Kenny Dorham: Lady Bird Solo

All settled into a new apartment in Portland Me. It took longer then I thought to get back to transcribing but here it is as promised:
Some sweet Kenny Dorham Licks
Finale 2008 - [Dorham Lady Bird


Clifford Brown is up next on my list, Stay tuned...

Bernie's Tune

Okay... I lied. After spending some time with Chet's solo on My Funny Valentine I decided it was not a great candidate to put on paper. It is a beautiful solo and was fun to play but notating the rhythms was a headache (Chet bends the time masterfully).

...So I decided on Bernie's Tune.

I love the sound of a piano-less quartet (Ornette anyone?)


I am moving to a new apartment over the next week so I may have to take a week off (everything will be packed up). But if I do find time I promise something wonderful from Kenny Dorham.

Mamblues!

Clark Terry's first full length recording is a great example of early Hard Bop and early Clark. The lineup includes Horace Silver, Oscar Pettiford and Art Blakey... Not to mention Quincy Jones behind all the arrangements. Do yourself a favor and get this album!
I transcribed Clark's solo on Mamblues, a medium-up blues. I think Clark's blues playing can be heard in early Miles, kenny Dorham, Clifford Brown and everyone else who came after.


After a transcription a week for a month I can't stress enough how great transcription is! I can't believe I wasn't doing this years ago. My college degree in Jazz is great but transcription is teaching me far more about how to play jazz (school gave me a great understanding of jazz but I always fell short when it came to playing straight ahead Bop). Now I am learning vocabulary...

Moving on.... For next week:

Dear Old Stockholm

Another week... Another solo

This week I played along with the actual recording of the solo (as opposed to a play-along). My hope is to match more of the subtleties in Miles playing (of which there are many). I have also learned a valuable lesson about listening to the playback in Finale over and over again as you enter the phrases in. The lesson is don't do it! You will start to get the stiff playback stuck in your head.

This version is from the Blue Note recordings, not the popular Round About Midnight version. I prefer this version because of its medium tempo and Miles takes his time and patiently plays simple lines that sound so good...



I have been sorting through many Clark Terry Recordings trying to find the right medium blues with Clark playing Flugel. I think I have found "the one" for my next project. Clark is interesting, his recordings of "standards" are few and far between and his sound and concept are very unique. It should be a fun week!

Half Nelson

It has been a busy week... I have been analyzing the Fats Ladybird solo and stealing as much material as I can. There is so much to process it is hard to pick out the real gems to focus on but I managed and have been running them through the keys.

I Transcribed Miles' solo on Half Nelson from the recording with Charlie Parker on Tenor (Awesome!)...



...I made what I will call an "attempt" at this solo. The melodic ideas are straight forward but the nuance of Miles' playing kills me! I can tell I will spend much less time with the licks from this solo and much more time just listening and imitating.


Coming soon...
The often overlooked and in my opinion best recording of Dear Old Stockholm

As promised...

Here is me playing Fats solo...



For now I am going to hold off from analyzing and picking apart this solo. I need a little more time to digest it as a whole and I want to get started with my next project...

The Miles Davis tune Half-Nelson is a rearrangement of bits and pieces of Navarro's solo from Lady Bird.

What better way to see how Miles was influenced by Fats.

Here is my first transcription project. I picked Fats over Dizzy as a starting point for learning Bebop vocabulary for 2 reasons... The first is simple, Dizzy’s solos contain to much high note playing and to much double-timing. Some day I will be at that level but not yet. The second reason has to do with phrasing and style, Diz owes a lot to swing (Roy Eldridge). He is still amazing, brilliant and the father of Bebop trumpet but I hear more of Bird’s phrasing (Bebop) and articulation in Fats.

I should also mention that my inspiration and information for this whole “transcription thing” came from Dave Liebman and a great article on his website: http://www.daveliebman.com/earticles2.php?WEBYEP_DI=13
He also has a great DVD on the subject called THE IMPROVISER'S GUIDE TO TRANSCRIPTION.

Lastly I should mention that there are errors in this transcription. I am going for 70%... so I can cover more material in less time. Perfection in every solo is not the goal...
Anyway... if I am doing things the way I plan I will have the solo internalized long before I write it down. If you want a perfect transcription... transcribe it yourself... you will learn far more that way.

...So here it is Fats Navarro’s solo on Ladybird:

I will post a recording of myself playing the solo as well as a few exercises created from the solo ASAP