both legally and figuratively) may explain his
unusual treatment. Several of the earlier solos for which multiple takes
exist-"Glad Rag Doll" of 1929 or "Love Me Tonight" of 1932, for example
-show broad similarities in outline (number of choruses, modulations,
etc.) even while the musical material itself differs widely between takes.
Yet, the two renditions of "Rosetta" stand somewhat apart in the looseness
of their conception, showing, besides contrasting structures, particularly
striking liberties in the use of melodic and harmonic material.
As I have already suggested in my discussion of various ideas that Hines
develops on "Rosetta"'s bridge, a particularly useful feature of transcrip-
tions is the possibility they open up for comparing the improvisatory
process in successive choruses and in parallel sections of the underlying
tune. Typical for the period, Hines opens each solo with a fairly straight
rendition of the tune, yet while doing so he shows some humorous takes
on the original piece. Example 6 reproduces the beginning of the open-
ing chorus in each performance, along with the original melodic line. The
first take presents the tune in fairly unadorned fashion, though the
smoothness of the line created by tied notes in the original is eliminated
by Hines's sparse and syncopated right hand line. In the second take, how-
ever, at the end of measure 2, Hines abruptly telescopes the correspon-
ding notes of the melodic line into an ironically truncated phrase. It is al-
most as if he were poking fun at the languorous motion of the original
melody.
In example 7, I have provided, from both takes, several examples of
Hines's treatment of the opening four bars of "Rosetta" in interior
choruses, along with the relevant phrase from the original tune. If space
allowed, one could, of course, extend the comparisons to include all cho-
ruses and all statements of the "A" section of the tune. But these excerpts
 Example 6: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6,1939), Takes 3 and 4, AI, mm. 1-4, with original melody line.

~
~ ... ....
,--------...... ~
--=---

ttl' ~ "r I,j f 'P 'f Ip 1] 1 I, j f A"f Uctl j!j

~
.~
~ ~

lI:: :::I~ ~ ,.~; t I,,\~: ~ =I'I"~ ~ }~, 1,,:[ ~ ~f ~ [ ,::

'---<
~
~
~

~
~
t"'
o
id

,....
<.0
92 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

show some of the imaginative ways Hines interacts with the original
melody and harmony ofthe piece.
One notices first that, in the left hand, Hines erases one of the most
distinctive features of the original tune's harmonic structure, an element
maintained by most other musicians when they perform the piece: the
augmented chord in the second bar (the same may be said of the passages
in ex. 6, above). In examples 7a and 7b he uses the G# of the augmented
chord (respelled here as an A~) as a blue note in the right hand, its effect
intensified by clashes against Gs in the bass. The effect is to draw focus to
the melodic line. Hines also seems intrigued by the parallelism suggested
in the original tune by the repeated rhythmic motive in measures 1 and 3.
As a result, each of these four-bar excerpts is divided into two closely-
related sections-a type of antecedent! consequent phraseology. And
Hines emphasizes this structure by returning to the dominant note (C)
each time in measure 3, rather than moving to the third (A), as does the
original melodic line.
The excerpts also show other ways in which Hines engaged with his
own improvisations. Example 7d is clearly based on the idea Hines was
working with in example 7c, and both these excerpts occur in similar
places in the performance-right after a modulation to H. In example 7d,
however, Hines not only adds rhythmic complexity to the left-hand part,
but partially obscures the phrasing by subtle shifts in the melodic line.
The effect is radically different: whereas example 7c had driven aggres-
sively forward, example 7d ruminates. Yet the final example clearly seems
to arise from Hines's memory of what he had done at the same spot in the
previous take.
Hines's two "Rosetta" performances are different from most of his ear-
lier recorded solos in the function and character of their introductions. In
prior performances, such as "Glad Rag Doll," "Love Me Tonight," and
"Down Among the Sheltering Palms," Hines used introductions, as did
most musicians and arrangers, mainly to set mood, tempo, and key. Yet,
perhaps because "Rosetta" was such a familiar property for both Hines
and his audience, he clearly felt the tune called for different treatment.
Both introductions (exx. 8a and 8b) give little sense of how the tune is go-
ing to proceed. In fact, they seem specifically designed to disorient-
perhaps to make the entry of Hines's familiar tune all the more dramatic.
In the third take, the chords of the left hand, placed in a low range on the
keyboard and so tightly knit as to approximate tone clusters, completely
obscure the harmony, though the right hand subtly suggests the A minor
of "Rosetta"'s bridge. The slowly descending glissando of Take 4 (perhaps
a signifying reversal of the upward sweep with which Hines usually an-
nounced his band's theme song, "Deep Forest") obscures both harmony
Example 7: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6,1939), Takes 3 and 4, compared versions ofmm. 1-4 of original tune.
Melody of C+7 F 07

