(Peter Bernstein – Photo by Carlo Pecoraro)
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Peter Bernstein plays jazz guitar the way I love to hear it played. Even with the wealth and density of harmonic and rhythmic concepts he employs, its all feel. Nothing takes precedence over feel, and its uniquely his own.
Download the Transcription: Concert, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef
Lord, Lord, Lord:
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Just a Closer Walk With Thee:
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This week is a two-for-one. If you read my blog post on my trip to New Orleans, you know that I had an exciting time while I was there. Among other things, I had the absolute pleasure of getting to hear Leroy Jones at Preservation Hall, and since the Jack Brass Band (band I was on tour with) had played there the night before, I got to meet Leroy and talk to him a little. Mainly, it was just a treat to hear this man play traditional New Orleans music all evening.
Since most people don’t know who Leroy Jones is (which is a damn same), I’ll just give you a short synopsis. Leroy is probably best know for his work with Harry Connick, Jr, but he was also a member of the band that became the famous Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Leroy has been performing all around the world with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Harry Connick, and was born and bred in New Orleans. Leroy is as authentic as it gets, and when you hear him play over these simple I IV V I progressions, you wonder if you should ever even try to play trads again. It’s that good.
Somehow Leroy has gone widely unnoticed in the trumpet community, which I am particularly perturbed about. It seems as though if a trumpet player comes out of the woodwork with a less than “standard” trumpet sound, the International Trumpet Guild doesn’t know what to do with him. He fits nicely in his cute little New Orleans box, so that’s where we put him and that’s where he stays. Spoiler alert: You’ve all been missing out. Continue reading
(Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and David King – courtesy of bighassle.com)
Keep the Bugs off your Glass and the Bears off your Ass, written by David King and performed by: The Bad Plus (Reid Anderson, Acoustic Bass; Ethan Iverson, Piano; and David King, Drums). From the album ‘These are the Vistas,’ released 2003 by Columbia Records.
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Download the PDF: Bass Clef, Treble Clef, Bb, Eb
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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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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
Matt Moran, photo courtesy of downtownmusic.net
Download the PDF: Concert, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef
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This Too Shall Pass, music written by John Hollenbeck and performed by: The Claudia Quintet (Chris Speed; clarinet, Matt Moran; vibraphone, Ted Reichman; accordion, Drew Gress; acoustic bass, John Hollenbeck; drums). From the album ‘For‘, released 2007 by Cuneiform Records.
This track grooves so hard I can’t possibly sit still while I listen. It’s the way Hollenbeck employs distinctly different snare drum timbres and perfectly compliments the utterly simple descending bassline, and then Moran’s vibes solo floats effortlessly over the top and constantly subverts the swung 4/4 feel with 12/8 and straight 4/4 references. This tune is incredibly special because it is a hard-grooving lament in memory of Matt Moran’s late father, Tom; have you ever heard of a hard-grooving lament? No, me neither.
Thanks to Ricardo Uziel Badillo Romero for today’s guest post!
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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 by William P Gottlieb
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In today’s post we take a look at Coleman Hawkins’ famous 1939 solo on the tune Body and Soul. Some consider this to be the definitive version and I certainly consider it a must study transcription (for saxophonists at least).
Photo by William P. Gottlieb
Download the transcription: Concert, Bb, Eb, Bass Clef
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Ahh, BeBop. Will I ever be able to play you?
I transcribed this solo a few years ago when I was really trying to work on my bebop language in my solos. It’s been an interesting up and down road since then trying to perfect, or even just function in this very specific jazz art. Milt’s solo on Groovin’ High, one of the most iconic bebop tunes in bebop’s golden age, is a perfect example of the techniques a bebop player uses to sound like…well…to sound like Bird (Charlie Parker to you beginners out there).
Milt Jackson is one of the only really well-known jazz vibes players. There are others I have listened to, namely Joe Locke and Steve Nelson, but they’re both modern players who don’t really have that pure bebop thing happening. They’re both incredible players, and I am sure can play like that, but they’ve got other shit happening. The point in transcribing Milt was to dig in to someone who lived that language his whole life.
This however, is the first time I have revisited the solo, really practiced it (and checked for note errors, there were plenty), and did the analysis. I found some techniques similar to the Tom Harrell solo I transcribed for this site a few weeks ago. Pianistic arpeggios, Chromatic Approach Tones, Guide Tones on big beats (1 & 3), etc.
Continue for full analysis. Continue reading
Lewis Nash - Photo by Professor Bop
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Sea Changes is an original composition from pianist Tommy Flanagan and serves as the title track from Flanagan’s 1997 trio date featuring bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. The tune itself is a simple 12-bar form that evolves from a bouncy island groove on the in head to a straight-ahead swing feel for a majority of the soloing. Prior to the out-head, Nash trades two choruses with Flanagan, both of which are transcribed here.