Jazz Transcriptions
JAZZ TRANSCRIPTIONSUpdating and adding to transcriptions that were formerly housed at the University of South Carolina Jazz Page BILL EVANS | GUITAR | PIANO | BRASS | SAXOPHONE
bligon@mozart.sc.edu
Second best thing to playing your own solos: learning, hearing and seeing what great jazz artists play.
Here are a few to get started. [I might have B♭ copies if requested.] Tunes listed without links will be linked soon.
I'm sure there are mistakes. Help me out if you find some.
TRANSCRIPTION ELEMENTS
I'm sure there are mistakes. Help me out if you find some.
TRANSCRIPTION ELEMENTS
Explains many items in the comments of the posted transcriptions.
These are offered here for free.
These are offered here for free.
BILL EVANS TRANSCRIPTIONS
| TUNE | COMMENTS |
|---|---|
| Who Can I Turn To? | Jazz 625 |
| Falling Grace | Beautiful Steve Swallow tune. Bill Evans & Eddie Gomez duo. |
| Funkallero | Bill Evans Album. Swinging |
| Gone with the Wind | From Eloquence. Motivic development. Both hands transcribed. |
| I Hear a Rhapsody | Of course it’s a great solo. This is from Montreux II. It would be worth the time to study when he changes chords and how the left-hand compliments and sometimes contradicts what the right is doing. |
| Invitation | From Intuition. Duet with Eddie Gomez |
| Touch of Your Lips | Chord changes comparison Just the chord changes for The Touch of Your Lips lined up. Two versions from lead sheets, eight different Bill Evans choruses from Alone (Again) and two Bill Evans choruses from Live at Montreux. [Live at Montreuxsolo transcription is below.] This might provide some material for studying harmonic options and how they may help develop a solo. This example is why I am amused when someone talks about the “correct” chord changes for any tune. Look at the variations used by John Scofield in Sancticity below, just in m.5 of the A sections |
| Touch of Your Lips | Solo From Live at Montreux. Bill Evans “Live at Montreux” version. Great extended arpeggios from melodic minor modes |
| Two Lonely People | Another great jazz waltz. From the Bill Evans Album |
It is interesting to compare the same artist play the same piece at different stages in a career.
What gets added? What stays the same?
Here are some BILL EVANS waltzes at different stages in his career.
| ARTIST | INSTRUMENT | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| Bill Evans | Waltz for Debby | Bill Evans Album 2nd solo |
| Bill Evans | Waltz for Debby | Take 1 |
| Bill Evans | Waltz for Debby | Take 2 |
| ARTIST | TUNE | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| Bill Evans | Very Early | 1967 |
| Bill Evans | Very Early | 1972 |
| Bill Evans | Very Early | 1973 |
| Bill Evans | Very Early | 1974 |
GUITAR
[more coming soon]
PIANO
[more coming soon]
| ARTIST | COMMENTS | TUNE |
|---|---|---|
| Kenny Barron | From “Moon Alley”. Compare with Kenny Garrett and Tom Harrell | Scrapple from the Apple |
| Chick Corea | Contemporary Blues from “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” | Matrix |
| Red Garland | What is This Thing Called Love? | |
| Red Garland | Transcribed by Phil Castro. Exercises | Billies Bounce |
| Red Garland | Exercises developed from Red Garland Solos | Outlines & 3579 Arpeggios |
| Red Garland | Swinging | A Foggy Day |
| Benny Green | WDR Big Band | Cottontail |
| Herbie Hancock | Great Rhodes scholar. Funk solo from about 8:30 into the tune. | Chameleon |
| Herbie Hancock | Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock & Freddie Hubbard solos transcribed by Bert Ligon. Modern Jazz doesn’t get much better than this. Wayne develops such simple and clear ideas. Freddie is dramatic and swinging. Herbie takes the quartal motive from the melody, fragments, displaces and develops it like an analytical cubist. | Witch Hunt |
| Keith Jarrett | Exquisite, Rhapsodic | Prism |
| Keith Jarrett | 8 measure perfection | Country |
| Keith Jarrett | Exquisite, Rhapsodic | Questar |
| Keith Jarrett | Simple to Complex over Kern tune. | In Love in Vain |
| Keith Jarrett | All the Things You Are | |
| Keith Jarrett | Stella by Starlight | |
| Keith Jarrett | 15 choruses, 480m of Jarrett. Sure, there are bound to be mistakes. Let me know... | What is This Thing Called Love? |
| Wynton Kelly | Remember | |
| Oscar Peterson & Stan Getz | Swings the house down | Pennies from Heaven |
| Oscar Peterson | Swinging, as you would expect | Strike up the Band |
| Bud Powell | Transcribed by Louie Hehman | Scrapple from the Apple |
| Tommy Flanagan | Great solos by Tommy Flanagan, Wes Montgomery, and Percy Heath bass lines | D–Natural Blues |