1$ & e
I
J 1 r ( 1 -r r r 1J j: I) r r

11!';:::QT=~;II'::)'IJ I: ~ ~F ~I:J' ~I
~ r-...

:""""'M";:'._~wmB~ : '_ ~ ~ ~
11:: : :I! I; ~ ~'I:: ': >i~r
fl : _

I
I
I
(b )
Ex. 7d. Take 4, A3, mm. 1-4. Trasnposed from E~.
r:;~' q; r; 1
'-<
M

~
><

it; JI~
>- ~ .>-
~

lI!: ::~2t f &: j , r 11~:n ,:~::2 fr;F '11 r F

r><
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~

to
(.)Q
94 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

Example 8a: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6,1939), Take 3, Introduction.

Example 8b: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6,1939), Take 4, Introduction.

Take 4
gva _ _____ --,

,., q ~

II IIIIII rr ~~
~

gliss. (r.h.)
hJ J IIIII I
:
1>""0"_ ___""0"

5
,., ~ ~ >-

~
~~V'
.-.-/ '.-.-/ ...
~

I I ,
-
I
:
~:&:--------~
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9
,., £:.-~

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:
. .--;-- J :: h... ~
v
~
. ~I
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 95

and rhythm; it is only by counting in reverse that one notes the gesture fits
neatly over two bars.
As different as the two passages sound at first hearing, however, the
transcriptions show subtle ways in which the introduction of the fourth
take "interacts across time" with that of the third. In the earlier version,
Hines maintains a chromatically descending outline in the harmony
(from the A minor suggested by the right hand in mm. 1-4, to the A~ of
m. 5, to the G of m. 6). Then, by deftly sliding a single note upward in the
bass (from D to E) he moves from the G-minor chord in the second half
of measure 7 to the dominant (C7) in measure 8. As perplexing as this in-
troduction is at times, it maintains a certain logic, making the entry of the
tonic key at the beginning of the first chorus seem inevitable. In the intro-
duction to Take 4, Hines seems to build on ideas from the earlier passage,
recreating in measure 3 the figuration of measure 5 of Take 3 (a fifth in
the bass, with the right hand arpeggiating the chord). He extends this fig-
uration through measures 7 and 8 while echoing the chromatic motion of
the first take with a sequence of ninth chords. In measure 8, however,
there is a sudden change of direction, with Hines abruptly interrupting the
descending chords by pouncing on an A~ fifth (a reminiscence, perhaps, of
measure 5 in the earlier introduction). Even though he could easily have
moved from the D9 in measure 8 to G, and from there to the dominant ofF,
he chooses, typically, not to take the easy route. As a result, the entry of the
tonic at the beginning of Al is not nearly so neatly prepared as in Take 3.
The interludes that Hines uses to modulate from F to E~ in both per-
formances inspire similar observations (exx. 9a and 9b). Like its introduc-
tion, the harmony of Take 3's first interlude is sophisticated but logical; by
manipulating just a few choice notes in the left hand, Hines elegantly an-
ticipates the key change, guiding the listener gracefully between fairly re-
mote tonal regions. The second interlude has much less sense of direc-
tion. It meanders through a variety of keys, and does not arrive at the
dominant chord until the final beat. Compared to the first interlude, right
and left hands seem out of sync at the end of the passage; though Hines
begins the chorus following the interlude with a right-hand B~ octave, just
as he does in Take 3, the attack is made slightly early, with the left hand
not moving from dominant to tonic until the second eighth note of the
chorus's first measure. In other words, the beginning of the chorus be-
comes elided with the end of the introduction. It is a surprising moment,
but typical for Hines.

