Daily Licking 027: Chorus 6 of Mr. P.C.

Its like he has an army of chord assassins and uses ninja fingers that shoot fire to create music that regular people will never be able to comprehend. Because they don't have tiger blood.

No, not that guy, oh please, that guy is a mere insignificant napping earthworm compared to the ridiculoso orignal, tiger-blooded, martian rock star, sick of pretending he is not special, musical genius F-18 that is - Coltrane.

Just wanted to clear that up once and for all.

And as exhibit A, let us delve into chorus number 6 from said maniac.

Chris Tarry Invents Something New

And that is hard to do.

Chris is a killer bassist that has won Canadian Grammys (Juno's) for his compositions and playing with his band Metal Wood, and now he has done something that might be a first.

He is also an author, so he took his writing and his composing and made a CD that has both on them - short stories, illustrations and jazz.

Cool, huh?

So you get his tunes, plus a 100 page book-bound CD.

Check out some photos here.

From the press release:

"Rest of the Story" is available in hard copy only (no downloads) exclusively through Nineteen Eight Records. That's right, for now, no iTunes, no CD Baby, just one place, right here. Because, when you buy this album, you support one of the most decorated groups in jazz, as well as a CD that speaks to a time when beautiful album design mattered, a good story was the talk of the town, and music was more than just a click away.

This is very interesting for a whole bunch of reasons - creatively, product-wise, and originality wise.

A big Bravo Ridiculoso, Chris, this may be the beginning of an entirely new genre of artistic output from him, and possibly others.

Check out Chris in action below, and on the web at http://christarry.com

Sonny Rollins Awarded National Medal of Arts

Right on.

From the page at whitehouse.gov announcing this:

Sonny Rollins for his contributions to American jazz music. Widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the post-bebop era, Mr. Rollins’ melodic sensibilities, playing style, and solos have delighted audiences and influenced generations of musicians for over 50 years.

How about one for McCoy too, while you are at it?

Daily Licking 026: Back to Coltrane - Chorus 5 of Mr. P.C

Okay, after having to resort to repeated listening of "Music Box Dancer" in order to offset the Coltrane that has been bored into my ear holes, it is now possible to resume with our next chorus of the merciless onslaught. Steel your loins. If you have them.

Flouting

He is not happy with just playing "wrong" notes all over the place, he is double-dog-daring someone to call him on it. He is saying, "hey, its not enough for you when I play the major seven huh, well how about if it is the very first note of an entire chorus, huh, now what you are gonna do? Huh? Oh you gonna do something now?".

Daily Licking 025: McCoy Tyner's Full Blues Chorus Solo Phrase

Okay, still not recovered to handle another 12 measures of Coltrane tonight, so instead...McCoy Tyner.

McCoy is one of the last living old timers, between him and Sonny Rollins, they represent some of the last living links back to the early days of bop all that jazz has been through since then. The list of people McCoy has played with is like a history book of jazz - Coltrane, Brecker, Jones, Garrison, Henderson, Dorham, Blakey ... the list has all of 'em. How many albums has he been on? 100? 500? A heck of a lot. He even had Derek Trucks play on his last album, so he is just about making music of any kind, even now in his 70's.

I have been listening to Inception, McCoy's debut album as a leader, every day since I found it. He plays so many cool things on each tune every time through there is something new and awesome lurking around in there.

Case in point - the song "Blues For Gwen". It's just a blues right, every jazz album has one. What's the big deal. Well, check out the entire chorus below which is basically one crazy long complete phrase ridiculoso that McCoy just kinda rattles off like it was nothing as the eighth chorus he takes (at about 2:03). .

McCoy playing it at tempo (about 225 ish)

McCoy Speed for Bass

bass lick 4/4 swing 70 tempo 230 | Bb7 ab+ f g ab g e f g | ab f gb ab f db eb f | eb c d eb d bb a g | db+ b~ b db (a b) gb ab a | Eb7 ab+ f g ab g eb d c | db f db4 eb8 d db4 | Bb7 r8 d f c+ a bb [d- f g] | f gb a gb f eb db b | Cmin7 gb+ b bb gb e bb+ a g | F7 f e eb g d c f eb | Bb7 d bb g f bb4 bb4 | Bb7 r1 |

McCoy Half-Speed

Half Speed For Bass

bass lick 4/4 swing 50 tempo 112 | Bb7 ab+ f g ab g e f g | ab f gb ab f db eb f | eb c d eb d bb a g | db+ b~ b db (a b) gb ab a | Eb7 ab+ f g ab g eb d c | db f db4 eb8 d db4 | Bb7 r8 d f c+ a bb [d- f g] | f gb a gb f eb db b | Cmin7 gb+ b bb gb e bb+ a g | F7 f e eb g d c f eb | Bb7 d bb g f bb4 bb4 | Bb7 r1 |

You bust out a phrase like this on your next solo and watch the props you get. Wow.

You think it is gonna end, but it doesnt end, it just keeps going and then at the end it just parks itself with a "how do you like them apples, huh?" finality to it. A whole chorus as one phrase takes some big ears.

Bravo!

Sonny Rollins Lick From The Bridge of Strode Rode

I needed a palate cleanser after listening to all this Coltrane. No offense, but sometimes the man is just rather intense. I needed something a little more not Coltrane to clear my ears.

So I am putting up this awesome Sonny Rollins phrase from the bridge of his tune Strode Rode on Saxophone Colossus. The actual lick is included, and lets see how this embedding mp3 snippets works out. This way you can hear how he does it, both at regular speed and at half speed. He takes this one really fast, but it is such an awesome lick the way it just rolls off his horn. Another total Maestro Ridiculoso. Check it out. This one is guaranteed to perplex your fingers and use some patterns they have not run across doing those ol' pentatonic and dominant shapes.

Half-speed of Sonny playing it

120 bpm

bass lick swing 50 4/4 tempo 120 | Bbmin7 r8 f- a db f db a+ c | Eb7 bb ab g f eb d db f | Fmin7 eb b bb ab bb g ab bb |Gmin7b5 b db eb b C7#5 bb+ g r4 |

Actual Tempo Sonny playing it

250 bpm version

bass lick swing 50 4/4 tempo 250 | Bbmin7 r8 f- a db f db a+ c | Eb7 bb ab g f eb d db f | Fmin7 eb b bb ab bb g ab bb |Gmin7b5 b db eb b C7#5 bb+ g r4 |

Daily Licking 024: Chorus 4 Of Mr. P.C.

The merciless onslaught continues. I had the ominous feeling while doing this chorus that...he is just getting warmed up. Yikes.

OMG!OMG!OMG! He played a Bb on the C min!!!

Okay, well don't get as excited as I did, because he only plays it for half a beat, on the very last beat of a measure of the C min, before it goes to the F min, measures 4 to 5. He only resorts to playing the B flat instead of the B natural (which he already played 3 times in the 4 measures before that) so he can really set up the F minor. He anticipates the change by a half a beat and listen to how it sets up that F min.