Recently Jeff Crompton drew attention to this blog on the Organissimo Jazz Forums (many thanks Jeff!) in a post which included the following:
“This bit caught my eye:
1985, One Night With Blue Note: “PONTOS CANTADOS”
= 1986, For Olim: “THE QUESTION”
= 1986, April 10th, Workshop Freie Musik, Academie Der Künste, Berlin, Germany: piece 1
= 1986, Olu Iwa: “B EE BA NGANGA BAN’A EEE!”
so I listened to the three released pieces mentioned. The second part of “Pontos Cantados,” subtitled “Point Two: Question,” does indeed seem to be the same piece as “The Question.” I’m less sure about “B Ee Ba Nganga Ban’a Eee” – the context of this septet performance is so different from the two piano solos that it’s hard to tell, although I do hear similarities in the melodic material.”
I planned to respond to this on the forum itself – but having been waiting almost a month now for my registration to be approved I’ve somewhat given up… So I thought I’d just make a quick post here to list the main thematic correspondences I’ve noted between “The Question” and “B Ee Ba Nganga Ban’a Eee!” which have led me to identify them as the same composition:
A: “THE QUESTION” 0:00 = “B EE BA…” 0:54
B: “THE QUESTION” 0:41 = “B EE BA…” 9:06 (a development of this also occurs at 23:56)
C: “THE QUESTION” 1:46 = “B EE BA… ” 32:43 and also 46:31
D (variant of B): “THE QUESTION” 2:09 = “B EE BA…” 33:10 and also 46:59
E (transposed variant of C): “THE QUESTION” 2:25 = “B EE BA…” 33:38 and also 47:20
(Also, at the 37:36 mark of “B Ee Ba…”, Taylor plays and develops at length the main recurring theme from the first part (“Point One: Klook At The Top Of The Stairs”) of the One Night With Blue Note “Pontos Cantados” performance. This theme does not occur in the For Olim version of “The Question”.)
As can be seen, although the order in which the motifs occur is basically consistent between these two performances, the presentation of them in the Olu Iwa version is vastly more spread out. This way that a given composition can be treated either as a concise quasi-song form with motifs leading directly to each other, or extended into a set-length performance with those motifs potentially separated by several minutes of improvisation, seems to me to be of key importance to the relationship between composition and improvisation in Taylor’s later work.
Alex Ward Music Blog 