Here's a quick transcription I did. While working for the BB King All Stars at Sea this was on our "Master List" of available songs and I recently came across the solo. It's got this beautiful, singable quality, and manages to connect the harmony in a really melodic way.
I did write it in a sort of "double time" feel, but that's just how I was feeling in this moment-- you could easily feel it half the speed that's marked.
1 Comment
Very slowly increase speed on these exercises. They can be used for so many things... working on accuracy, pitch matching, tuning, ear training, etc. It's something I've been using a lot as part of my daily warmup/practice, especially working on accuracy and my pre-hearing.
A lovely duet with Jason Atheney-- check out his amazing tone, especially in the mid-low register. This tune was written by Michel Legrand, it's basically "Girl from Ipanema" with a twist, and a bridge just like the A sections of "How High the Moon" It's super cool to be able to collaborate across a few hundred miles.
I don't know where to start, or how to describe how excited I was when I first heard this track. I was on the Carnival Liberty when I found out the Brecker Brothers had recorded with one of my favorite band leaders: Horace Silver. I spent a lot of hours digesting their playing on these couple records, but this I kept coming back to this track over and over. Personally, I really dig hearing modern players blow over old changes-- in this case Rhythm Changes with a different bridge, a la Count Basie.
Every time I read a Brecker transcription, I'm amazed his ability to play across the barline, and the way he uses tension notes in a very melodic way. I really love the pacing of this solo-- he has a way of keeping your creating interest and distinct sections of the solo. The octave change for the first bridge, hammering it down at the top of the second chorus, double time at the second bridge, and then ripping through altissimo to finish it. Lastly, I had no idea what's going on at the top of the second chorus. But it's sweet.
In August, I hosted the Tune of the Month on SaxontheWeb with this excellent tune "You and the Night and the Music." It's originally from a Broadway show "Revenge with Music," but this version has two of my favorite players on it. Getz even starts the tune by playing a little "Happy Birthday" introduction to Bill Evans.
The A sections sound very similar harmonically to "What is This Thing Called Love" and the bridge is kind of reminiscent of "Caravan" to me. A couple things to check out in this solo transcription...
At St. Matthew’s Elementary, I was lucky enough to student teach and be involved in the musical productions. The schedule at St. Matthews is such that the students have general music once a week, and a rotation of an additional Elective; when it’s their turn to have this ADDITIONAL music day, they work on Musicals for that grading period. So, we saw all our Wednesday classes on Friday as well.
During this rotation, they meet one day a week in the classroom to work on lines/music/songs, and spend the second day on the stage putting this music to movement, or applying the staging to the lines. This schedule makes it so we have 6 musicals per cycle (K-5), and every class has a musical once per year. Here are some suggestions/techniques…
A school Jazz Ensemble has the unique necessity of teaching Music Theory skills if they want their students to be able to play more authentically. A more advanced, and indeed more authentic, jazz ensemble rarely has the notes given to the rhythm section, and typically features a great deal of improvising. For the educator that wants to get their students past the written bass lines/voicings, you might consider using your warmup time to get your students moving in the right direction, even if it’s slow going. I’ve included some sample warm-ups, which should be transposed into different keys below. The warmups are designed to be used flexibly, and should reflect your goals for the ensemble. If your focus for the rhythm section is for them to become more tight as a unit and more stylistically accurate, they should read the included harmony, and begin to improvise style changes, bass lines, and voicings. If your rhythm section has a harder time reading notes, or coming up with lines for improvising, perhaps they should play the written lines. Starting on the third page, I’ve included the first 4-measures to “Autumn Leaves.” The samples included expand in their range from |1 2 3 1| to include the 5th of the given chord. The last few examples attempt to outline the “common tones” between the harmony, hopefully conveying the relationship between the harmony and the Bb Major scale. Just like in Concert Band, your warmups should be geared towards the pieces you’re working on and I would urge you to write your own goal-oriented warmups. During my Elementary Student Teaching experience I had the opportunity to work with the 5th Grade Band. As a way of motivating the students we organized a Pep Band to go to the 4th/5th grade basketball games during the district tournament. Since the students give up their recess twice a week for Band rehearsal, this offered a sort of reward for the students, and showed the students a different outlet/purpose for music. The music consisted of songs the students could have heard at other sport events or songs from movies like the Death March. All the songs were fairly short, with optional repeats at the end of them, were numbered on one sheet of paper, and used simplified rhythms. This allowed us to be flexible, move quickly, and didn’t require screaming over the game/crowd to indicate the next song. Using only one sheet of music kept the gigs easy and let the students maintain themselves. They were only responsible for their individual instruments, one stand, and one sheet of music. Generally, we were in and out of the basketball games in an hour or less. The most prominent consequence of using this ensemble was in the appreciation and visibility it created for the school and the main music teacher/director. The games in our district were back-to-back in the same gym, so at times there were up to 6 different schools represented at the same time. Several parents and administrators from schools in the county would stop by just to say how much they enjoyed our band, and were often surprised by how well they sounded as 5th graders. It’s an excellent opportunity to get members of the community or middle/high school programs involved, and provides further justification for the band or music program in your school. Check out the PDF attached below for an example of a flute part. |
Jake Daniels Archives
March 2023
Categories |