Monthly Archives: July 2010

Take the A-Train with Shout Chorus and Piano Intro

July 30, 2010 in Jazz Standards

These are the regular changes to this song. To experiment with some hip alternate changes, click HERE. And make sure you learn the shout chorus and the piano intro-they are very cool! Recordings Amazon.com Widgets Take the A-Train .pdf Take the A-Train-C Instruments (.pdf) Take the A-Train-Bb Instruments (.pdf) Take the A-Train-Eb Instruments (.pdf) Take the A-Train Piano Intro A-Train Piano Intro (.pdf) Take the A-Train Shout Chorus To be played after the solos. It’s commonly played two ways. First, play the shout for 2 As, then play the melody at the bridge and the last A section. Or you [...]

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Take the A-Train-Hip Alt Changes

July 29, 2010 in Jazz Standards

Nice changes, I think. They are fun to experiment with. Please comment and let me know what you think of them! -Camden Take the A-Train Reharm Take the A-Train-C Instruments (.pdf) Take the A-Train-Bb Instruments (.pdf) Take the A-Train-Eb Instruments (.pdf) Take the A-Train-Hip Alt Changes Jazz Track

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Honeysuckle Rose

July 28, 2010 in Jazz Standards

This standard is the basis for another standard, Bird’s composition Scrapple from the Apple. Bird took the A section of these changes and made a “contrafacts” out of it, or a new melody over the changes to a jazz standard. This is one of the most common standards you must know as a jazz musician. The charismatic Fats Waller released Honeysuckle Rose with lyricist Andy Razaf in 1929 for “Load of Coal,” a musical revue, or variety show. The bridge of Honeysuckle Rose is NOT a rhythm changes release. A release is a III7 VI7 II7 V7, whereas this bridge [...]

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Jazz Style Periods-Guest Post by Brent Jensen

July 27, 2010 in Learning Jazz

Do you need to brush up on your jazz history a little bit? Here’s a nice reference guide by my friend Brent Jensen. Brent is a saxophone recording artist for Origin Records, and he teaches jazz at the College of Southern Idaho. I’ve included the Style Periods in a text format, as well as doc and pdf files. JAZZ STYLE PERIODS (.doc) JAZZ STYLE PERIODS (.pdf) JAZZ STYLE PERIODS Early Jazz/New Orleans & Chicago Style Dixieland (1920-1930) CHARACTERISTICS: Use of collective improvisation (polyphony). Front line of trumpet (or cornet), clarinet, trombone. New Orleans style typically included banjo and tuba, later [...]

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On Green Dolphin Street

July 26, 2010 in Jazz Standards

This famous tune was made for a 1947 movie, “Green Dolphin Street,” and is known for switching back and forth between latin and swing feels, and for the pedal I underneath changing harmonies for the first 7 bars of the A section.  The form is basically ABAB, with the second B being different than the first B.  It’s a 32 bar song form, as is so common in the jazz idiom. It’s normally called in C or Eb, although I heard Benny Green call it in Bb to test out a young bass player at a jam session one time. [...]

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My Funny Valentine

July 24, 2010 in Jazz Standards

My Funny Valentine was written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart (before there was Rogers and Hammerstein).  It’s from “Babes In Arms,”  a 1937 musical from which the standards “Where or When” and “The Lady is a Tramp” also originated.  The musical was made into a film starring Judy Garland and 19-year-old Mickey Rooney, in 1939, although they cut My Funny Valentine out of the movie.  What were they thinking? Judy Garland, who should have sung My Funny Valentine in the original film. This is one of the most common standards of all time, and it seems to transcend jazz. [...]

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Learn Jazz Standards Exclusive-Carl Saunders Plays Piano

July 23, 2010 in Jazz Recordings

Carl Saunders is a world-class trumpet player who has worked with Buddy Rich, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Maynard Ferguson, and Benny Goodman, among many other great musicians. I’ve had the privilege of working with him at the Great Basin Jazz Camp for the past three years. In addition to being “the best trumpet player you’ve never heard,” as trombonist Carl Fontana once quipped (from Wikipedia), Carl is also a pretty good drummer and an amazing piano player. His harmonic awareness surpasses almost any piano player I’ve ever heard-despite his being primarily a trumpet player. This year I had the opportunity [...]

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Handout for Teaching Beginning Jazz Improvisation

July 22, 2010 in Learning Jazz

Teaching improvisation can be a daunting task. How do I teach kids how to invent a solo from thin air? I am the lead instructor at the Great Basin Junior Jazz Camp this week (I am also on faculty for the big camp, which is held a different week), and I created this handout to do just that. I do a lot of call and response with the kids in two bar phrases (based on these licks and others) and I use numbers to help kids get the idea of using licks. This also helps explain it better rather than [...]

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Blues for Alice with Jazz Etude

July 21, 2010 in Jazz Standards

Learning to navigate Blues for Alice is like taking the training wheels off the blues. www.flickr.com/photos/23596957@N02/2348934926 This isn’t just I, IV, and V chords. It’s called “backdoor” blues changes because instead of going from F to Bb7, up, it goes through the backdoor, down to Em7b5 (into a ii-7b5-V7-i in the relative minor, D minor). I can tell whether or not people have done their homework on this tune when I hear them improvise in bar 4, bar 6, and bar 8. These measures contain trick nuances, and you really can’t navigate them with straight major and minor pentatonics. Here [...]

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Blues for Alice-Bird’s Solo Transcription!

July 19, 2010 in Learning Jazz

Here’s the updated version of Charlie Parker’s three chorus solo on Blues for Alice.  Make sure to listen to the recording and learn it with that.  You should never learn a transcription without listening to it a lot!  I hope you enjoy! Bird’s Solo Transcription-Blues for Alice (.pdf) Blues for Alice-Bird’s Solo-C Instruments Blues for Alice-Bird’s Solo-Trumpet Blues for Alice-Bird’s Solo-Tenor Sax (The tenor part goes well into the altissimo register; I tried to put it in EXACTLY as Bird played it.  You may have to drop certain parts an octave lower for technical reasons; if so, you can reference [...]

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