You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 10 Best Solos To Transcribe - #165

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

Today, Peter and Adam list 10 of their must-transcribe solos. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Mace. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Here at Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. That's right. What do we got going on? Well, first, what are you here? Wait, do you have an ice coffee?

I do. I have a special friend who brought me an ice coffee. Finally. You wore me down. Man, this is good. It's really good, right? Big shout out to Squatters. Squatters Cafe next door to our Open Studio Studios.

Oh, don't tell them where we are, man. They can be coming for us. They can be coming for that jazz advice now. We are lucky to have a really fine restaurant next to it. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay, so what are we talking about today? Today, we are taking a question from you'll hearat.com.

General reminder, you can always go to you'll hearit.com. You can also go to you'll hear it.com. Yeah. To leave us a suggestion for future episodes, and that's exactly what a listener did in this case, which is. Yeah, no guarantees we're going to do it, but we often do. We've been known to. Yeah, no guarantees that we won't do it either. That's right.

So this is from Medi in Paris. I apologize if I said your name. name incorrectly. But the question is really enjoying the podcasts and the great advice. I'm a professional guitarist from Tunisia living in Paris, France. Out of curiosity, it's also a question my students. Ask me a lot, what are, according to you, the best 10 jazz solos worth transcribing to improve as an improviser? Souls that teach something unique about phrasing, rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic ideas, thanks. Ten. Ten. Does he not listen to the podcast? You know, well, he did put 10 and then a question mark, like kind of a request. I'm actually thinking,

Let's stretch a little bit here today and give him an extra three. All right, we're going to go symmetrical here in tens. All right, let's try. You don't seem not happy about it, but, you know. Well, I mean, I fear change, just all I'm saying. All right, so this is going to be our 10 best solos to transcribe. And I like the way he asked it saying something unique about phrasing, rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic ideas. Because I think that all those things, a great solo, you're going to get.

those unique things about that. That's a big part of what we're getting. Of course, the other part is the ear training, which you're going to get from learning any solo. But certainly focusing in on the unique phrasing and harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic ideas is the way to go. Absolutely. And I think this list, I dare say we've compiled a nice little list here, you know? I mean, there's hundreds we left off, if not thousands, but this is a nice list of tried and true. Certainly, there's going to be a few that you've heard us speak about here, but there's a reason for that. Yeah. Because they're good. Yeah, they're good. And they're accessible, which can be very helpful for beginners.

Yeah. And then what's nice, too, is if you've been listening to the podcast and maybe you hadn't heard some of these tracks, and we talked about them in another episode, they're already in your ear, which is always nice. That's right. Yeah, I mean, one of the most important things about transcribing any solo is the singability of it. You have to listen to it enough that you can sing it, ideally, before you start transcribing it.

So number one is, listen. There you go. Actually, number one is. Miles Davis Baggs Groo. That's a great place to start. Yeah. Yeah, this, I mean, I highly recommend learning the solo no matter what instrument you play. So it always kind of pops in my head as,

it's not that it's the greatest solo ever. It is a great solo, but I think it's, you know, I think it's probably the greatest solo to learn at almost any level. Now, if you're just an abject beginner, it's going to be challenging, but you can be listening to it. And as you develop, once you do want to jump into something, it's good. I mean, obviously it's single line because it's trumpet, so that's a great thing.

But talk about phrasing and interesting blues playing. The form is a blues, so you have the simplicity of that. And then you have this great melodic solo with just incredible use of space, beautiful phrasing, and really something that can be translated to any instrument or vocalist. That's great. Yeah. So number two, we have Thelonious Monk Bag's Groove. That sounds familiar.

I believe it happens right after Miles' solo. That's funny that we go from one track. We've only got 10 choices. We're already stacked it into one track. But that's a great solo. It's a great solo. And I love the idea of starting with Monk, too, for transcription, because you really get it seems simple, but the complexity that you can learn from transcribing a monk solo,

and this one is a great example, of phrasing with the melody, of rhythmic complexity, of crazy voicings that actually sound really cool when you do them, not just when Monk does them. Yes, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I think that this, I first heard this solo on that Smithsonian Jazz collection from the early 70s that I had great access to. and it just said like Thelonious Monk Blue Solo. I don't even know if it said. It only played his solo on there, which was funny.

They didn't have a lot of space on there. Yeah, yeah. So that was the first Thelonius Monk I'd ever heard. When you heard it later, you were like, oh, that's where that's from. Yeah. Oh, that hacker trumpet player was playing on top of it. That's funny. Okay, number three, Winton Kelly, Freddie Freeloader.

