Learning jazz language from horns - who are your favourites?

Dexter Gordon
Cannonball Adderly
Charlie Parker
Barry Harris

 

Louie Armstrong comes to mind. Paul Desmond. Much of later Miles' solos are playable. I transcribed his solo on All Blues and it was playable at speed and a valuable lesson in melody and harmony for me.

 

Some horn players that I’ve transcribed and learned from:

Dexter Gordon for sure.
Chet Baker
Miles Davis
Art Farmer
Sonny Stitt

I recently started learning a Hank Mobley solo. And I’ve been thinking I should work on some Paul Desmond and some Stan Getz solos.

I can’t play hardly any of them up to tempo or well, but I’m learning stuff from all of them.

 

I gotta go with Bird.
Get the Omnibook. Lifetime of stuff right there.

Clifford Brown but his lines are crazy hard to pull off on bass.
Just getting the theme to Joy Spring right was quite the challenge.

 

Being a former trumpet player, myself - Harry James, Roy Eldridge, & Red Nichols. When they were either in Benny Goodman’s or Gene Krupa’s bands.

 

Some favourites include Louis Armstrong on Tight Like This, Potato Head Blues and Weather Bird. Pretty much anything Lester Young played, particularly the recordings with Oscar Peterson.

 

I had a lot of fun last fall transcribing Chet’s solo on ‘But Not For Me’, both the intro solo and the one after the vocal. Many of his solos are highly playable and transcribe-able.

 

Since you mentioned Johnny Griffin....i love this:



As for what sits well on the bass, i think it's best to pursue whoever you gravitate to while listening. For me Miles Davis expresses himself in a way that i am inspired by. I like his lyrical and textural approach which seems to translate in an interesting way to the bass, also his well placed phrasing. He tends to do more with less, which i think is something to be embraced on the double bass.

 

Awhile back there was a big symposium for Art Blakey's centennial they had a bunch of alumni from the various incarnations of the Jazz Messengers on stage and they would pass the mic from person to person so they could say a few words about what it was like to play with the band, what they learned from Art etc. And when Branford got the mic he had a few stories - one was particularly cogent. They were playing some concert and Branford is in the green room listening to Trane on his cassette player as Art is walking through. Art, as he passes, gives Branford a look of disdain and a sort of "Pfff..." remark, so Branford says "What!?!", kind of as a challenge. Art asks him what he's listening to , B says Trane. Art asks "why you listening to that?". B says I like his playing and I want to play more like him. Art gives him a withering kind of Fred Sanford "You dummy!" look and says "So what, you think Trane went to the future and got tapes of himself playing so he could learn to play like himself?" And walks off....

 

I think a lot of jazz vocab can be learnt from horn players Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown in particular.

A bit more challenging to transcribe but if you can do it, there's a lot to learn from piano players like Oscar Peterson.

I wouldn't recommend transcribing someone like Bob Brookmeyer, the lines sit well on the bass but there's a lot of chromaticism in his playing that obscures the underlying harmony and make it more difficult to internalize and apply. I transcribed a few of his solos and found them interesting to play but hard to use them in any meaningful way. That may be just my analysis of it though, I don't have a doctorate in Jazz education.

 

Low the mighty have fallen . . . this so-far uncited artist used to be No. 1 on the "start here" list:



Mr. Rollins work generally, and this piece in particular, embodies the words of Charles Mingus: "Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."

 

i think all of the great jazz horn players are wonderful sources. i've been a bit partial to wayne shorter's stuff lately --- not so much for solo transcriptions, but his library of compositions is extensive. (he's got serious chops, too.) just learning some of his melodies/changes will get anyone further on up the road!

have fun with your jazz studies!

 

I have been a tenor player for over fifty years. Whenever I listen to Dexter Gordon, or Sonny Rollins, (both of whom I have listened to "live" numerous times) I hear/see a smile in their sound. That "smile" can't really be transcribed. One can but try.

Steven

 

I was at a masterclass with Branford a few years back and he told this story! He told the next step when he phones up Benny Golson to find out who Trane was trying to emulate in the early days and Benny tells him about Trans sounding exactly like Johnny Hodges. It was a pretty great story.

 

Hank Mobley, Lester Young, Miles. Those are my faves for translating to bass. I need to transcribe more horn solos as I haven't done any in a while. I was taught to sing anything I'm transcribing first before going to the instrument; and to learn by ear for easy memorization, not write the solo down first if at all. Lester Young's solo on Them There Eyes (Kansas City Six) is a fun one to learn.

 

Sonny Red is a good example.

 

I’m bringing Stan Getz into the mix since he hasn’t been mentioned yet. Seconding Baker, Gordon and Rollins.

 

well...did he?