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Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate
- Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate part 1 – stepwise patterns time-traveling through music history: Mozart, Haydn and Ella Fitzgerald
- Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate, Part 2: Bud Powell and Wynton Kelly
- Emulate, assimilate, innovate, part 2a: Ella Fitzgerald and ‘The Irish Washerwoman’ (a post on the use of melodic 2nds and 3rds)
- Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate, Part 3: echoes of Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Rain Check’ (a post on perfect fourths)
- Tritones: They Aren’t Just For Evil Anymore (Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate part 3a)
- Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate, part 4: Taking the fifth – melodic phrases using perfect 5ths
- The Sixth Sense: major and minor sixths in the improvising of Thelonious Monk and Ella Fitzgerald (Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate part 5)
- Sevenths reaching for the heavens (or other faraway places) (Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate part 6)
The State of The Blues (solos on blues progressions)
- The State of The Blues, Part One: Helen Sung’s solo on C Jam Blues
- Talking and taking the words away: a visit from Stefon Harris (The State of the Blues, Part 2)
- State of The Blues, part 3: Joe Davidian’s solo on ‘Straight, No Chaser’
- A message from the future of jazz: Camille Thurman and her solo on ‘Sassy’s Blues’ (The State of the Blues, part four)
- An excerpt from Shirley Horn’s solo on ‘What Would A Woman Do?’ (The State of the Blues, part 5)
- The State of The Blues, Part Six: Gabrielle Stravelli’s solo on ‘Karma Medley’
- An excerpt from Harvey Diamond’s solo on ‘Tenor Madness’ (State of the Blues, Part 7)
- ‘Sideslipping’ in clave: Arturo O’Farrill’s solo on ‘Blue State Blues’ (State of the Blues, part 8)
- ‘You have to take a breath’: Bertha Hope’s inspired internal conversation (State of the Blues, part 9)
- Leading with the left: Blues solos by Tommy Flanagan and Wynton Kelly that use hand-to-hand conversation (State of the Blues, part 10)
- A swingin’ dialogue: two choruses of Emmet Cohen’s intro solo on Joe Lovano’s ‘Big Ben’ (State Of The Blues, #11)
- How Red Garland’s first chorus of solo on ‘Blues By Five’ models a number of often overlooked jazz piano techniques (State of The Blues, #12)
- ‘Thin-slicing’ the blues: Kavita Shah’s solo on ‘Interplay’ (State Of The Blues, #13)
- Voice and piano on the same team: Dena DeRose’s solo on ‘Birk’s Works’ (State Of The Blues, #14)
- Repetition as a form of change, part two: Erena Terakubo’s solo on ‘Bird Lives’ (State of the Blues, #15)
Original tunes on changes of Vermont All State Jazz Ensemble audition tunes
Harmonic Moss (rootless voicings of the ii-V and ii-V-I)
- Harmonic Moss, Part 1: The ‘A form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I (including a scale outline and related melodic patterns)
- Harmonic Moss, Part 2: The ‘B form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I (including a scale outline and various melodic patterns)
- Harmonic Moss, Part 3: Route 37, a voicing-based melodic line
- Harmonic Moss, Part 4: the ‘A’ form voicing of the minor ii-V-i progression
- Harmonic Moss, Part 5: The ‘B’ form voicing of the minor ii-V-i progression
Improvisation
- Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Part 1: the seventh scale, the circle of fifths, melodic patterns from rootless dominant 7th voicings (featuring ‘October Blues’)
- Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Part 2: an exercise and reflections on the circle of descending fifths and the dominant cycle
- ‘Making the changes’ on the blues
- Everybody’s Inside Blues: ‘making the changes’ in a blues line
- Rhythm Changes and Trading Fours
- Simple Paris Dancers: a bop-style rhythm changes
- Charlie Parker and Alan Turing: Cracking the bebop code in ‘Anthropology’
- One half step of separation: Miles Davis and Ray Vega (a.k.a. the half step between the root and the seventh in the seventh scale)
- ‘Now What?’: a modal melody collage
- Midnight Donna and Reets in Paris: anagrams, mirrors and the one bar ii-V
- Six Degrees of Bud Powell, Part ii-V-I
- The neighborhood hang and the history hang (including ‘Monk, Bud and Elmo’, a tune on the changes of ‘In Walked Bud’)
- ‘Ornithology’: the memory palace of two bebop masterminds
- What is this scale called: Charlie Parker, Barry Harris and the minor ii-V progression
Root Systems (root position voicings)
- Root Systems, Part 1: Join the ii-V-I Club
- Root systems, part 2 / Take three at a time: an approach to learning major scales and ii-V-I progressions in all keys along with tunes from The Real Book (Volume I, sixth edition)
- Root systems, part 3 / outlining the ii-V and ii-V-I progressions with 7-up scales
- Root systems, part 4: Give it up for the root (position pattern)s! – Melodic patterns based on root position voicings
- Root systems, part 5 / Elijah’s Bounce
Pairings (jazz and classical pieces)
- Pairings, part one: left-hand walking bass and right hand lines in Dave McKenna, Bach and Handel
- Pairings, part two: left hand walking bass with right hand chordal comping by Kenny Barron, John Coates Jr. and G.F. Handel (or, Spring Comping Trip)
- Pairings, part three – Hand-some conversation: Two-handed melodic conversations by J.S. Bach and Oscar Peterson
- Sonatinas and other two-sided stories
- Look who’s Bartok-in’: folk song reinvention from Bela Bartok to Chick Corea and beyond
Conversation Pieces
Comping Trips (examples of comping by great jazz pianists)
One, Two and Three Chord Tunes (New Orleans jazz standards)
Various Other Posts
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Recent Posts
- In Search Of Swing (or: What Is This Thing Called Swing?)
- Contrapuntal swing: three solos on ‘Misterioso’ by Fred Hersch (State Of The Blues, #17)
- The Quotable Bud Powell, Part Two (or: It’s A Little Crazy How Time Flies)
- Eight ideas for memorizing jazz tunes (and other kinds of pieces)
- Birdfeeder Blues: a tribute to bassist Anthony Santor
Recent Comments
- George Sapeta on The Art of Duo
- Drew Kardos on Leading with the left: Blues solos by Tommy Flanagan and Wynton Kelly that use hand-to-hand conversation (State of the Blues, part 10)
- Xander on American Tunes
- Eva Phillippi on In praise of hibernating, returning to old challenges and (sometimes) slowing down
- Eva Phillippi on Birdfeeder Blues: a tribute to bassist Anthony Santor
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Monthly Archives: May 2026
In Search Of Swing (or: What Is This Thing Called Swing?)
Count Basie, bassist John Duke and Freddie Green, 1975 In a recent interview, pianist Ethan Iverson says: ‘I don’t know what swing is’, a seemingly paradoxical statement for someone with as much experience playing jazz as he has. He says … Continue reading
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