We've talked about this one several times. Yeah, we've mentioned it. We've mentioned a couple of sunings. But this is a great solo. From the obscure record. This is an incredible solo. This one's fun because it's a piano solo. Like we talk about the Miles Davis solo, anybody can learn it.

This is a piano solo that I think any instrumentalist can learn as well. Yeah. I mean, swing, feel, phrasing. Come on. It's a great study of groove, of swing, of, yeah, the blues. It's all good. Yep. It's all good.

That brings us to West Montgomery Unit 6. Yes. Yeah. Well, that we thought would be nice to put in a guitar solo. We may have overlooked the great West Montgomery had this question not come from a guitarist, but we wanted to get at least one. I mean, that's just so many great West Montgomery. Gummerie solos, but that's kind of my favorite.

Yep. Next, we're on number five. We're chugging along with our 10 best solos. I feel like we're trying to go quickly through these because we have 10. This is what I'm saying. It's going us off our game here. A little bit. With the seven, we have a groove that we get into.

That's right. Charlie Parker, now's the time. Now this was like the first. I'm not to personalize everything of my picks. But, I mean, inevitably, I think it's good on the best souls to transcribe to talk about ones that you've actually transcribed. I think all of these we've transcribed, at least one of us. Yeah, what are we going to talk about solos we haven't transcribed?

Yeah, how do we know if they're really? Of course, they're good solos, but we haven't gone through that process. Now, this one, this is, now he recorded a bunch of times, but this is the bo-do-boo-bo-do-bo-do-bo-de-be-d-d-de. So good. You know, such a great classic solo. Be-de-le-be-de-d-d-du. And they get right into the blues at that second phrase.

You know, definitely bebop, but also space, like which Charlie Parker sometimes wasn't known for. great sense of phrasing in terms of swing feel that you can get from this on any instrument very easy to hear very well constructed I mean pretty much though Charlie Parker I haven't heard any recorded solos that I'd be like that's not a good one to transcribe you're going to get something great out of all of them but this is an iconic solo that's great and that brings us to number six yeah Freddie Hubbard you and the night and the music yeah that's kind of a wild card I threw it did I throw that in or did you you threw that and I do I have not transcribed that solo so that's

like I think the only, maybe I learned another Freddie Hubbard. I got into a Freddie period and I was like, why did trumpet players get to have all the fun? You know, and I learned some trumpet solo. And it was always for me a thing of like

just a break from learning piano solos because I felt like I had to learn every note and it was so hard to hear. But this is, I was looking for solos that I liked and that were crystal clear, like the pitch, exactly what he's playing,

the phrasing and everything. And this is off of Bill Evans' interplay. Yeah. Great record. And it, It's got some great solo breaks. I remember trying to learn something about solo breaks and swinging through those.

Great example of that. That's always cool to think about real tactical things that you can get from solos. The ear training we talk about. The phrasing, of course, you know, melodic ideas, harmonic devices. But I mean, just in terms of like, how do you play over solo break.

Well, this will show you. This will show you exactly how to do it. It'll give you some ideas. I like that a lot. So going into kind of more of a modal thing, I thought we could do Herbie Hancock's one-finger snap. And this kind of is a good transition from Freddie Hubbard,

because Freddie Hubbard has an iconic solo also on this track. I think that's the other solo I learned that Freddie solo. And actually, you know, people think the melody of this is, da-di-da-da. That's just the first chorus of Freddie Solo. That's how melodic that cat was. All right. So Herbert, Herbie's solo on this is a really great study in, you know,

early development of this modal sound of getting around the changes with arpeggios and some pentatonic stuff. Really great solo. Yep, yep. So that's one, two, three, four, five. That is normally the time we would stop in, take a sip of our ice coffee. Let's reflect here.

It's like a little seventh inning stretch. A little seventh inning stretch, yeah. We have a planned tie. That's right. You know, I'll take this opportunity to say that we still have our special going for You'll Hear It listeners where you can save 10% on an Open Studio

annual all-access pass. That's what we make here at Open Studio, our online jazz lessons, of course. You can get everything we make and everything we will make for the next year for 10% off when you enter. You'll hear at 10 in the offer code field. At checkout.

And ice coffee time is complete. I like that. I like that. Let's go with number eight. So number eight, so I'm going to go right back to the mothership, to the origins, and throwing out there that no one can really dispute on a list of 10. That's West End Blues by Louis Armstrong. That's great. Now that, I think, is an important solo for anybody who wants to be a jazz musician to know and really to learn and to transcribe.

