The Jazz Sax & Improvisation Blog of Saxophonist Bobby Stern

John Coltrane's Tenor Solo on "I Love You" - A Transcription

12/22/2024

John Coltrane's Tenor Solo on "I Love You" - A Transcription

In the holiday spirit, I'm merrily posting a transcription of John Coltrane's tenor saxophone solo on Cole Porter's “I Love You” (in Bb tenor key only, at this point). It was recorded on August 16th 1957 for the Prestige label, during the early part of 'Trane's famed gig with Thelonious Monk's quartet at the legendary Five Spot that summer and fall.

It was also part of a session that included a ballad version of “Like Someone in Love” as well as two takes of 'Trane's Slow Blues”, which made up side-one of the LP “Lush Life” and wasn't released by Prestige until 1961.

Bassist Earl May and drummer Art Taylor round out the piano-less trio.

These sax/ bass and drums trio (known as “strolling”) recordings are some of my favorite Coltrane, as well as those recorded in Oct. 1960, which included “Satellite”, among others.

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"Coming on the Hudson" - A Johnny Griffin Tenor Saxophone Solo Transcription

9/28/2022

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"Coming on the Hudson" - A Johnny Griffin Tenor Saxophone Solo Transcription

This month's post features a transcription / analysis of Johnny Griffin's tenor saxophone solo on Thelonious Monk's "Coming on the Hudson", recorded live at the legendary Five Spot Cafe in NYC on August 7, 1958. It was released as one of the tracks on the album "Thelonious in Action!". In addition to Monk and Griffin, the quartet was rounded out by bassist Ahmed Abdul Malik and the great Roy Haynes, on drums.

I've been wanting to do a transcription of Griffin's tenor solo on "Coming on the Hudson" for a long time. The tune - which is perhaps one of Monk's most "Monkish" - seemed somewhat challenging to grasp, as far as its form, rhythms and resolutions were concerned. At the same time, it ebbs and flows steadily - kind of like the Hudson River itself - whirlpools and all!

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Joe Henderson's Tenor Solo on "You Know I Care" - A Transcription

11/25/2021

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Joe Henderson's Tenor Solo
"You Know I Care" - A Jazz Ballad Transcription

"You Know I Care", is a masterpiece of a composition by the prolific composer / pianist / arranger, Columbus Calvin "Duke" Pearson, jr and is possibly the most representative original ballad of the 1960s Blue Note period.

As the ballad feature on Joe Henderson's classic "Inner Urge" album, it was recorded on November 30, 1964 - nine days before John Coltrane recorded "A Love Supreme" - with pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones (each a member of Coltrane's classic quartet and icons themselves) on both sessions.

Almost six months later, Pearson recorded his own version of "You Know I Care" as a 6-horn arrangement, but Henderson's quartet recording is the definitive version, as his tenor solo as well as the rhythm section, breathes additional life, dimension and drama into an already singular ballad composition.

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Yellin on Henderson: A Candid Interview With Saxophonist Pete Yellin

6/20/2017

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Yellin on Henderson:
A candid interview with saxophonist Pete Yellin

Pete 'n' Joe

I feel very fortunate to have come across this interview, conducted in 2001, with the late alto saxophonist and long time fixture on the New York scene, Pete Yellin; courtesy of Canadian saxophonist / educator, Sundar Viswanathan, who is currently an Associate Professor of Jazz at York University in Toronto, and posted here with his permission.

Sundar, then a doctoral candidate at NYU, interviewed Pete as part of his 540 page dissertation, bearing the title "An Analysis of the Jazz Improvisation and Composition in Selected Works From the Blue Note Records Period of Tenor Saxophonist Joe Henderson from 1963-1966", leaving no doubt as to who, what and when, and which he was most generous to have shared with me recently.

The main subject and focus of the interview is, of course, none other than tenor saxophone titan Joe Henderson, with whom Yellin had a long friendship and musical relationship, dating back to the early 1960's.

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For Your High-Ness: An Etude on "Someday My Prince Will Come"

9/20/2016

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For Your High-Ness:
An Etude on "Someday My Prince Will Come"

"Heah come da Prince!"

This is yet another solo style etude, which I this time fashioned from the chord changes of the popular Standard American Song, "Someday My Prince Will Come".

This tune has been in my repertoire for a while, but I started to take a closer look at it recently, for reasons I'll get into.

The music for "Someday My Prince Will Come" was composed and scored by Frank Churchill back in 1937 for the first ever full length animated Disney movie, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

I don't think I've ever actually seen the whole movie myself, but I think we all grew up knowing about little Ms. White and her seven vertically challenged buddies (Sleepy, Creepy, Peepee, Goofy, Doofy, Humpty & Dumpty....I think - off the top of my head; no?!?!?).

In any case, Someday My Prince has been a staple for improvising musicians and singers and has been recorded often - the definitive version possibly being Miles Davis' 1961 recording on Columbia (featuring tenor solos by both Hank Mobley and John Coltrane) from the album of the same name.

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JoHen Tunes Up "Night & Day" - Joe Henderson's Reharm & Solo Transcription

2/10/2016

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JoHen Tunes Up "Night & Day"
Joe Henderson's Reharmonization and Solo Transcription

Joe Henderson w/ Horace Silver in France- July, 1964

Joe Henderson's tenor saxophone solo on his reharmonized version of Cole Porter's "Night & Day" (downloadable transcription below), was recorded for the Blue Note label at Rudy Van Gelder's studio (where else!) in Engewood Cliffs, NJ on Nov. 30th, 1964, ten days before John Coltrane recorded "A Love Supreme" in the same studio.

