Category Archives: Uncategorized

Published in 1912, W.C. Handy’s ‘Memphis Blues’ was, according to its composer, ‘the first of all the many published ‘blues’ and it set a new fashion in American popular music and contributed to the rise of jazz, or, if you … Continue reading →

‘The Missing Voice’ is my original melody line on the changes to ‘Have You Met Miss Jones’ as they are shown in ‘All-Time Standards’ (Vol. 25 of the Aebersold book and playalong series).  Here is a link to a rough … Continue reading →

In the way I teach piano lessons, the size of the practice workload a student takes on between lessons is the result of an agreement at the end of each lesson between the student and myself.  Following this, I generally … Continue reading →

Part one of this two-part post uses examples from Shakespeare and Mozart (via Leonard Bernstein) as well as T.S. Eliot and Charlie Parker to introduce the concept of deletion, which I find useful in analyzing Erena Terakubo’s solo on ‘Bird … Continue reading →

In a recent rehearsal of one of my student jazz ensembles, I asked a routine question of a student who hadn’t improvised yet: would they like to try taking an improvised solo by trading with one of the other players … Continue reading →

In her solo on her version of Dizzy Gillespie’s minor blues ‘Birk’s Works’ from the album ‘Love’s Holiday’, Dena DeRose sings along with her right hand improvised line.  While a number of well known jazz pianists, including Erroll Garner, Billy … Continue reading →

(or: From Hellish To Hopeful: the exoneration of the tritone in western music)  In the late 1970s, a group called Florida Orange Juice Growers sponsored an ad campaign to spread the message that orange juice could be consumed at any … Continue reading →

Chameleon, from Herbie Hancock’s 1973 album Headhunters, is an iconic and frequently played jazz tune in which the first section of the tune is based on just two chords, B flat minor seventh and Eb dominant seventh (aka ‘major-minor seventh’), … Continue reading →

Here’s a link to a recording of my tune ‘Thought of Bud At Midnight’, based on the solo changes to Tadd Dameron’s ‘Lady Bird’ which Miles Davis borrowed for ‘Half Nelson’. It includes licks from the Glossary of Melodic Patterns … Continue reading →

What’s in a quote?  Writers, conversationalists, or jazz improvisers can incorporate quotes from well-known sources into their writing, speaking, or playing for many different reasons, and with many different levels of success. In the lyrics to his song ‘Brush Up Your … Continue reading →