Category: Transcription

Lou McGarity’s Solo On “King Porter Stomp”

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I’ve recently begun playing with the Low-Down Sires, a dixieland group based out of Asheville, NC. I have always enjoyed playing dixieland, although I hadn’t been playing a whole lot of it lately, so it’s a lot of fun to be playing it again regularly. One of the things I really appreciate about this group is that everyone makes a serious effort to play in the style. There’s nothing worse than listening to players who don’t play stylistically correct, regardless of what genre of music they’re performing.

One of the tunes we’ve been playing that’s been giving me some trouble is Jelly Roll Morton’s King Porter Stomp. This tune is challenging for me to solo over, in part because of the changes (it starts on the IV chord, not rare but somewhat unusual), key (Ab major, not too hairy, but a little tricky if I’m not focused), and bright tempo. Taken together, it’s not usually a big deal for me to adjust to these changes and tempo, but I keep finding myself wanting to bop over it. In order to give me some ideas for a more stylistically correct approach I decided to transcribe Lou McGarity’s solo over this tune and get inside it a bit.

There’s a couple of things in it I find interesting. McGarity uses a lot of Ab major pentatonic over it, but with some added passing tones between the 5th (Eb) and 6th (F) as well as a lower neighbor passing tone to the 3rd (C). Here’s an example from the first 4 measures of his solo.

The Ab major pentatonic scale (Ab, Bb, C, Eb, and F) provides a nice sound to blanket over this chord sequence (which makes up most of the solo changes). The chromatic passing tones (E/Fb and B/Cb) give it a little more color without sounding to bopish in the dixieland style.

McGarity recorded this solo in 1951, quite a while after the tailgate trombone style evolved, but he plays some of the typical glisses and long notes in this solo. Somewhat unusually, he also shows off his solid upper register by screaming a high Eb in this solo. Here’s an example from last 8 measures of the second chorus.

If you’d like to see the whole transcription, you can use this link. As I always like to recommend, you shouldn’t trust my transcription for complete accuracy. For one thing, I’ve only approximated some of the glisses and smears McGarity plays. If you don’t really listen closely to the sound you’re going and try to learn this solo you’re going to miss a huge part of the style. Here’s a YouTube video I found of this recording, but be aware that the sound was sped up so that it is playing back a half step higher. You can buy this track here.

Hard Days Night Chord Solved

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The opening chord from the Beatles’ tune A Hard Days Night has been infamously difficult to transcribe by fans wanting to recreate the sound. I have a book of complete Beatles transcriptions that lists this chord as a Gsus4/D. In 2008 a mathematician, Jason Brown, used a Fourier analysis to accurately transcribe the opening chord.

What he found was interesting: the frequencies he found didn’t match the instruments on the song. George played a 12-string Rickenbacker, John Lennon played his 6 string, Paul had his bass – none of them quite fit what he found. He then realized what was missing – the 5th Beatle. George Martin was also on the record, playing a piano in the opening chord, which accounted for the problematic frequencies.

What did he find the chord to be?

George Harrison was playing the following notes on his 12 string guitar: a2, a3, d3, d4, g3, g4, c4, and another c4; Paul McCartney played a d3 on his bass; producer George Martin was playing d3, f3, d5, g5, and e6 on the piano, while Lennon played a loud c5 on his six-string guitar.

For fun I took the pitches in this chord and used them to compose a melody and then wrote a short fugue using that melody as a subject (because composing fugues are what I do for fun). It’s in the style of Hindemith, not a baroque style fugue, so I had some fun with dissonance. Here’s a MIDI realization of it. Listen for the Beatles quote near the end.

Jazz Transcription Hub

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I recently learned about a cool site put together by Varun Singh with a number of jazz solo transcriptions of a bunch of different instrumentalists.  Jazz Transcription Hub  has 38 different solos available for download.  Most so far are trombone transcriptions, but it looks like there’s a lot of potential for more to be added in the future.  Go over and check it out and if you’ve got a transcription or three available, consider uploading it and adding it to the mix.

Jazz Trombone Transcriptions by “bobilleg74”

~ wilktone ~ 6 Comments

My friend Alan Greene, who plays with me in the Asheville Jazz Orchestra, told me about a great YouTube channel by “bobilleg74.” Bob has has 29 uploads of jazz trombone solos and his transcriptions of them.  There are a handful of solos I’ve already done and several I’ve not heard before.  There are also a few he’s done that were solos I’ve been thinking about transcribing myself.