"Night & Day" would be the final track on the "B" side of the original vinyl LP "Inner Urge", Henderson's fourth as a leader for Blue Note; and featured then current Coltrane Quartet members McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones on piano and drums respectively; as well as Bob Cranshaw, who was pretty much Blue Note's house bassist at the time.

The album "Inner Urge" was titled after the now classic Henderson original and the subject of an earlier post. Both the tune and the album are iconic examples of '60's compositional, harmonic and improvisational innovations.

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Back to the Future 'Trane - Transcription of John Coltrane's 1954 Solo on "In a Mellow Tone"

11/16/2015

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Back to the Future 'Trane
Transcription of John Coltrane's 1954 Solo on "In a Mellow Tone"

This transcription of the first chorus of John Coltrane's tenor solo on Duke Ellington's "In a Mellow Tone", was taken from a live (possibly radio) recording from sometime in mid 1954, when 'Trane was on the road with Johnny Hodges' septet. The band included Hodges' fellow Ellingtonians, Harold "Shorty" Baker - trumpet, and Lawrence Brown on trombone.

This version of "Mellotone" was originally released, to my knowledge, in on a "bootleg" vinyl in the 1970's on the "Enigma" label. A friend of mine had it and I promptly copied it to cassette (remember those?.....OK, maybe not).

Then as now, 'Trane's solo here blew me away for several reasons.

First of all, through this recording, we get a glimpse of a 27 year old John Coltrane, who was still a little more than a year away from the start of his historical association with trumpeter Miles Davis. In the second chorus of this solo, which is not transcribed here, we hear a portent of things to come; i.e. sixteenth note scalar runs, which he seemed to be hearing as if from a distance, but didn't quite have the concept, which we would later know as "sheets of sound", under his complete control yet.

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Notnowmom! - An Interview with Saxophonist Carolyn Breuer

2/18/2014

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I remember the first time I ever heard about Carolyn Breuer (pronounced Broy - er). I was sharing a quiet taxi ride in Munich, Germany with her father, trombonist / pianist Hermann Breuer.

As I recall, I was about to doze off in the back seat, when Hermann remarked suddenly, “Saxophone players tend to practice a lot of patterns, don’t they?”

I must have answered something like “Yeah, I guess so. Why?”

“Well my daughter, who’s 12, started playing alto and she practices a lot of patterns.”, he replied.

I mentioned to him that I had a few students at the time and that I’d be glad to give her some lessons.

That, however, never happened, as I left Germany a short time later.

She doesn't seem to have suffered in the least because of it.

Quite to the contrary.

As "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", so the saying goes, saxophonist / composer Carolyn Breuer has gone on to become one of the most recognizable and respected Jazz Artists on the European scene.

I caught up with her recently via Alexander Graham Bell's 140 year old invention.

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Feature: Russ Nolan - Jazz Composition and Improv - "One & the Same"

2/16/2013

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Learn more from CD Universe

Friend and fellow tenorman, Chicago native and long time NYC resident, Russ Nolan features a very concise and insightful look into some of the processes that go into both jazz composition and improvisation, as well as highlighting similarities of both.

Russ refers to composition as "improvisation out of time" and improvisation as "composition in real time". Being an accomplished composer as well as a world class improviser, he knows well of which he speaks.

Check out his 3 part post, and learn more about Russ.

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John Coltrane's Tenor Solo on "I Love You" - A Transcription

"Coming on the Hudson" - A Johnny Griffin Tenor Saxophone Solo Transcription

Joe Henderson's Tenor Solo on "You Know I Care" - A Transcription

Yellin on Henderson: A Candid Interview With Saxophonist Pete Yellin

Yellin on Henderson:
A candid interview with saxophonist Pete Yellin

For Your High-Ness: An Etude on "Someday My Prince Will Come"

For Your High-Ness:
An Etude on "Someday My Prince Will Come"

JoHen Tunes Up "Night & Day" - Joe Henderson's Reharm & Solo Transcription

JoHen Tunes Up "Night & Day"
Joe Henderson's Reharmonization and Solo Transcription

Back to the Future 'Trane - Transcription of John Coltrane's 1954 Solo on "In a Mellow Tone"

Back to the Future 'Trane
Transcription of John Coltrane's 1954 Solo on "In a Mellow Tone"

Notnowmom! - An Interview with Saxophonist Carolyn Breuer

Feature: Russ Nolan - Jazz Composition and Improv - "One & the Same"

Categories

Archives

Yellin on Henderson:A candid interview with saxophonist Pete Yellin

For Your High-Ness:An Etude on "Someday My Prince Will Come"

JoHen Tunes Up "Night & Day"Joe Henderson's Reharmonization and Solo Transcription

Back to the Future 'Trane Transcription of John Coltrane's 1954 Solo on "In a Mellow Tone"

Categories

Archives

Yellin on Henderson:
A candid interview with saxophonist Pete Yellin

For Your High-Ness:
An Etude on "Someday My Prince Will Come"

JoHen Tunes Up "Night & Day"
Joe Henderson's Reharmonization and Solo Transcription

Back to the Future 'Trane
Transcription of John Coltrane's 1954 Solo on "In a Mellow Tone"