A comparison of these introductions and interludes, and, indeed, of

both performances in their entirety, raises important issues about aesthetic
96 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

Example 9a: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6, 1939), Take 3, modulating interlude before
A4.

(I
~. .Jr:¥ • .:.- rrn-~ h.. ,...- .. ~n
I
~

~
P
I L....J......W .....
hfl :>
:II [~ I '1.)'
..0.
In...,. ~ ~...----...
:
------I

~
fl
-. ., i""FI

......
I
.-----------. .f'-~.p..

~
~

I
:>
~,.t.

f
•
~

r-J---..j .ll~ J.---.-. J..-- J d. 1 r:el :e

:
I
r' '1 ... ... (~~

Example 9b: Earl Hines, "Rosetta" (October 6, 1939), Take 4, modulating interlude before
A3.

fI ~.f'- './I..~ :~ ,;.- 2-!: t,-r--.~. ~ ~ ~~

~

# h-R- IIrH- -R- ~

:

stance. Ingrid Monson brings up the same questions when she takes tradi-
tional jazz historiography (particularly as represented by the work of
Gunther Schuller) to task for its Western bias:

When it comes to critical evaluation, [Schuller] looks first to the sup-

posedly universal standards of Western musical analysis and cites
them as evidence of the value of jazz music. As an outside observer,
he feels entitled to evaluate the musical production of jazz musicians
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 97

by these standards without asking whether these indeed are the sole
-or even the most important-criteria to musicians and their audi-
ences. (Monson 1996:136)

I do not wish to engage the complexities of these issues here, though I

hope this essay has shown my interest in bringing a variety of perspectives
to bear on these solos. But Monson's passage speaks to a personal and
scholarly dilemma I have encountered while listening to, transcribing, and
studying these performances. When initially planning a collection of Earl
Hines transcriptions, I was drawn to the third take of "Rosetta" because it
exhibited the very features I had been trained to celebrate in a musical
work. In particular, it seemed a piece that would be ideally suited to re-
creation in live concert performance (a process that, however, continues
to raise troubling ideological issues for me, despite my personal experi-
ence that audiences find such performances satisfying). Early lists of
pieces to include in my Hines edition were, in fact, all made up of per-
formances that adhered fairly closely to standards I had learned to appre-
ciate in my training as a musicologist and a performer, and which I imag-
ined could, in score form, be reinterpreted by present-day pianists. I
consciously rejected solos where Hines played himself into blind alleys,
garbled passagework, lost his way in a chord progression, or had to sud-
denly truncate his improvisations to adhere to the recording time limit.
Yet, I soon realized that the proposed volume would give a highly mislead-
ing idea of Hines's talent. As I have already stressed, these "mistakes" are
not aberrations but a fundamental part of Hines's genius, and to suggest
otherwise is to do him a vast injustice.
The two "Rosetta" takes bring this into relief. As I mentioned earlier,
only the third take was released at the time, most likely for the very rea-
sons that initially drew me to it. The "logic" of the issued take-as shown,
for example, in the introduction and interludes-is in fact rather unusual
for Hines; it makes the listening experience a little too comfortable, the
unfolding of the improvisation a little too easy to follow. With its inter-
rupted momentum, "messy" modulations, and occasionally blurred formal
structure, the unissued fourth take is far more characteristic. Yet the de-
scriptive tools with which I am most familiar fail me when addressing this
paradox, and I am aware that much of the foregoing discussion resorts
to the very aesthetic assumptions and modes of analysis I have sought to
transcend. Still, exploring questions of interaction and context, as well as
other intriguing modes of inquiry that are being introduced into the field,
will, I hope, continue to enrich my appreciation of a musician who, even
after many years of study, never fails to surprise. However these aesthetic
98 CURRENT MUSICOLOGY

