A menagerie of intervals

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Birding is a term that describes what birdwatchers do when they observe and catalog the species of birds they hear and see around them.  In birding competitions, such as the New Jersey Audubon World Series of […]

'Weathervane' - a tune on 'Yesterdays' changes

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‘Weathervane’ is a tune I composed based on the chord changes to the standard ‘Yesterdays’ by composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach.  Some charts for the tune are below. It is inspired by the melodic […]

Suzi Stern's solo on 'So What'

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Suzi Stern is a gifted and innovative jazz vocalist from the Austin, Texas area. While she has quite a range of recordings available, I discovered her work through the 2000 album ‘Inside Stories’, which I found […]

Mary Lou at the Savoy

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‘Mary Lou at the Savoy’ is a tribute to the great jazz pianist, composer and educator Mary Lou Williams (1910 – 1981), whose career spanned most of the twentieth century and who influenced and contributed to every […]

'Birdhouse' - a tune on the changes of Sonny Rollins' 'Pent-Up House'

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My tune ‘Birdhouse’ (click on the title to hear a recording by my quartet Birdcode) is based on the chord changes of Sonny Rollins’ ‘Pent-Up House’ and is inspired by melodic language from a particular group of […]

Swingin' with some empathy: thoughts on jazz accompanying

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My students often ask me: ‘how can I get better at comping?’ or ‘how can I get better at playing with singers?’  In developing my response to these important questions over the years, I’ve found that it’s fasci […]

Look who's Bartok-in': folk song reinvention from Bela Bartok to Chick Corea and beyond

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I recently watched a PBS documentary called ‘The American Epic Sessions’,  which features the producer and guitarist Jack White resurrecting a Western Electric recording lathe from the early twentieth century for […]

That Thing You Said: a line on the changes to "What Is This Thing Called Love"

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‘That Thing You Said’ is a bebop-style melody line that I composed on the chord changes to Cole Porter’s ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’.  (Thanks to jazz singer Linda Oats for coming with the tune’s title after […]

'Silverbird' - a tune on the changes to 'There Is No Greater Love'

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‘Silverbird’ is a melody line I composed on the chord progression of the jazz standard ‘There Is No Greater Love’.  This line is meant to demonstrate key aspects of the bebop melodic style, including its balan […]

The neighborhood hang and the history hang (including 'Monk, Bud and Elmo', a tune on the changes of 'In Walked Bud')

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Above: Jack Teagarden, Dixie Bailey, Mary Lou Williams, Tadd Dameron, Hank Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Orent around the piano at Mary Lou Williams’ apartment / Below: the same group in a different order around […]

A Wrinkle in Time: Joe Davidian's solo on 'Straight, No Chaser' (State of The Blues, part 3)

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Joe Davidian is a highly talented jazz pianist and native Vermonter who is currently living and playing in New York City. I’m proud to say that I watched Joe grow up as a player in the Vermont jazz scene, a […]

Root Systems, Part 1: Join the ii-V-I Club

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The exercise above combines one-octave major scales using a ‘seven up and down’ pattern with a progression that could be called the two-bar ii-V-I or ‘short’ ii-V-I.   Briefly, a major ii-V-I progression is a s […]

Music of Hope in Action (a meditation for Martin Luther King Day)

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This is the text of a talk I gave on January 21st at All Souls Interfaith Gathering’s Music and Spirit service.  The service also included performances of the music discussed in the talk.  In an issue p […]

Sonatinas and other two-sided stories

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The word ‘Sonatina’ is used to describe a variety of pieces for the piano.  Some of these pieces, such as the first movements of Muzio Clementi’s Sonatinas Op 36 numbers 1 and 2, the first movement of Haydn’ […]

'Making the changes' on short forms, part 1: Liza Jane

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‘Liza Jane’ is a North American folk tune that is a standard in the repertoire of New Orleans jazz.  It has been performed by musicians from pianist Ramsey Lewis to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.  It is an example o […]

'Making the changes' on short forms, part 2: Polly Wolly Doodle (a musical cousin of Iko Iko)

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I was going to make this a post about the New Orleans standard tune ‘Iko Iko’, but then realized it is a copyrighted tune, so I decided to go with ‘Polly Wolly Doodle’, which uses the same chord progression and is […]

'Making the changes' on short forms, Part 3: When The Saints Go Marching In

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This arrangement is inspired by Louis Armstrong’s 1938 version of the tune.  It can be practiced along with that recording by listening to the spoken introduction (in which Armstrong introduces himself as […]

Terry Town Line - a melodic line based on 'I Could Write A Book'

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‘Terry Town Line’ is a bop line I composed based on the changes to ‘I Could Write A Book’ by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.  The tune is dedicated in part to my mother, Roddy O’Neil Cleary, who for a number o […]

Talking and taking the words away: a visit from Stefon Harris (The State of the Blues, Part 2)

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In a recent master class with my students at UVM, Stefon Harris talked about the connection between language and melody in an improvised solo.  While discussing the performance of a student group, he said: ‘The de […]

Harmonic Moss, Part 5: The 'B' form voicing of the minor ii-V-i progression

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The voicing which Phil Degreg calls the ‘B form’ of the minor ii V i progression starts with a clear demonstration of why Thelonious Monk referred to the minor 7 flat five chord as a ‘minor sixth chord with the s […]