| Kenny Barron | John McNeil, Kenny Barron & Tom Harrell on this Tom Harrell original | Little Dancer |
BRASS
[more coming soon]
| ARTIST | INSTRUMENT | TUNE | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louis Armstrong | Trumpet | West End Blues | Roots |
| Chet Baker | Trumpet | There Will Never be Another You | Compare to Woody Shaw, Kenny Garrett, Clifford Brown & Lou Donaldson |
| Clifford Brown | Trumpet | Confirmation | From this. I’m guessing he’s played these changes before. |
| Clifford Brown | Trumpet | Valse Hot | Swinging solo from the CD Plus 4. Mostly using outline no. 1 (connecting the 3rds). |
| Clifford Brown | Trumpet | Cherokee | Well... |
| Clifford Brown | Trumpet | ||
| Clifford Brown & Lou Donaldson | Trumpet & Saxophone | Split Kick | Classic solos on “Another You” contrafact |
| Miles Davis | Straight No Chaser | ||
| Tom Harrell | Comrade Conrad | Multiple keys, Outlines | |
| Tom Harrell | Invitation | ||
| Tom Harrell | Koko | ||
| Tom Harrell | Lazy Bird | ||
| Tom Harrell | Joy Spring | Unaccompanied Trumpet! | |
| Tom Harrell | Scrapple from the Apple | ||
| Freddie Hubbard | Trumpet | Witch Hunt | Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock & Freddie Hubbard solos transcribed by Bert Ligon. Modern Jazz doesn’t get much better than this. Wayne develops such simple and clear ideas. Freddie is dramatic and swinging. Herbie takes the quartal motive from the melody, fragments, displaces and develops it like an analytical cubist. |
| Andy Martin | Trombone | Emily | |
| Rich Matteson | Euphonium | Stella by Starlight | |
| Blue Mitchell | Trumpet | When the Saints | |
| Blue Mitchell | Trumpet | Chick‘s Tune | Changes similar to “You Stepped Out of a Dream” |
| Woody Shaw | Trumpet | There Will Never Be Another You | Compare to Kenny Garrett, Chet Baker, Clifford Brown & Lou Donaldson |
| John McNeil & Tom Harrell | Trumpet | Little Dancer | John McNeil, Kenny Barron & Tom Harrell on this Tom Harrell original |
| Tom Harrell | Trumpet | Peri’s Scope | From Bill Evans: We Will Meet Again |
| Tom Harrell | Trumpet | Bill’s Hit Tune | From Bill Evans: We Will Meet Again |
SAXOPHONE
[more coming soon]
| ARTIST | INSTRUMENT | TUNE | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Brecker | Saxophone | Confirmation | Michael Brecker improvisation on Confirmation. Drummer is Chick Corea, from Corea’s “Three Quartets”. |
| John Coltrane | Saxophone | Giant Steps | Score form: Chorus comparisons. This is shown in score version (all 11 choruses are lined up) making it easier to compare Coltrane's approaches to the material. |
| Kenny Garrett | Saxophone | Scrapple from the Apple | Compare three solos from this recording from Tom Harrell album, Moon Alley |
| Kenny Garrett | Saxophone | There Will Never be Another You | Compare Kenny Garrett, Woody Shaw, Chet Baker, Clifford Brown & Lou Donaldson [Split Kick] |
| Stan Getz & Oscar Peterson | Saxophone | Pennies from Heaven | Includes sax & piano solos. Swings the house down |
| Jimmy Heath | Saxophone | All the Things You Are | Fundamental Vocabulary, Outlines |
| Hank Mobley | Saxophone | Tenor Conclave | Fundamental Vocabulary, Outlines |
| Chris Potter | Saxophone | Cherokee in 10 Keys | Vocabulary & Development: solo saxophone |
| Chris Potter | Saxophone | Darn That Dream Cadenza | Amazing Cadenza from live performance |
| Sonny Rollins | Saxophone | I Want to be Happy | I'm Happy |
| Sonny Rollins | Saxophone | Tenor Madness | Classic Sonny |
| Sonny Rollins | Saxophone | St. Thomas | Motivic Development, addressing the changes. Your solos can be both. |
| Chris Potter | Alto Saxophone | Star Eyes | From Gratitude [2001] |
| Darmon Meader | Vocals | On a Clear Day | Two solos: one live, one studio. Transcribed by Sarah Kervin. |
| Wayne Shorter | Saxophone | Witch Hunt | Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock & Freddie Hubbard solos transcribed by Bert Ligon. Modern Jazz doesn’t get much better than this. Wayne develops such simple and clear ideas. Freddie is dramatic and swinging. Herbie takes the quartal motive from the melody, fragments, displaces and develops it like an analytical cubist. |
| Lou Donaldson & Clifford Brown | Saxophone & Trumpet Sensation | Split Kick | Both solos from classic Art Blakey live, 1954. |
| Charlie Parker | Saxophone | Scrapple from the Apple | Compare with others. |
| Sonny Stitt & Sonny Rollins | Saxophone | Eternal Triangle C | Head, Rollins solo, Stitt solo, trading. 641m of fun. Concert |
| Sonny Stitt & Sonny Rollins | Saxophone | Eternal Triangle | Head, Rollins solo, Stitt solo, trading. 641m of fun. Bb |
