Technical Essay: Transcription - Isfahan' As Played by Jesse Van Ruller On Live at Murphy's Law'
Technical Essay: Transcription - Isfahan' As Played by Jesse Van Ruller On Live at Murphy's Law'
Technical Essay
Transcription - ‘Isfahan’ as played by Jesse Van Ruller on
‘Live at Murphy’s Law’
Jesse Van Ruller’s solo on ‘Isfahan’ off of Live at Murphy’s Law’ contains many
musical ingredients that comprise a well rounded solo in keeping with tradition while
innovating. This essay attempts to capture the essence of his playing style, vocabulary and
preferences by looking at the solo from different perspectives to gain a deeper insight. To
make it easier to grasp such a detailed topic, it seems logical to categorise some of Jesse Van
Ruller’s idiosyncrasies and preferences. There are 8 broad areas of study beginning with his
approach to chromatically descending major 7th chords in the end of the B section. The next
subject is his use of different rhythmic subdivisions specifically delving into his eighth note
triplets. Jesse Van Ruller’s preference to certain phrases as material to bridge ideas is the next
area. He also uses a considerable amount of harmonic vocabulary to accompany himself apart
from the single note lines and a section covers some of his ideas. He has certain preferences
in his treatment of minor II-V’s and they form the next module. Finally his harmonic
preferences in treating Major 7th chords and the shifting key centres, Use of thematic and
motivic development throughout the solo comprise of the remaining areas of research.
• The first chorus comprises of a descending figure in the form of a minor triad built
from the 3rd of the root, which constitutes the upper structure of a major 7th chord bearing
the chord tones Major 3rd, Perfect 5th and Major 7th.
• In the second appearance of this section, Jesse Van Ruller plays the descending triads
as spread triads, where one or more notes of the triad is dropped an octave lower thereby
creating a compounding effect. Around this time the solo is moving up in gears towards the
final chorus and this helps build more momentum so to speak.
Jesse Van Rullers use of eighth note triplets is abundant throughout the first chorus of
his solo and he reintroduces them towards the end of the second chorus and then in the third
chorus to signify a shift in intensity and to demarcate different parts of the form. The use of
these rhythmic figures vary in the context of his melodic ideas and he often conceals the
obvious difference in this rhythmic value by grouping the triplets in two or groups of two
followed by three note cells.
As evident in the bars below, the repetition in grouping from the second note onwards is
one note descending followed by 3 notes descending thereby creating a motif and creating an
illusion that adds another layer of depth and subtlety to the use of triplet figures.
Repeated Phrases
Throughout the course of the solo it becomes evident that Jesse Van Ruller has a few
lines embedded in his vocabulary that he places at several spots during the course of the solo.
The first of these is essentially a Dbmajor7th arpeggio with a sharpened 11th, natural
9th and a 13th. However, in the first example it’s played as the flattened 7th of a dominant 9
chord resulting in a dominant chord with unaltered tensions.
The Second example is the same line played over a Bb7 chord and followed by an Eb
chord which adds only one single alteration of a sharp 9th to the chord which happens to be
the root of the Dbmaj7 arpeggio and the flattened 7th of the Eb7 chord.
Jesse Van Ruller uses another line twice throughout the course of the solo in the 5th Bar
of the B section in the second and third choruses. The harmonic background is a minor II-V
to G. Apart from the same rhythmic value and note choices, he uses it both times for the same
purpose - As a device to connect two different phrases. The phrase is based on a dominant 7th
arpeggio with an augmented 5th and occurs over D7 both times.
Example 1:
Example 2:
In the first case, he plays the Ab and G triads over Dbmaj7 to imply the upper structures
of Dbmaj7 and Db7b9#11 respectively while creating a melody line with the top note. He
resolves the phrase with a clever use of an F triad (which implies a Dbmaj7#11 sound) The
Root and third moving up a half step to the target chord of the next bar which is a Gbmaj7.
The phrase idea behind these two bars is an ascending melody in the top notes, a Bbmin triad
outlines Gm7b5, followed by the upper structure of a C7#9 to C7b9 in the first bar. The
second bar outline Fm9 and Fm6/9. The construction of these bars is symmetrical with
respect to the harmonic background. The extensions are the top voice for the first half of each
bar and then the chord tones take preference in the second half.
The following few bars are another example of his preferences but reveal more depth at
a closer look. In cases when Jesse Van Ruller chooses to highlight the b9 tension, he often
combines it with #11 and #9 tensions. Contrastingly, when he chooses to highlight an
augmented 5th in a dominant chord, he leaves the other tensions unaltered if he chooses to
play them.
Jesse Van Ruller’s solo on Isfahan almost exclusively treats every maj7th chord as a
lydian chord i.e involving the #11 tension as highlighted in the examples below. A possible
hypothesis could be the harmonic structure of the tune and it’s shifting key centres lend the
tonic to be more open to alterations for the sake of good voice leading.
The solo builds up towards the end of the first chorus and maintains its intensity
throughout the second chorus only to break the flow with an eighth note triplet line to signify
another shift in gear towards the climax all the way till the very end of the 3rd chorus.
In Conclusion, having explored these ideas gives an insight to the train of thought and
treatment of a solo along with different vehicles of creativity in getting to know the
architecture and semantics in Jesse Van Ruller’s vocabulary.