PRACTICE PORTAL

DIZZY GILLESPIE- OL’ MAN REBOP (mp3)

The solo below by Booker Little is from the song “Booker’s Blues”, that can be found on his record BOOKER LITTLE AND FRIEND. i transcribed the lead sheet in an earlier post and have finally gotten around to pulling his solo off the record. the blowing form and chord progression is a bit different from that of the head. it alternates between a 12 bar minor blues and an 8 bar section (2 bars of Ab minor and 2 bars of Eb minor repeated once). Little displays his great virtuosity and passion in this solo, playing intriguing melodic ideas and spectacular 16th note bursts. the thing i really enjoy about his lines is his use of the melodic minor scale. those major 6ths and 7ths are not as prevalent in improvisation nowadays but they lend a certain energy to minor melodies that a minor 7th doesn’t… beautiful solo!

BOOKER LITTLE- BOOKER’S BLUES (mp3)

Miles Davis interviewed by Bill Boggs on his television show ‘Time Out’ in 1986.

In Bill’s words…

“I have been told by people over the years that this was an historic interview. ‘Do you ever remember Miles Davis being on a talk show?’ Apparently not too many people do cause they keep telling me this is unique. How’d it happen? Well the entire long form story is part of my play ‘Talk Show Confidential,’ but the Cliff Notes version is: I ran into Miles when I was in a restaurant in Los Angeles. Actually, he came to my table and said hello. ‘That Midday was like my Today show,’ he told me in that raspy voice. It turned out he’d been watching me for years and said, ‘I always wanted you to interview me.’ So the way this whole thing happened was he asked me what I was doing and I told him I had a show in Philadelphia called ‘Timeout’ and he basically said let’s arrange to do it. And about a month or so later, there he was. I was not pleased that the producers of the show chose to add other guests. It should have been just Miles and me for the entire hour. But they were afraid he wouldn’t carry the ratings-small thinking, in my opinion, since his appearance on the show made headlines and was discussed before and after on local radio. Anyway, the charming Maurice Hines, an old friend joins in as do some young trumpet players- which sort of worked..See for yourself..Miles Davis circa 1986 in Philadelphia.”

-Bill Boggs

Here are a couple of solos from two of jazz’s trumpet giants. they come from the album CLIFFORD BROWN MEMORIAL that features material recorded by the Tadd Dameron Orchestra which features Brown along with luminaries from bebop’s 2nd wave like Benny Golson, Percy Heath, Gigi Gryce and Philly Joe Jones. the rest of the album is made up of music by a group called the Swedish All Stars, with Brown and Farmer as featured soloists, supported by several European sidemen. Farmer and Brown were contemporaries, born within two years of each other, and only a few years after bebop’s initial icons- Bird, Dizzy and Monk. but their styles diverge considerably. Brown’s playing is generally seen as an extension of the Fats Navarro style of trumpeting, characterized by crisply articulated linear explorations conveyed with a full bodied sound, an ability to utilize the entire range of the horn with authority, and a firm grasp of the bebop vocabulary. Farmer’s style wasn’t as technically brilliant or facile as Brown’s but still, he had a rich and expressive sound as well as a lyrical style full of interesting ideas. listening to “Stockholm Sweetnin’”, i’m reminded of other players like Miles Davis or Chet Baker who weren’t superhuman technicians but still managed to move audiences with their effective manipulation of sound and space, and their great ideas.

Farmer and Brown blow together over four songs on CLIFFORD BROWN MEMORIAL. i’ve included  the Farmer and Brown solos on Quincy Jones’  tune, “Stockholm Sweetnin’”, the standard, “Falling In Love With Love”, as well as a two chorus Brown solo on Tadd Dameron’s “Philly JJ”.

Each trumpeter takes a chorus long solo on “Stockholm”; Farmer opens the blowing and Brown takes the last solo which starts and ends on the song’s bridge. they also take a chorus each on “Falling In Love With Love”. i enjoy both trumpeters’ sounds; full, rich and dark.  though their vocabularies are similar in their way, there are some things that stand them apart from each other. Farmer’s eighth note is straighter and sounds more labored than Brown’s. he attacks each note and sounds a bit like he’s “thinking”- much more deliberate than Brown, who has an easy, flexible articulation. Farmer’s solo is made up almost exclusively of eighth notes with triplet figures added sparingly. Brown, on the other hand, generally plays a much more elaborate line: using smears, glissandi and other effects, circling chord tones with neighboring notes, extensively using triplet figures and sixteenth note runs to add variety to his blowing. Brown’s sense of rhythm is more highly developed. his pocket is very wide, allowing him to place his notes on different parts of the beat. this enables him to convey a broader range of energy, from urgent to nonchalant. both play effective solos but for different reasons, in my opinion. Farmer’s spare, unadorned lines allow a listener to zero in on his interesting melodic ideas and beautiful sound. Brown, who’s solo from “Philly J.J.” i’ve also transcribed below, is one of those once-in-a-generation musicians who had all the tools of a great improviser in hand: a deep understanding of harmony, a strong grasp of melody, taste, a big, pure sound and jaw-dropping command of his axe. Brown wasn’t given time to exploit the full potential of his awesome gifts. who knows what direction jazz trumpeting would have taken had he been able to fully blossom as a bandleader and stylistic pioneer. Farmer, who passed away a little over a decade ago, enjoyed a long and fruitful career as a bandleader. i’m listening to live recording from Sweet Basil from the late 90s, featuring him and Clifford Jordan up front. i hear some of the same qualities on it that i hear on MEMORIAL, his rich, dark sound (he plays a flumpet on this recording) and his measured, spare concept…

ART FARMER AND CLIFFORD BROWN

STOCKHOLM SWEETNIN’ SOLOS (mp3)

ART FARMER AND CLIFFORD BROWN

FALLING IN LOVE WITH LOVE SOLOS (mp3)

CLIFFORD BROWN

PHILLY J.J. SOLO (mp3)

Freddie… the picture pretty much says it all. he played his solo over “Birdlike” just like he looks here: confident, virile and slick. he spins out chorus after seemingly effortless chorus filled with great ideas, swing and that awesome SOUND…

FREDDIE HUBBARD

SOLO FROM BIRDLIKE (mp3)