While it’s tempting to just learn the solos from Bob’s transcriptions (and I’m sure I’ll end up just stealing a lick or three this way), I’m still planning on working on some of those transcriptions myself at a later date.  The benefit from transcribing isn’t just learning what notes and rhythms a great soloist improvised, but training your ear and learning the style through focused and repeated listening.  It’s neat to then compare what you came up with to someone else’s transcription.

Check out this great resource here.

Chick Corea Solo Analysis by Don Glanden

~ wilktone ~ 1 Comment

Check out the below video created by Don Glanden, who teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA.  It’s an detailed analysis of Chick Corea’s improvised solo on his composition 500 Miles High.  It’s an excellent discussion of an amazing solo.

The University of the Arts currently has 73 videos uploaded on their YouTube page.  I’m going to have to look through them carefully for more gems like this one.

Thanks to the Ottowa Citizen Jazz Blog for spotting this one!

Woody Shaw’s Solo on “The Blues Walk”

~ wilktone ~ 2 Comments

Trumpet player Woody Shaw (1944-1989) was one of the most influential jazz trumpet players of his time.  His solos still sound fresh and innovative to me today.  Which is why I decided to transcribe his solo on the blues in F, The Blues Walk (from Dexter Gordon’s album “Gotham City”) and try to get into some of the harmonic and melodic innovations he was known for.

One thing Shaw was known for doing was employing larger intervals, such as perfect 4ths and 5ths in his melodic lines.  Here’s one example from this solo.


Shaw was also known for utilizing pentatonic scales in an interesting way.  Here’s one example of him using an F minor pentatonic scale over both the Bb7 and F7 chords.

Continue reading “Woody Shaw’s Solo on “The Blues Walk”” →

Carl Fontana’s Solo on “Showcase”

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One of the most influential trombonists in jazz was Carl Fontana.  While not as well known as some of his peers, Fontana’s easy swing feel, tuneful lines, and flawless technique has inspired and influenced most jazz trombonists since the 1950s.

Fontana spent most of his career since 1958 playing shows in Las Vegas and not being much of a self-promotor, we don’t have many recordings around.  One of my favorites of Fontana as a leader is his 1985 album, The Great Fontana.  Fontana’s stop-time chorus on the tune It Might As Well Be Spring is alone worth getting this album.

I transcribed a couple of solos from this album back when I was an undergrad, including Fontana’s solo on the blues tune, Showcase.  Since this was almost 20 years ago, I won’t make any guarantees about accuracy, but skimming though it looks like I got pretty close.  Click here to get the whole solo.

I’d recommend that if you’re a jazz musician interested in this solo you should transcribe it yourself and then let me know where I got it wrong.

Michael Brecker’s solo on Some Skunk Funk played on recorder by Benoît Sauvé

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Benoît Sauvé is one bad recorder player!  Watch that video to see and hear him play along with Michael Brecker’s solo improvisation on Some Skunk Funk note for note.  I’m sure that was an extremely challenging solo to transcribe and to learn to play on recorder.

Here’s what that Sauvé has to say about transcribing:

“Although studying the various scales and chords,and the relations between them,is essential in learning to improve, putting these theoretical notions into practise can be very laborious.

This is why making transcriptions of actual solos can be so useful for training aural perception and instrumental technique, as well as allowing us to analyse the styles of great jazzmen, enrich our musical vocabulary, and thus help develop our own musical ideas.”

I see he has several other videos up, so I’m going to go check out his YouTube channel.

A Stylistic Analysis of Jazz Trombone Through Transcribed Solos

~ wilktone ~ 14 Comments

The trombone has been an important instrumental voice in jazz since jazz’s origins. Throughout its history many jazz trombonists have made contributions that have had an influence on other performers, including many non-trombonists. This article traces a timeline of stylistic influence from the early styles of jazz to the present day through the analyses of transcribed solos as played by some of jazz’s most influential trombonists.

Tracing these influences through transcribed solos can show a progression from one style to the next. It can be seen how the earlier players influence the later, after which those players develop their own new styles and in turn influence the musicians to follow. This timeline of influences can be a valuable resource for the jazz performer. A performer who knows how musicians from each style period performed and influenced later musicians will know how to perform within all style periods. Knowledge of the musical roots also allows the performer to build upon influences and create new ideas that break the traditional rules.

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