3Jul/110

If I Should Lose You – Grant Green

July 3rd, 2011

This is the first guitar transcription I’ve posted here, but I don’t think it will be the last.  Although I work more on piano than guitar, I’ve played guitar most of my life.

Of course there are a lot of great jazz guitarists.  At his best, I absolutely love Grant Green.  His tone is creamy, his lines are clear and musical, and he draws strongly from the common Bebop vocabulary.  I decided to transcribe this particular track because I thought the solo was a great jazz guitar study piece – very musical and mostly harmonically specific. Read the rest of this entry »

24Jun/110

Grandfather’s Waltz – Making sense of the form

June 24th, 2011

Grandfather’s Waltz is a wonderful song recorded by Bill Evans and Stan Getz in 1964 (the Stan Getz & Bill Evans album) and again live in 1974 (on But Beautiful, recorded on a live date in Holland).  I transcribed Bill Evans’ piano solo from the 1974 live album – which I think is quite a little masterpiece.  The form of the song was strange, though.

Some time later, I heard from Dan Loschen, who was trying to make sense of the form. I’ve recently listened to all the recorded versions (that I know of), and come up with this rationale for the form. Read the rest of this entry »

29Jan/110

Payin’ the Bills

January 29th, 2011

Although the noble quest is the study and practice of playing jazz, it does not suck to play the Motown (and in this case, Memphis) classics for wedding receptions.  Here I am singing Hard to Handle (which is an Otis Redding song, despite what Black Crowes fans might think):

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28Nov/100

Sonny Clark on McSplivens

November 28th, 2010

I haven’t done much new transcription work lately, though I’ve been wanting to get it going again.  This is a transcription that I started a long time ago but never posted.

McSplivens is a Bb blues on Dexter Gordons’ “A Swingin’ Affair” with the always-interesting Sonny Clark on piano.  This transcription includes Sonny’s first three choruses (there are two more not transcribed here).

McSplivens – Sonny Clark

It hasn’t been long since I converted the site to a blog format.  I’m hoping to cross-link with other jazz-related blogs, and to start getting comments that are not from spammers.

So please leave comments that do not have links to Viagra merchants, etc.  ;-)

16Sep/100

Singing with my daughter

September 16th, 2010

These are several years old now, but still wonderful.  I recorded these songs with my daughter Lauren.  She was 9 or 10 when we did California Dreaming, and then about 12 when we did I Feel The Earth Move.

California Dreaming

I Feel The Earth Move

I played all the instruments; pulling this together was time consuming, but I couldn’t be happier that I did it.  What a great activity to do with my daughter!  The solo section in Earth Move is a little self-indulgent, but oh well…

Update: Fixed broken links!

19Feb/095

This I Dig of You – Wynton Kelley

February 19th, 2009

This is absolutely one of my favorite jazz tunes.  This solo is jam packed with classic Wynton Kelly vocabulary.  I believe the reason that this song isn’t played more is that the chart in the original Real Book 2 is un-usable — a hopelessly bad chart.

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2Feb/090

Alone Together – David Hazeltine

February 2nd, 2009

From his excellent trio CD “Manhattan” with George Mraz and Billy Drummond.

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17Jun/082

Dig Dis – Wynton Kelley

June 17th, 2008

I don’t think of myself is a particularly good blues player, and I was looking for some blues vocabulary from the master. This is classic Wynton Kelley, playing on one of my all time favorite jazz albums (Hank Mobley’s Soul Station).

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24Feb/080

Cherokee – Al Haig

February 24th, 2008

Actually this is a Cherokee contrafact called Parker ’51…

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24Feb/080

Ascension – Barry Harris

February 24th, 2008

This is a Barry Harris original from his 1962 solo piano album “Listen to Barry Harris – Solo Piano”. I highly recommend this album for study. The tune is similar to Rhythm in F, but with a different bridge. It’s also similar to Parisian Thoroughfare. This is great classic Barry Harris vocabulary, and I’m using it as a practice exercise.

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