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Download the Transcription: Bb, Eb, C, Bass Clef
Ceora as performed by Lee Morgan from the 1965 Blue Note album “Cornbread.” Featuring Lee Morgan on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, and Larry Ridley on Bass.
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Download the PDF: Concert, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef
Roy is one my favorite trumpet players of all time. His mix of hard bop and soul/gospel in his playing is exactly where I want to be as a player, so I tend to listen to a lot of (too much?) Roy. This tune is no exception. It’s from his record Earfood, which is pretty much a standard quintet record, except it has this track on it, and this track really just blows away the rest of the album, as good as it is. Everyone on the record plays great throughout, but it’s like they were all born to play this tune. Each solo builds on the last creating a track that ebbs and flows just right, until you’re hitting the back arrow on your ipod to listen again.
It’s seriously so good.
Continue reading for analysis: Continue reading
Thanks to Ricardo Uziel Badillo Romero for today’s guest post!
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Download the transcription: Bb, Eb, C
FREEHANDS written by Brian Lynch & Eddie Palmieri, trumpet solo by Brian Lynch, from “Simpatico” album Recorded in 2005
I had heard about him, about his particular way to put the trumpet on and play with all those colors, I heard him in different type of recordings, including jazz, bop, salsa styles… when I meet him in person then I understood everything I heard about him….
management of bop chops with latin jazz, very clean sound and perfect understandable phrases make him one of my top favorites… I choose this tune because it’s my personal favorite of the whole album…
Really he is one of the most versatile trumpet players of our times
IN SPANISH
Había escuchado acerca de él, de su forma de tocar la trompeta y manejar todos esos colores, lo escuché en diferentes tipos de grabaciones, jazz, bop, y salsa, cuando lo conozco en persona entonces comprendí todo lo que me contaron acerca de Brian, el manejo de las frases de bop cuando toca latin jazz, un sonido muy limpio y frases perfectamente entendibles hacen de él uno de mis favoritos,… elegí este tema porque es mi favorito de todo el álbum…
Realmente él es uno de los más versátiles trompetistas de nuestros tiempos.
(photo credit: Claus Willemer)
Joy Spring, written by Clifford Brown and performed by Tom Harrell. From Brownie: Homage to Clifford Brown, released 1994 on Polygram Records.
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Download the PDF: Bb, Eb, C, Bass Clef
Legendary. That’s all I’ve got to say about this solo. Legendary.
Seriously, that’s not all I have to say. First of all, let me just issue an official promise to our readers that my next transcription will not be a trumpet player. Trumpet players, I am sorry. That being said, I just heard this track for the first time a few weeks ago and I knew I had to transcribe it. It’s just so amazing. Continue reading
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Download the Transcription: Bb, Eb, C, Bass Clef
I got this disc when I was a freshman in college. My wife (girlfriend at the time) got it for me, and the first track that stuck out was this one. The groove is what first got me. The groove is this really great double time feel that is real open in the drums and piano. It just feels so good! And after hearing Nicholas’ playing on this track I knew I had to one day transcribe it. The first thing I noticed when I took some time to dig in was that they play with a double time feel, so it sounds like the chord changes go by at half speed. Payton’s solo fits so gently in to the groove, he’s simply an extension of the rhythm section.
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Download the PDF: concert pitch, Bb, Eb
Charms of the Night Sky, written by Dave Douglas and performed by: Dave Douglas, trumpet; Greg Cohen, acoustic bass; Mark Feldman, violin; Guy Klucevsek: accordion. From Charms of the Night Sky, recorded 1998 and released on the Winter & Winter label.
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This album is pretty special to me because it was one of the first jazz albums I ever really got into. Harold Land and Clifford Brown are probably the first two jazz musicians that I really studied and tried to emulate and have had quite an influence on me. This selection in particular has stuck with me a) because it’s just really fun to listen to Clifford and Harold trading all the way down to 1/2 measures and b) it demonstrates a high level of communication between these musicians.
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Download the PDF: C, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef
“Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart,” solo by Chet Baker, From Quartet Live Vol. 3 (Aug 1954).
What I love about this solo is how surprised I was when I found out this was Chet Baker. The tempo is absolutely blazing fast and Chet just rips this tune apart playing a mix of beautiful melodies and chromatic eighth notes. Chet is known for slow songs, and his eerie singing, but this track shows why Charlie Parker was so excited to play with Chet with Parker got stuck in LA. This recording is part of a set of nights in LA with Chet’s quartet, right after Chet gets back from touring with Bird. I have all three nights (Quartet Live Vol1, 2 & 3) and they’re all phenomenal. It’s clear that this early playing by Chet is the reason Bird warned Miles and Dizzy of a this guy out on the West Coast.
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Download the Transcription: C, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef
Since this is my first transcription going up on this blog, I’d like to take a second and talk about why I chose this solo, and subsequently why I choose every solo I transcribe. There is always some intangible that sticks out to me about something I pick to transcribe. When I listen to a particular solo over and over again, it’s these solos that really stick with me, and that’s when I decide “you know what, I should transcribe this.” I start by playing along with the solo (usually), and then I sit down and write it out. This solo stuck out to me (this whole record, actually) because it’s a bebop record tribute to Charlie Parker, but the instrumentation is just bass (Christian McBride), Piano (Stephen Scott) and Trumpet (Roy Hargrove). The instrumentation alone had me interested, and then I heard how tight and swinging the grooves were without drums and I was blown away. This track is just a piano/trumpet duo, and the interplay between Stephen Scott and Roy Hargrove is just ridiculous. I was attracted to this particular solo for that reason.