Noreen’s Nocturne – B. Durham (pdf)

Just finished a transcription of some eights traded between Oscar Peterson and Bobby Durham on ‘Noreen’s Nocturne’ from the album ‘Exclusively For My Friends’. Oscar was one of the first Jazz artists I got into and this recording was a particular favourite.  The reason I chose to transcribe this was because, at 16 years old, I’d tried to work them out but failed miserably so I thought I’d give it another go…  Even though my tastes have obviously developed and changed since then, I still love this album and Bobby’s playing on it.

The tune pushes 300 bpm but Bobby still manages to really swing each quaver which is hard at that tempo!  Well, I find it difficult.  In the very first bar he accents the second of the three triplets in beats 1 and 3 then goes on to end a lot of his phrases like that too.  I also love all of his huge resolutions on beat 4, that pleases the Reggae drummer in me!

I’ve not written any sticking patterns partly because I’m still finding my way through it and partly because I’m lazy, although the majority is made up of 6-stroke rolls (RLLRRL) or other inversions of the paradiddle-diddle.