On this second of two days of major acts of white supremacist violence here in this paradise we call “the USA”, let’s retreat into art, with part 2 of the thing from the other day: […]
Category: jazz
Transcription: Max comping
That’s the theme of the week now: jazz comping. Here’s Max Roach playing on the horn solos on A Little Sweet, from his record The Many Sides of Max. Each solo is 24 bars long, […]
Transcription: Shadow Wilson comping
A little bit of Shadow Wilson’s playing on Nutty, from Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane, at Carnegie Hall. This is Monk’s second solo chorus, starting at 2:33. The tune is 32 bars long, form is […]
Solo transcription: Billy Higgins – Dear John
More soloing from Billy Higgins, on Dear John, on Freddie Hubbard’s record Bolivia. The tune has the same chord changes as John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, which is a 16 bar form, but the drum solo […]
Reed tweak: yet another uptempo method
Minor tweak to an ordinary right hand lead Reed system, making an approach to playing jazz at fast tempos. I’ve probably written something like this before, I can’t be bothered to check. This way has […]
Transcription: Billy Higgins trading
Some uptempo trading 8s and 4s on Moose the Mooche, from an old favorite album, Wish by Joshua Redman, with Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins on drums. I used to play along […]
Daily best music in the world: 80s McCoy and Roy
I’ve probably posted this before, I don’t care. A record forgotten by everyone, released on Impulse! about the time I was going to school in LA, at USC. I listened to this a lot, and […]
Wayne’s gone
One of my favorite solos of his:
Very occasional quote of the day: listening
“Listening is the whole thing. I’ll tell you exactly how I play. My whole approach to playing is reaction. I don’t listen to myself play. I’m not aware of myself because I’m too busy listening […]
Very occasional quote of the day: space to contribute
“The way guys like Bud Powell shaped their solos, they automatically left spaces for the drummers to contribute. A lot of times today, in student performers, I don’t hear that space being offered, because they’re […]
Uptempo drill a la Riley
Major rehash alert: an uptempo jazz drill I was playing yesterday, using what John Riley once called “my C major scale”: an SSBB pattern in 8th notes, with notes omitted. The page below is very […]