September 11, 2010 in Bebop, Jazz Originals, Jazz Standards
This is among Charlie Parker’s most melodic heads. It’s a fantastic tune to blow over, and it’s more accessible than many of Bird’s other tunes. He’s a story to illustrate what I mean: I have a friend who is a good blues guitarist. He does not particularly care for jazz, but he loves this song. It’s his favorite jazz song …
July 21, 2010 in Blues, Jazz Originals, Jazz Standards
Learning to navigate Blues for Alice is like taking the training wheels off the blues.
by Azmil77, Flickr.com
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 …
May 26, 2010 in Great American Songbook, Jazz Standards
One of the most popular standards of all time, All the Things You Are has some great changes that can be tough to navigate at first. Try checking out the roman numerals on this one to help figure out what is happening in this tune harmonically.
Brent Jensen features this tune is his VIDEO series “Seven Steps to Heaven” describing …
