I Am Moving
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Minor Leaps - Jonathan Kreisberg
Thursday, January 17, 2008
I'll Remember April - Marcus Printup
Marcus takes a musically concise approach to his solo. Each phrase says exactly what needs to be said with no extraneous notes. His phrasing uses lots of space between ideas and each idea covers a precise harmonic area. It's also interesting to note how he begins his phrases, many of which start on the first beat of the measure or the fourth beat of the end of the preceding harmonic phrase. This solo is thematically all about phrasing. There are no fast lines or fancy theory and none is needed because his phrasing is so strong.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
The Beatles - In My Life solo
Friday, December 28, 2007
II V's and Their Most Common Substitutions
It's no secret that the chord progression II V is the foundation of jazz. Like John Scofield says in the previous post, "you got to II V." However, I've found that there is less emphasis on the different types of II V's and how they function. These three examples use the same melodic structure built around a minor triad transposed to different II V's. The first is the basic II V, completely diatonic. The line resolves to the tonic, C.
The second progression is a flat fifth away from the diatonic II V, or in other words a flat five substitution and the V chord resolves down a half step to the C maj7. In this case, the line resolves to a G, the fifth of the chord. The flat five II V can be seen in tunes like Satin Doll.
The third progression is a II V a minor third up from the diatonic II V and the V chord resolves up a whole step to the tonic chord. This progression occurs on multiple instances in Stella By Starlight. Here, the line resolves to an E, the third of the chord. The key to understanding these different II V uses is getting a good sense of how they each resolve to the tonic and how they differ in sound. Now here's the bonus. They can all be interchangeable in the right circumstances. Using the flat five substitution is one of the defining traits of bebop. A prime example of this is in All The Things You Are where an Em7 A7 is often subbed for the Bbm7 Eb7. Identifying these different II V functions is crucial to understanding the vocabulary of jazz.
Friday, December 21, 2007
John Scofield - Master Class ii V's
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Moment's Notice - John Coltrane
On close examination Coltrane's solo is almost entirely "inside." There are only two occasions where he plays any notes that are outside the appropriate major scale. The most ear-catching begins in measure 74 where he plays a Bb7 diminished scale pattern over the vamp. This is the classic Coltrane diminished riff. It's made up of a whole tone pattern repeated in minor thirds. Once you get that pattern in your ears you hear Coltrane play it or variations on it constantly. The second instance where he plays "outside" happens occasionally over a V7 chord, such as the Bb7 in measure 21, where he outlines a flat V substitution, (in this case it would be an Fb7, or just E natural 7). There are also instances where he uses chromatic passing tones or leading notes, but I often consider these just applications on the major scale. Because this tune contains so many ii V's and Coltrane's solo follows those changes in such a straight forward manner it makes a great exercise on ii V patterns as well as changing between unrelated scales.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Ask Me Now - Jonathan Kreisberg
Jonathan Kreisberg's version of the Thelonious Monk tune "Ask Me Now," is off his 2005 album New for Now. For anyone not familiar with Kreisberg, I suggest you check him out. A very talented younger guitar player. Anyway, he takes the first A of the head with a nicely arranged traditional chord melody solo. He takes a one chorus solo that has some great examples of both chromatic playing and large intervalic ideas. Hopefully, I'll get some analysis on the juicier licks up there soon.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Just in Time - Sonny Rollins
Sonny's solo Mp3
More to come on Sonny's improv style.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Jazz Crimes - Joshua Redman solo
This very interesting song comes from Redman’s electric trio album, Elastic. Though the album on the whole is compositionally an incredible record, without “Jazz Crimes” it wouldn’t have near the same impact. This song instantly grabs your attention as soon as the rhythmic hits begin and carries it until the drum solo and final melody of this powerhouse tune. Redman’s crafts his solo with orchestrated perfection each phrase logically following the prior. Not only is this a difficult key to play in, but Redman easily incorporates his tremendous range into this solo.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
On the Sunny Side of the Street - Sonny Stitt solo
First, let me begin by talking through the harmony of this song. It is a fairly simple 32 bar AABA form in C major. The A section consists of an 8 bar phrase that eventually moves to the VI (Am7) and then returns to the tonic. The E7 in bar two is out of the key by one note, its major third, g sharp. This note acts as a leading tone to the third (a) of the F major 7 in the next bar. Bar 4 contains a ii V progression that tonicizes the VI chord (Am7) in the key of C major. The D7 in bar 6 and the Am7 before it act as the ii V of the V chord (G7) in C major. Bar 7 contains the ii V that returns the progression to the tonic, C. In the first A section, bar 8 uses a III VI II V turnaround to land on the C major that begins the second A section. The bridge essentially consists of three ii V's. The first is in F major, the second modulates up a whole step to G major, but instead of landing on the G like it did the F, the third ii V comes in leading to the C major that begins the last A section.
Stitt begins his solo by playing entirely within the key of C for the first 5 bars. As these first chords are all in that key, it allows him to develop a melodic idea over a straightforward harmony. However, in bar 6 the D7 changes the key center slightly and f natural becomes an f sharp. Stitt follows the harmony here with a scalar run in D mixolydian. Sitt handles the following ii V with a standard chromatic run using two of the most common tension notes, the minor third (e flat) and flat five (g flat). On the turnaround in bar 8, he bases his line almost exclusively on the arpeggios of the chord beginning after the Em7 on the third of the A7 and going down a Dmaj7 arpeggio ending with a leading tone to the Dm7 which he starts on the root, then moves to G7 starting on the third and ending on the nine (b, d, f, a) and then to a C major 7 arpeggio also beginning on the third. Each of these arpeggios uses a leading tone down a half step from its first note.
Stitt treats the E7 in bar 10 almost like a ii V leading to Am7 (Bm7b5, E7). First, he plays a lick that ends in a chromatic walk up to the b outlining it from a half-step above. Then he plays an E7 arpeggio (g#, b, d) ending on the e after outlining it in half-steps above and below. In bar 12 where the actual ii V to Am7 is, he simply plays an E7 arpeggio (e, g#, b, d). He mostly disregards the D7 instead beginning a Dm7 arpeggio descending form the 7 (c, a, f, d) and then ends the A section on the c.
The bridge, he takes double time first tonicizing the Gm7 by incorporating the leading tone f sharp and a D arpeggio. He moves to the C7 by walking up to its major third and continuing up the C mixolydian scale (same as F major). He arrives on the F major by way of its flat sixth, d flat. He then begins a pattern on an f major arpeggio taking each note, f, a, c, f, a, and approaching it by its immediate upper note in the scale and its leading tone beneath. He ends this pattern with another interesting patter based on the F major triad. Over the Am7, he uses a pattern that emphasizes a line walking chromatically down to the third of the D7, (a, g#, g, f#). In bar 24 over the G7 he creates tension before resolving to the C by using two notes from the G7 altered scale, (a flat, b flat). The most distinctive feature of the last A section comes in bars 27 and 28 where Stitt plays a straight F maj7 arpeggio down and up and continues that to the ninth (g) and then to what would be the minor third (a flat) of the F major but has now become the leading tone to the Am7 chord.
I hope you enjoyed my transcription and analysis of Stitt's solo. This is a great bebop solo that follows the chord changes in a relatively understandable way and is great to get a grasp on many important concepts in jazz improvisation. I'll try to get the Sonny Rollins solo on this song up soon. His interpretation is a good contrast to Stitt's and he takes a more abstract approach to the harmony.