issues may be resolved in my own work and jazz scholarship at large, they
raise a dilemma essential for jazz scholars to confront if they are to do
justice to jazz's variety and power.
Notes
1. Brian Rust (1982) lists October 21 as the recording date for the third take,
but judging from the matrix number sequence this is probably an error. Rust does
not list the fourth take at all. The Collector's Classics CD reissue of Earl Hines:
Complete Piano Solos lists both third and fourth takes as occurring on October 6.
2. Both are now available on the Collector's Classics reissue.
3. The two transcriptions are included in Earl ''Fatha'' Hines: Selected Piano Solos,
1928-1941 (J. Taylor, forthcoming).
4. My ideas here are partly inspired by those discussed by Ingrid Monson
(1996). I will, however, be using her concept of "interaction" in somewhat more
general terms, without engaging the more specific theoretical (particularly post-
structuralist) frameworks that Monson both employs and critiques in her study.
5. In these transcriptions I have followed the notational procedures used in the
MUSA edition (J. Taylor, forthcoming). Except where noted, all passages are
swung. Brackets indicate clear technical errors (usually mis-struck notes) that have
been corrected. Parentheses around normal-sized pitches indicate notes or chords
I suspect may be unintentional, but which have remained in the score since these
moments, as I have pointed out in the article, are an inherent part of Hines's im-
provisational style. Parentheses around grace notes indicate "ghost notes" that are
scarcely audible.
6. For a discussion of Morton's "King Porter Stomp" and its subsequent history,
see Jeffrey Magee'S article in this issue (pp. 22-53).
7. This phrase, however, recurs in different choruses in the two solo versions;
in the QRS version it appears in the second chorus, in the Okeh, the third.
8. Tatum first recorded "Tiger Rag" in 1933, and Hines, who developed a
friendship with Tatum during the 1930s, may have known the pianist's rendition
through this recording or live performance.

References
Berliner, Paul. 1994. Thinking In Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Crawford, Richard, and Jeffrey Magee. 1992. Jazz Standards on Record, 1900-1942: A
Core Repertory. CBMR Monographs, no. 4. Chicago: Center for Black Music
Research.
Dance, Stanley. 1977. The World ofEarl Hines. New York: Da Capo Press.
- - - . 1980. Liner notes to Giants ofJazz: Earl Hines. Time-Life Records TLil1.
Hines, Earl. 1980. Taped lectures. Earl Hines Archive, University of California,
Berkeley.
Martin, Henry. 2000. Strategies of Non-Improvisation in the Stride Piano Works of
James P. Johnson. Paper delivered at Toronto 2000: Musical Intersections,
Toronto, Canada, November 4.
 JEFFREY TAYLOR 99

Miller, Susan, and Bob Rusch. 1976. Chattin' with the Fatha. Cadence (August):
3-5.
Monson, Ingrid. 1996. Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Porter, Lewis, and Michael Ullman, with Ed Hazell. 1993. Jazz From Its Origins to the
Present. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.: Prentice-Hall.
Rock, Henry. 1978. Earl "Fatha" Hines: The Fatha, the Sons, and the Spirit of Jazz.
Aquarian (March 29-April5): 1, 28-29.
Rust, Brian. 1982. Jazz Records 1897-1942. 5th ed. 2 vols. Chigwell, Essex, United
Kingdom: Storyville Publications and Co., Ltd.
Schuller, Gunther. 1989. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Taylor, Berigan. 1981. An Interview with Earl Hines: "You Got to Eat Your
Wheaties to Play with Me." Interplay (May): 3, 10.
Taylor, Jeffrey. 1992. Earl Hines's Piano Style in the 1920s: A Historical and
Analytical Perspective. Black Music Research Journal 12: 57-78.
- - - . 1998. Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and "Weather Bird." Musical Quarterly
82: 1-40.
--.2000. Life With Fatha. I.S.A.M. Newsletter 30 (Fall): 1-2, 14.
- - - , ed. Forthcoming. Earl ''Fatha'' Hines: Selected Piano Solos, 1928-1941. MUSA
14. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions and the American Musicological Society.