My grand project - a transcription of the Brad Mehldau Trio playing ‘All The Things You Are’ on Art of the Trio vol. 4’ is pretty much done. Here is a little taster - this part can be found during the third chorus, starting from 6’20’’. I’ve had plenty of encouragement to get this published so keep on the look out! Get in touch if you have any questions.
On a more general note, the project, which is forming part of my Masters at Trinity College of Music, is looking at rhythmic aspects of this recording, and has thrown up a lot of interesting things; claves, groupings, swinging in 7/4, ