The scale and it’s harmonic system known as Melodic Minor (aka: Jazz Minor, Ascending Melodic Minor, Ionian b3, etc.) is probably the most misunderstood and under digested of the traditional diatonic derived scale systems being used in improvised music. Many students, and professionals alike, tend to freeze up like they saw Frankenstein when presented with chord symbols or mode choices native to Melodic Minor, or for that matter, not native to Major. Most of us have been taught to view any altered chord type as an altered form of it’s Major counterpart. … Read More
Category Archives: FreeB’s
As I’ve been frantically trying to finish my new eBook “Slick Licks That Stick!” during the past several weeks and hadn’t had the chance to post anything new, I thought I’d do a quickie “Marc Meyers type” record review of an album I’ve been digging a lot lately, Bobby Hutcherson’s 1963 recording, “The Kicker”. Featured here, besides Hutcherson on vibraphone, is the always amazing Joe Henderson on tenor (of course), as well as Duke Pearson – p, Grant Green – guitar (tracks #4-6), Bob (he’s everywhere, he’s everywhere!) Cranshaw – bass, and Al Harewood on the tubs. Not only does … Read More
As I revealed in my post on synthetic reeds from 12/02/2012, I have been an endorser for Bari Woodwinds for about eight years now and I’ve been happily playing their synthetic reeds since 1987. So, you ask; what does an endorser do? He or she endorses, of courses! But only if the product in question warrants an endorsement. Right? … Read More
Riding the wave of innovation pioneered by Jimmy Smith and the resulting popularity of the Hammond B-3 electric organ, B-3 organ groups soon sprang up like mushrooms in bars and lounges all across urban America during the late 1950’s and throughout the next decade. By the early 1960’s, as organ / tenor saxophone groups were approaching the peak of their popularity, the best of the rest of these groups was the one led by the husband & wife team of tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and organist Shirley Scott. … Read More
Miles Don’t Play Dat! I’d been thinking about doing this post for about a month now, since I happened upon this YouTube vid. It’s an interview with Miles Davis by TV producer Bill Boggs from ca. 1990, for what I’m guessing was a local Philadelphia daytime talk show. The reason I had reservations about posting it is because as a new blogger trying to gain some cred, I thought this might verge on silliness. Well, after giving it some thought, I remembered that “I.B. Silly” just so happens to be one of my multiple personalities, and in the words of … Read More
“Satellite” – John Coltrane’s “Giant Step-ed” treatment of the standard “How High the Moon” was recorded as the final tune of the evening session on Oct. 24th, 1960 for Atlantic Records. This late session also produced all of the tracks (with the exception of “Mr. Syms”, recorded earlier that afternoon) for the album which eventually became known as Coltrane Plays the Blues, which wasn’t released until 1962. The afternoon & evening sessions from that day, as well as the sessions from the 21st & 26th of Oct., yielded all the material for 2 other albums as well: My Favorite Things (released … Read More
Simply put, Transcribe! is an amazing music software tool that allows you to take any standard audio file (mp3, wav, aif, & more), of a song, lick, solo, etc. which you’re trying to master; and, among other things, slow it down to variable speeds without changing it’s pitch, in order to make the transcribing or learning process so much easier. Transcribe! has been around for some time, and chances are you either already have it or have heard about it. If you haven’t, I’m happy to do some of the preliminaries and introductions. I highly recommend you make it’s acquaintance, … Read More
Here’s a chops building, warm up type, major pentatonic scale exercise through all 12 keys that I’ve found to be quite useful. Pentatonic Scales (defined as any scale containing 5 notes) are evident, even prominent, in many styles of music from all over the world. The pentatonic scale is probably as old as music itself! The Major Pentatonic Scale is derived from the Major Scale by omitting its 4th & 7th degrees (1-2-3-5-6). As there are 12 Major keys, there are also 12 distinct Major Pentatonics. … Read More
Is it just me, or does it seem like every other month there’s another ad for a fledgling synthetic reed co. that I hadn’t as yet heard of? Due to advances in technology, better marketing, the current tight economy, dissatisfaction with the inconsistencies of cane and the availability of a real and viable option; the result seems to be that more woodwind players than ever before are switching to synthetic reeds and regretting it less. The cane vs. synth debate is presented pretty much on point elsewhere, so no need to go down Redundancy Rd. here. Reeds, like mouthpieces, combs … Read More