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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)
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’
- Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate, Part 3: echoes of Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Rain Check’
- 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)
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
- Thought of Bud At Midnight
- Bud Powell, bard of bebop
- Emulate, assimilate, innovate, part 2a: Ella Fitzgerald and ‘The Irish Washerwoman’
- How to write a two-bar blues (featuring an original blues, ‘After Lunch’)
- The Magic Number: great three-chorus solos on the ‘jazz blues’ progression, with an original tune, ‘Notes From All Over’
Recent Comments
- Hannah on An excerpt from Harvey Diamond’s solo on ‘Tenor Madness’ (State of the Blues, Part 7)
- Meghan O'Connor on The Sixth Sense: major and minor sixths in the improvising of Thelonious Monk and Ella Fitzgerald (Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate part 5)
- Hannah Ellis on The Magic Number: great three-chorus solos on the ‘jazz blues’ progression, with an original tune, ‘Notes From All Over’
- Hannah Ellis on Bud Powell, bard of bebop
- Lillian Olsen on A menagerie of intervals
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
‘Oh, play that thing!’ – the use of transcribed solos in the jazz tradition
In a 2013 interview with Charlie Rose, Yankee pitcher and five time World Series champion Mariano Rivera was asked how he prepares to face a particularly difficult hitter: Rose: Tell me about studying for a hitter. How do you study … Continue reading
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‘The melody round the melody’: the art of the short solo piano rendition
(Note: While I have added YouTube links for some of the examples in this post, a number of the most crucial examples are not available there; the reader is urged to purchase the original recordings through a legal source of … Continue reading
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American Tunes
When the University of Vermont announced that Wynton Marsalis would give the commencement speech at its 2013 graduation proceedings, it added serious star power to the event, given his well-established career as a cultural spokesman. Marsalis also had a personal … Continue reading
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Conversation Pieces, Part Two: Carla Bley and Horace Silver
Many great improvisers, in addition to creating extended solos in which they are the main melodic voice, are also masters of the musical dialogue known as trading. (This is discussed in detail in an earlier post.) As I mentioned in … Continue reading
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Conversation pieces from Joe Henderson and Charles Lloyd
‘Y Todavia La Quiero’ by Joe Henderson and ‘Sweet Georgia Bright’ by Charles Lloyd are two tunes that provide a good introduction to jazz and improvisation on the piano. Their chord progressions are made mostly or entirely of chord changes … Continue reading
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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)
To follow up on my recent post about great diatonic solos on the the blues progression, this current post is about solos that alternate between using the G 7th scale diatonically and occasionally adding the half step between the root … Continue reading
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Rhythm Changes and Trading Fours
This past Sunday, on the NBC show ‘Meet The Press’, I watched a skilled TV journalist, David Gregory, interviewing a seasoned politician, Senator John McCain. Whatever one thinks of the style or viewpoint of these men, I think it is … Continue reading
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‘Making the changes’ on the blues
Often when I teach an improvisation class, we learn Barry Harris’ scale outline of the blues and then compose a chorus of solo on this progression. To illustrate how useful this outline can be, I thought I’d post some examples … Continue reading
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Everybody's Boppin'
originally posted 3/23/11 When I’m asked what musical styles interest me, one of my standard answers is ‘the bebop tradition from J.S. Bach to Barry Harris and beyond’. There is a little joke in this answer, because the word ‘bebop’ … Continue reading
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'So This Guy Walks Into A Bar' – great intros I have known
originally posted 3/8/11 I recently read an interview with jazz piano great Billy Taylor, reposted as a memorial (Taylor died on December 29th of last year). In it, Taylor mentions how, as a young pianist, he used the chord voicing from … Continue reading
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