Jazz IT up

More Navarro

2010-06-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here's another Fats Navarro imitation.

Symphonette:

Boys Night Out

2010-06-19T04:33:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week:

and a quick recording:
Boys Night Out

See you Tonight

2010-03-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week

and a quick recording:
See you Tonight

Here's that Summer Day

2010-03-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week.

and a quick recording:
Here's that Summer Day

Just a Little Stone

2010-03-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

Composition of the week.

And a quick recording:
Just a little Stone

Imitating Fats Navarro

2010-02-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

Imitating the Jazz Master Fats Navarro playing Lady Bird. Slowed down to 70% or so, I play and sing along to the great solo.
This is not something you'd want to do for a performance, but this is an excellent exercise. Probably the best way to learn how to swing.
When people say that in order to learn jazz, one needs to listen, this is how I understand it.

Also check out 7notemode's tutorial on how to swing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqAZgKR2HQc

Just Friends

2010-02-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

This has to be one of the most amazing arrangements of Just Friends ever played. Bird is blowing incredibly melodic lines at blazing speed. It's hardly believable someone can reach this level of musicality.

So for fun, I played over the head of Just Friends, at 50% of original speed. Then I added the same piece, with Bird alone this time (I wish), at original speed.

Just Friends

Listen to Charlie Parker.

Bits of New York

2010-02-07T17:56:00.001-08:00

I took a short break while moving since most of my stuff was packed away.

Here's Bits of New York:

And a quick recording:
Bits of New York

Ear Training Ringtones

2010-01-01T16:41:00.001-08:00

Here's a present for the new year. Ringtones for your iPhones. Download this file , unzip it, open with iTunes, sync your iPhone.

Next, assuming you have about a dozen contacts that call you, assign one ringtone per contact.
Each ringtone is an interval. After a while, you will associate John to a minor 6th interval, and Sophie to a b9.
This is passive ear training, intended to slowly help you recognize about a dozen intervals.

What else? It is far less annoying than having Fur Elise or Jay-Z interrupt your meeting!

April in Paris

2009-12-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

A quick Parker transcription. It gets me everytime. Even at slower tempos, staying so close to the melody, the lines are absolutely gorgeous.

April in Paris

And it all adds up to Nothing

2009-11-28T06:58:00.001-08:00

Composition of the week:

Sea of Green

2009-11-02T05:31:00.001-08:00

Composition of the week.

The exercise here is to use more 16th notes, and "shift gears", going from 16th, to triplets, to 8ths.

I have a little fun with Tynerisms on the bridge. I thought it just screamed for it.

Here it goes:

and a quick recording:
Sea of Green

And then it did

2009-10-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week.

And a quick recording:
And Then It Did

What if there was another you?

2009-10-03T06:34:00.001-07:00

Composition of the week.

and a quick recording:
What if there was another you?

Flora

2009-09-18T16:38:00.001-07:00

Composition of the week.

This composition, like the last, uses only triplets. In addition, ghost notes are added, breaking the flow.

And a quick recording:
Flora

Darn This

2009-09-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week.

Different than usual, the point of this exercise is to create a line exclusively with triplets. Add to that the fact that I wanted to do long lines. The result's a little wild.

Here we go:

And a quick recording:
Darn This!

Parker's Mood

2009-08-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Another Bird transcription. Another masterpiece. I'm going through the first 2 choruses of

Parker's Mood

More Charlie Parker to come ...

East of Cyprus

2009-08-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week:

and a quick recording:
East of Cyprus

Composed in Rosegarden, recorded in Logic.

White Whale Drive

2009-08-20T06:15:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week.

and a quick recording:
White Whale Drive

(recorded in Logic, composed in Rosegarden)

Embraceable You

2009-08-18T18:24:00.001-07:00

Another Charlie Parker transcription. This is probably the best solo I've ever heard. I never realized just how much was going on in Charlie Parker's ballads until this.

This is a ballad played at a slow tempo. There are a few solos before this one. Everyone is playing swing eights, taking it easy and melodic. Bird comes in, and everything is taken to a whole new level. Swing 16th are the new rules. Pick up the track from to see what I mean. Parker still keeps a ballad feel throughout, he's just re-inventing how to play them, right there and then. I cannot imagine having to solo after Bird that day.

Despite the slow tempo, I had to slow this down considerably to hear the individual notes. My teacher tells me him and Lennie used to learn Bird's solo on a record player set up at half speed, with everything an octave down. This is basically it.
I dropped the usual sax voice in favor of the good old acoustic.

More Parker to come. For now, this is
Embraceable You

It's not much really

2009-08-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week. I have a couple more ready, just need to create the blog entry.

Here we go:

and a quick recording:
It's not much really

Now's the time

2009-07-26T09:28:00.001-07:00

Usually, I slow down Bird recordings to play along to them. In this case, he takes it a a reasonable tempo, somewhere around 130. So I decided to play along at normal speed. All was good for an entire chorus. And then he puts you right back where you belong. I ended up skipping a couple of lines :).

I need to do more Charlie Parker.

For now, here's
Now's the time

Tweet Tweet

2009-07-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Last Composition for a short while.

and a quick recording.
Tweet Tweet

Billie's Bounce

2009-07-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

4 choruses of Charlie Parker. Some parts are very tricky to play. Nevertheless, this is quite addictive.

Here I am on top of Bird playing Billie's Bounce

But Not Today

2009-07-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

Composition of the week.

But Not Today