Month: March 2015

Check out this recording of “Passos” written by Fritz Pauer. the song is based on the chord changes to John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps.”

20 more!
Constellation – Charlie Parker
Dexterity – Charlie Parker
Miles Davis – Denial
Dizzie Atmosphere – Dizzy Gillespie
The Flintstones Theme
Cottontail – Miles Davis
Passport – Charlie Parker and Dizzy
Anthropology – Charlie Parker
Lester Leaps In – Lester Young
Oleo – Sonny Rollins
Third Rail – Michael Brecker
The Eternal Triangle – Sonny Stitt
Shag – Sidney Bechet
Moose the Mooche – Charlie Parker
Wail – Bud Powell
Swing Spring – Miles Davis
Serpent’s Tooth – Miles Davis
Steeplechase – Charlie Parker
Lemon Drop – George Wallington
Chasin’ the Bird – Charlie Parker

Sources:
http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/1558-songs-based-on-i-got-rhythm/
http://emp.byui.edu/WatkinsM/applied/09%20Rhythm%20Changes.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_jazz_contrafacts
http://jazzguitarlegend.com/the-contrafact/
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090322201138AA3FOqH

I never listened to a lot of Coltrane, but he’s actually pretty good. What I liked about his solo is that he uses pretty simple ideas. His playing is not as cerebral as Miles, but he still shows some restraint in his technical displays. Listening to the solo, I got a strange feeling that the phrases were too short. For some reason, everything felt very repetitive and there was no real climax or resolution. I don’t know…is it just me? I didn’t hear a narrative in the song, and that’s the best part for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=betIOVwks8s

I just love how JJ takes his ideas, connects them and develops them. I like how he uses runs functionally to move and develop ideas rather than just impress people by doing a lot of runs which I don’t like as much.

Here’s the list of 20 other contrafacts and my sources.

Sources:
1) wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_jazz_contrafacts ,
2) http://blindman.fr.yuku.com/topic/19791#.VQcRKGRR45g​,
3) https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090322201138AA3FOqH
4) http://www.jazztrumpet.com/lessons/contrafacts.html​

1 ​An Oscar for Treadwell
​charlie parker
2 ​Anthropology
​charlie parker
​3 Apple Jump​
​dexter gordon
4 Dig
​Miles Davis
5 ​Salt Peanuts
​Charlie Parker – Dizzy Gillespie
​6 Syntax
JJ Johnson ​
7 ​Tiptoe
​JJ Johnson
​8 Turnpike
​JJ Johnson
​Stay On It​
​Dizzy Gillespie
​Cottontail
​Duke Ellington
​Passport
​Bird
​Moose The Mooche
​Bird
​Jumpin at the Woodside
​Count Basie
​Hoe Down
​Oliver Nelson
​Room 608
​Horace Silver
​O Go Mo
​Kai Winding​
​Chant of the Groove
​Fats Waller​
​XYZ
​Earl Hines​
​Something In B Flat
​Benny Golson​
​Theme of No Repeat
​Tadd Dameron​

Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding are two amazing artists. Both are known for their ability to put their own twist on jazz music. “Afro Blue” was originally a song sung by Erykah Badu on Glasper’s album, but Esperanza does an amazing job with the vocals. Glasper does something really cool during his piano solo (4:46 – 4:52), but I’m not sure what he did. If someone could tell me, that would be awesome. Also, the song has a really great jazz flute player.

This is Bill Evans’ take on I Should Care. For the melody, he doubles up his left and right hand, and he places chord tones between the octaves. The left hand doesn’t always follow the exact melody, and there’s a little bit of walking and counterpoint which add a nice feel. Around 3:55, he uses big block chords in the left hand which sound really rich, then he does a right hand chord sequence. Bill Evans’ chord voicings are the most commonly used in jazz piano, so it makes sense that his chords sound so classic and familiar. Something he uses a lot of is drop-2 voicing, which is something I want to work on.