"Pent-Up House" Recorded On This Day!

Or so says PassionForJazz on twitter. So there ya go, you can play the same thing Clifford Brown did today if you want.

Join yours truly on the twitter here - http://twitter.com/BassoRidiculoso

Daily Licking 035: Chorus 2 of Clifford Brown on "Pent-Up House"

The second chorus of the ii-v-I fest from Mr. Brown today. It just keeps getting better.

Some patterns are developing:

1. Starting off sparsely. Just like in the first chorus, the first 4 measures of this chorus are much more sparse rhythmically compared to the rest of the chorus. Leaves him room to take it somewhere.
   
2. Not starting on the root of the chord. Again, he doesn't do this very often, he does in two places he hasn't done it before, but usually he saves it for the G Maj, when the ii-v resolves. Maybe this gives the 1 chord a extra sense of resolution? Interesting. The rest of the time he starts on 3rds, 7ths, 5ths and other juicy chord tones.
3. Outlining chords with arpeggios. All over the place, going up from the third, fifth and other strong chord tones straight up the arpeggio, just not starting on the root. He does chordal type lines, much more than scalar type lines.

The middle of this chorus is one grosso ridiculoso 9 measure long phrase of continuous 8th notes which go through a classic run-down of bebop altered licks. It is a thing to behold. So take a listen below, and behold it. But be warned, with all those half-steps in there, this one is another chorus where there are not going to be a nice, bass-centric, familiar box patterns for your fingers to fall into. This one is going to get your fingers thinking. All of these solos that come from non-bass sources are going to really get your fingers out of any lazy habits that they have developed. It sure has made me have to think. And we all know how exhausting that can be.

Pent-Up House - Clifford Browns Solo Chorus 2

bass lick 4/4 tempo 200 | Gmaj r2 e8 g b8 r8 | Amin7 a2 a2 | D7 a8 r8 r4 d-8 g b4 | GMaj g2 g2 | GMaj g8 r r4 r8 b c ab | Amin7 b a e g gb a c d | D7 [f8 e eb] d c db e d c | GMaj b c d e gb a ab gb | Gmaj g d b c d e f e | Dmin7 d c b a g gb f a | G7 e+ d c a b- d f a | Cmin7 g eb d c b g bb g | F7 a c eb g d c f e | Amin7 eb e g e f g a c | D7 r2 c8 db8 e db | Gmaj d bb b r r gb [bb a gb] | Gmaj g8 d r4 r2 |

Marcus Miller Clinic Video

Marcus is the Man.

Never heard him use a mooger-fooger type effect before, but he goes all Bootzilla, baby, at this clinic at Stax Music Academy.

Chick Corea on Drums

Chick kicked Lenny White off his drum set (you can see him checking his email in the bakground of this clip) so Chick could do a duet with a 15 year old piano player.

7 note phrases in Bill Evans Oleo Solo

Check this out.

Now, maybe I am looking for patterns a little too hard...but check out the multiple grouping of notes in the first 16 measures of Evans' solo. Right-click the notes and choose "View Image" to see the brackets showing the groupings.

Random chance?

Not bloody likely.

Just count the occurrence of notes, not their duration. So, it doesn't matter if it is an eighth or quarter note, just that it is a note.

Check out all the groupings of 7 notes.

That's some deep stuff.

Daily Licking 034: 1st Chorus of Clifford Brown on "PentUp House"

Another new one today. And, yes, I realize there are multiple tunes in progress, but hey, I get bored easy. So piano, tenor, trumpet, bass...that should do it for a while. Maybe.

After Mr. Evans and Mr. Coltrane, Clifford Brown is almost easy to transcribe. His tone is so clear, there is no ambiguity in either his notes or his rhythms, his execution is very, very precise. It's like he plays piano, but just with his mouth.

Daily Licking 033: Bridge and Last 8 of Bill Evans on Oleo

Without further ado, let us continue. We left our hero approaching the bridge to Oleo, with 8 full measures of nothing but dominant chords for him to smite and lay waste to. Let us witness the destruction that ensues!

I added the generic Rhythm Changes for the bridge, just so you can see how many altered notes he plays against the standard chords. Again, no nice little box patterns in this solo for bass, it is all about melodic shapes that don't come from Bass-land. Knock yourself out analyzing those notes against those bridge chords. For instance on the D7 he plays F naturals, A flats, D flats - its a free for all!

Daily Licking 032: 16 Measures of Bill Evans on "Oleo"

Happy Pi day. And Albert Einstein's birthday. So if you saw a black hole today, thats why.

And speaking of Nobel-prize winning german physicists and the speed of gravity, how about some Bill Evans licks?

I took this one from "Oleo" off his record "Everybody Digs Bill Evans". I predict that after listening and checking out what he did in just the first 16 measures of the tune you will see why the title of that record is very accurate. It was a trio with Sam Jones and Philly Jo Jones.