Clifford Brown Transcriptions

Back in high school when I was learning jazz improvisation, one of the things I did quite a bit of was transcribe solos.  I had a terrible little tape recorder that I pretty much wore out, and before that was available I used to just drop the needle on the record over and over and over until I got the passage that was trying to figure out.  I don't think students today realize the amount of jazz educational  stuff out there and ease with which they can have access to all of it with one click of a mouse. 

 

Over the past 25 years there have been so many great books written about how to improvise, and now there are tons of great books on specific artists that break down every aspect of what they played on recordings.  In a way, the amount of information available on jazz playing is almost overwhelming so it is best to just focus on one thing, one solo, one tune, or even one short chord progression when you are practicing.  I remember a Kenny Werner clinic from a number of years ago where he suggested to play one tune in all keys for an entire year.  That might be a little over-the-top but I totally understand where he's coming from.  One of the hardest things to do when learning how to play jazz (or anything for that matter) is to simply focus on one thing until you master it.

When I first started transcribing solos, I would tend to gravitate towards players whose melodic lines sounded like they were written out before hand, almost perfect in a sense.  I still have some of the solos that I transcribed in high school from Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, and Lee Morgan. As I was surfing around Amazon.com I stumbled across what looks like a terrific book on Clifford Brown's playing.  From what I can tell it is a complete analysis of Clifford's melodic lines, broken down into digestible chunks. You can check out below

Essential Jazz Lines in the Style of Clifford Brown, Bb Edition

Clifford Brown was one of the most influential jazz trumpeters and was a true master of jazz. His fantastic tone, time, feel and command of the jazz language have been inspiring jazz musicians on all instruments for decades. This book breaks down many of the one and two-bar phrases played by Clifford and helps students apply them to their own playing. Lines played over minor, dominant, and major chords as well as short, long and minor ii-V material can be mastered by practicing with the accompanying play-along CD. Chapters on Guide Tones, Bebop Scales, Targeting, and Playing the Upper-Structure will help students analyze and memorize the lines presented in the book. There is also a chapter with further insight in Clifford’s style which discusses his phrasing as well as other musical devices he used to get his sound. A must have for aspiring students wanting the master the jazz language.

 

Miles Davis scores available now from Birth of The Cool Recordings

Wouldn't it be nice if all the great arrangements from the 20th century actually became available for us to play now?  Over the years, people have tried to transcribe a lot of this music, and depending on the transcriber the final result was actually fairly successful.  Much of Duke Ellington's music has been transcribed from recordings where no score exists.  On the other hand, I'm sure most of us have played some lame transcriptions that were pretty far off from what the original recording sounded like.  With that in mind, I just stumbled across some of the old Miles Davis stuff that is actually written out in score format -from the actual scores from Miles Davis.  All one needs to do now is to enter in finale and print it out.  For 15 bucks you sure can't go wrong on this one.  Check it out...

 

Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool : Scores from the Original Parts

In preparation for over two years, this landmark publication presents the music of the Miles Davis Nonet in concert score format, restored from as many of the original composer/arrangers' autograph parts as still exist. Includes an extensive introduction, notes on the restoration process, bios of the composers and arrangers, and note-for-note transcriptions of these classic jazz tunes: Birth of the Cool Theme * Boplicity (Be Bop Lives) * Budo * Deception * Godchild * Israel * Jeru * Joost at the Roost * Moon Dreams * Move * Rock Salt a/k/a Rocker * Rouge * Venus De Milo.
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $15.72

Customer Review: I'm prejudiced
I edited this folio. For years, musicians had to transcribe this important music so it could be played, and hoped that the original materials would turn up. The wait is now over. All of the original parts known to exist of this legendary music were utilized to create corrected, clear, edited scores in concert. There are several pages of notes, including bios, a history of the music and the ensemble, and information on the restoration of this music. Also included is a composition that was never recorded. Both the estates of Miles Davis and Gerry Mulligan made this music available to me to prepare this folio, and Keith Mardak, CEO of Hal Leonard, deserves credit for making this music available. For me, this was a challenge and a labor of love. A more detailed article on the editing process will be published by the Journal of the Institute of Jazz Studies in the near future.