Mark Turner on "Head Trip"
I first wrote about "Head Trip," Aaron Goldberg's contrafact on "One Finger Snap" from his début release, Turning Point (1999) , almost three years ago. Listening to this, it's revealing how much of the language Mark plays on this up-tempo, dominant-chord dominated tune is bebop (in particular what he plays over the concert Ab7 of each chorus right before the descending minor ii-Vs). Some of the other now-trademark Mark-isms are present in varying degrees— e.g. , the almost ostentatious use of quarter motifs (first chorus), accordion-fold arpeggios (top of fifth chorus)—but there's notably minimal altissimo on this particular take. Aaron has played with Mark since the early '90s, and was very generous in sharing his perceptions on Mark and the scenes they came up in. I ultimately only slipped in a brief quote in the finished piece in order to keep the length manageable and give everyone interviewed a chance to have their say, but here's mo...