And I know there's a lot of written versions out there. this is all about phrasing. I mean, it's definitely about blues and a bunch of things, but phrasing, phrasing, phrasing, approach, swing, feel, all that. Language. You're getting the language of the music. And like you said, man, you can, of course, Google this, but please don't. Don't Google the sheet music.

Just learn it by ear. It's simple enough that you can. And you're learning more from picking it out by ear than you are of just reading it. Good. So that takes us to number nine. This is one of my favorite solos ever. That's Chick-Korea solo on The Matrix. It's an F-Bloose, super angular, lots of pentatonic stuff.

We all rip it all the time. Everybody was influenced, I think, a little bit by this record. It was so iconic, and that sound, that angular, in-and-out sound is so good. Yeah, and I think that that's really, I mean, you talk about entering into the vernacular of the modern jazz pianist language, specifically piano. Although, I mean, I think a horn player could get a lot out of it, too. Absolutely. but very influential on every pianist that came along. I'll never forget when I, the first time I transcribed that,

Babadoo, do, but do it, that first lick of, you know, it's like a, it's like a E-flat triad with an F on the top, and then it goes to it, I was like, p-o-o-o-huh, you know what you. And even the way you're holding your hand, they're like the shapes and like his stuff is very pianistic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great technique.

All right, so I'm going to call it audible for number 10. You hear me audibly clicking and changing our list. Yeah, yeah, you got it. This I'm going to go very personal again and then put the great McCoy-Tonner, just because he's been on my mind. a lot lately and Lonnie's Lament. How do we miss this? I don't know.

Well, I mean, we missed a lot here. We missed a lot. We have no John Coltrane giant steps and other things. Overrated. Fake solo. No, not at all. Not at all. Yeah, so McCoy Tiner, Lonnie's lament, off of the great John Coltrane's Crescent album.

This record's kind of faded a little bit among the kids. Like, a lot of it kind of, I don't know if it's out of print or just out of people's discussion. I want to lift that record back up. This was big for me, this record. Yeah, me too. I think you might have been at the tail end of the period where it was really acknowledged. But there's been a lot of people talking about train in general because of the new, the lost sessions. But this is from that era.

Exactly. It's from, I mean, this is like right in there. Great sound. I think Rudy Van Gelder, we were talking about him yesterday. And very clear McCoy solo. Like, if you want a real delineation of his left hand comping and fifth techniques and stuff in a very controlled C minor environment, this is the way to go. Fun solo, great for phrasing and swing and everything. I remember not transcribing the solo, but Reggie Workman had me make sure to transcribe McCoy's like arpeggios in the beginning. In the Roboto section, apparently I was not doing them justice, but it was hard, man. It was hard to get. Do you go to camp with Reggie Workman?

No, is at the new school. Oh, New School, right? Yeah, yeah. That's right. Awesome. Well, there it is 10. We survived 8, 9, and 10. You got a little sweaty over there, but we made it.

I just don't like it when we changed things up like that, man. We got it in 165 episodes. of lists of seven and now we're just doing 10 because some guy in Paris asked us to. I mean, we're setting a standard here. That's right. Well, we just showed our flexibility, so it's all good. Well, thanks for the question. We actually do really appreciate it and are happy to do lists of varying numbers as long

as we don't get up to like 15, 20. No, but we could do 77. That would be right up our alley. We should do a series of 77, like just, I don't know. 11 days of seven lists. That's right, like a little advent calendar of seven. So please go to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Tune In. Stitcher.

I don't even know. I heard another podcast guy say that. Stitcher. I don't even know how would you get there. Wherever you get your podcast and leave us a rating review. Yeah, we like. We only see the ones on iTunes, but that doesn't mean you can't go somewhere else. I check Spotify occasionally. Do you?

Is there a reviewing system? It's sad. But we have a lot of listeners on Spotify. We do have actually a lot of those. What's up? Big shout out to Spotify to our listeners on Spotify. I listen to a podcast on Spotify occasionally, too. Spotify? Spotify.

Sorry, this is now my third iced coffee. Man, you're a little jittery over there. I'm getting jitters, yeah, for sure. Yeah, so please leave us a rating and review. If you haven't already. Who's lurking out there? I know we got some lurkers. I can feel them.

I can feel them. I'm not talking about, like, you know, Glenn and Joe are long-time listeners who also give us reviews and shout-outs and get special things in the mail notice, too. All right, well, let's not review shame our listeners. No, let's do. Because I feel like, you know, if you're, look, look, this is a free podcast. Really? We can't? I'm going to go there.

It is free podcast, okay? So all we're asking for is a little bit of love, a little bit of love back. So give us a rating or review. And until tomorrow, you'll hear it.