Jazz Transcriptions

[Joseph K]

Here is Nelson Faria's first chorus on Stella by Starlight in his aforementioned duet with Mike Stern. I'm learning a lot about the rhythmical nuances of jazz and how jazzers push and pull the beat back and forth, both behind and ahead of the beat. In some instances, I am still not happy with this - particularly bar 26 going into 27, where something weird happens with the time, it's like bar 26 get elided, like it could be a quaver short because that A flat feels like beat one of the next bar, but that wouldn't work out metrically.

[Joseph K]

I love this tune, written by Chad Wackerman, it appears on Holdsworth's Sixteen Men of Tain -

[Ian Thumwood]

I have been on holiday today but the light was not really good enough to go birdwatching so I played the piano for the first time in about 6 months. There are several books which I particularly like and I think you could summarised these as being compositions by musical mavericks such as Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and Herbie Nichols. However, the one I love the most is "Andrew Hill's 21 piano compositions" which are fascinating because the tunes prompt you to follow unusual harmonies. If you like, the substitutions are in place and the music makes it easier to experiment than on standards - Hill has effective done half the work for you harmonically.

Some of the tunes are difficult whereas others are quite simple. When I improvise on these tunes, I think less about the changes than I do when I try conventional stuff. This one is interesting as the tune is quite difficult to hear when you play it first time. Andrew Hill is seriously under-rated in my opinion, both as pianist and a composer. I love the way that he phrases and his sense of time as he kicks against the beat....

[Ian Thumwood]

Here is another tune from that book which is written in 5/4. Most of the tunes avoid common time and you can almost see Hill's approach as a step beyond Dave Brubeck's seminal "Time out." There is something quite similar in the touch of the two pianists albeit Hill has an almost oblique sense of playing his lines which requires a really strong drummer to anchor the music down.

[Ian Thumwood]

I am glad this tune is in the anthology as it is a brilliant piece of music from a seminal album from around the turn of the last century. This is my favourite to play on the book because it allows you to be quite abstract and it is not too technically demanding. I love the probing style of playing on this tune, the harmonies littered with accidentals on a tune where the total centre is quite difficult to discern. The theme is actually a quite sentimental waltz but the harmony Hill employs effectively buckles both the harmony and theme which does not effectively emerge until about 6 minutes in. The changes in the lead sheet imply Bb and whilst the changes have nothing printed on them more sinister than half diminished chords and a couple of altered chords, playing this music makes you open your ears to hear other possibilities.

[Ian Thumwood]

Hill was also capable of writing highly infectious tunes such as this.....

[Joseph K]

Very nice Ian - but, they're not transcriptions are they?

[Ian Thumwood]

The book consists of transcriptions from Hill's records made by the likes of Frank Kimbrough, Ron Horton and Jason Moran.

https://www.boosey.com/shop/prod/Hill-Andrew-21-Piano-Compositions/2063684

[Ian Thumwood]

Very nice Ian - but, they're not transcriptions are they?

Seeing as I struggle to read music and tend to play by ear, I cannot do transcriptions myself , I m afraid. Anyway, I thought that I would add to your thread so that it looked like less of an act of onanism for yourself.

[Joseph K]

Seeing as I struggle to read music and tend to play by ear, I cannot do transcriptions myself , I m afraid. Anyway, I thought that I would add to your thread so that it looked like less of an act of onanism for yourself.

Most transcriptions are not my own, I'll have you know!

[Joseph K]

More Holdsworth:

[Joseph K]

If you want to see something absolutely incredible, watch this guy playing Coltrane on the guitar!

[Serial_Apologist]

If you want to see something absolutely incredible, watch this guy playing Coltrane on the guitar!

Well I suppose one has to begin somewhere...

[Joseph K]

[Joseph K]

This incredible (the music that is, the transcription would be a lot better if it featured chord symbols!) -