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Showing posts from March, 2013

Bill Evans on "Witchcraft" + Hank Jones on "Confirmation"

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Last week I passed on Transcription Tuesday because I had made a pledge with some friends not to bring our laptops to Vermont during spring break. In retrospect, I still think that was a good call, but I thought I'd make up for last week with an extra solo. Ever since Miguel has been having me transcribe classic '60s Blue Note Herbie for my lessons, I've been increasingly cognizant of the great players in the bebop tradition and thought I'd take a closer look at their improvisations.  Hank Jones at Newport '05 (Ed Newman) I don't think many would disagree that Bill Evans and Hank Jones are two pianists who are most reliably described as "elegant." They're definitely two of the more mainstream, more widely disseminated stylists of the jazz piano tradition, but certainly for good reason. In some ways, I hear a strong Bill Evans influence (or at least confluence) in some of Chris Potter's rhythmic bebop phrasing—all the instantaneous shifts

Joe Henderson on "Isotope"

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Lately I've been posting transcriptions that were assigned to me in private lessons in past years—many of which I finally came around to doing over winter break. When I asked Jerry Bergonzi in a lesson freshman year to offer some tips on improving my sense of rhythmic phrase, he thought for a moment and then sagely told me, "Transcribe Joe Henderson's solo on 'Isotope,' and improvise solos using just the rhythms." And so I did, albeit two years after the fact. Here's the solo: C Bb Eb

Freddie Hubbard on "One Finger Snap"

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During my freshman year of college, I asked Donny McCaslin during a lesson for some suggested solos to transcribe. The first one he thought of, almost immediately, was Freddie Hubbard's solo on "One Finger Snap," from Empyrean Isles  (1964), which Donny promptly played for me from memory. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't get around to finishing this solo until relatively recently; I finished a couple choruses, but schoolwork and other distractions kept me from getting through to the end until now. I'd imagine that, because of its vintage and the general ubiquity of these mid-'60s Herbie records, this solo is probably familiar to many people, so I won't say too much more about it. Here's the transcription: * * * A few updates from last post: my creative thesis application for the completion of my Bachelors degree in English has been approved! For my senior thesis, I'll be writing a collection of essays about jazz and