Takes 3 and 4 of “Exercise In Swing” from THE COMPLETE SAVOY RECORDINGS… Lester Young was such an amazing improviser. These takes and the ones in the previous post are the same in that they are pristine miniatures of his seemingly effortless melodicism. But each has a slightly different quality. Take note of the rhythmic variety between and within each take. How Young at times floats over, then at other times digs into the groove, sitting firmly in the bull’s eye center of the beat. His emphasis on certain parts of the beat has an incredible effect on the mood of the music…
One of my all-time favorites, Cannonball Adderley, ripping through his version of “If This Isn’t Love”, from the album CANNONBALL TAKES CHARGE. The two things I really love about Cannonball’s playing is the confidence and strength of his beat, and the complexity of his articulation. He just swings so hard, no the matter tempo. I transcribed the first of his two chorus solo.
The song “FREEWAY” is from Ralph Moore’s 1989 Landmark recording, IMAGES. He gathered a group of fine musicians- Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Benny Green playing piano, Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on the drums. Moore contributed two originals and filled out the session with some well known and more obscure material (Joe Henderson’s “Punjab”, “One Second, Please” by Elmo Hope, “This I Dig Of You” by Hank Mobley, etc.). Moore’s playing is characterized by a strong, lean sound, inventive melodic ideas and an unwavering rhythmic drive…
It’s been quite a long while since i’ve been able to post material. life in Tokyo has been pretty crazy since the big quake and subsequent nuclear drama. i ended up leaving Tokyo (and my computer) with my family for a couple of weeks and considered relocating permanently. but, warts and all, i really enjoy living and working here. i sincerely hope that Japan’s government will get its act together and take bold steps to deal with the crisis. i also hope that everyone takes a moment to reflect on the scope of this disaster, remembering those who lost their homes and loved ones. while you’re at it, think about all the other places in the world, especially those places that aren’t in the centers of mass communication, where folks are coping with war, famine, disasters natural and man-made, and poverty…
I’ve been listening to Branford’s song “In The Crease” from his record CONTEMPORARY JAZZ (featuring Jeff Watts on drums, Eric Revis on bass and Joey Calderazzo on piano) for several weeks. it’s difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on formally because of the shifting time signatures. i sat down with the recording and tried to sketch out the song but couldn’t decide the best way to lay the melody out. i finally gave up and went onto other things. a while later, i happened upon a youtube recording (embedded below) of Marsalis and his band (Justin Faulkner replaces Watts on drums) performing the song live in concert and decided to give it another go. i again crashed and burned and so decided to cheat a little bit. i went online to see if i could find any lead sheets. i finally came across one HERE. it makes a lot of sense; there are a couple things that i would change, some notes left out of the melody and bass line, but it’s dang close. since the lead sheet is already available, i decided to concentrate on Branford’s solo.
i’m still amazed at how different a solo seems once i see it written down. Branford’s solo (starting at :47 on the youtube video) is difficult but not in same way a Coltrane solo, for example, is. the lines themselves are relatively easy to execute. the complexity is in the rhythms he plays over the form, which is ten bars long and contains a couple meter changes. Marsalis handles the shifting time signatures with ease and raises the bar by incorporating devices like rhythmic displacement and playing phrases over bar lines to blur the form. his playing here reminds me of funk, albeit with a different sound and set of melodic material. he generally plays short, riffy ideas and leaves a lot of room for the rhythm section to comment and generate tension and energy. it’s a great solo. Calderazzo takes a great solo as well. the highlight however is the drumming of Faulkner. he hooks up nicely with Revis and his energy and creativity never flags. he delivers and incredible solo to take the song out.
This solo by Coltrane is from the classic Impulse recording DUKE ELLINGTON AND JOHN COLTRANE, featuring the bulk of Trane’s best known quartet with Ellington in on piano for McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on the set for half of the record. “Take The Coltrane”, a blues in F, serves as a nice vehicle for Trane’s hard driving lines. all in all, his playing is pretty “in”: his lines are by and large made up of eighth notes, he only occasionally utilizes chord substitutions and is very spare in employing more advanced saxophone techniques like false fingerings or altissimo play (which made this solo relatively easy to transcribe)… Eleven choruses of Grade A, nutrient- rich Trane (with Ellington doing his best Tyner impersonation, laying out while Trane does his thing)…
COLTRANE JAZZ, not as well known as other Coltrane records like GIANT STEPS or MY FAVORITE THINGS, is among my favorites of his Atlantic catalogue. it features along with the standard “My Shining Hour”, great Trane originals like “Fifth House”, a revision of “What Is This Thing Called Love” as well as the sepentine line of “Like Sonny”. Trane plays driving eighth note phrases on solo below, with a pristine sound throughout the range of his horn- i love it when he pops out those high F#s and Gs. great accompaniment by Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers on drums, piano and bass respectively…
On his solo on “All The Things you Are” from a record called BEAN STALKIN’, Hawkins plays two great choruses. the first is a very loose statement of the melody. Hawkins surrounds the notes of the melody with generous embellishment, beginning and ending phrases in unusual places and alternating between triplets and sixteenth notes, giving the phrases a very elastic feeling. Hawkins seems to float over the rhythm section during his first chorus. he digs in more firmly in the second, relying more on sixteenth notes and demonstrating why he was considered to be one of the finest chordal improvisers of his time…
This solo by Coltrane is from the classic Impulse recording 
On his solo on “All The Things you Are” from a record called 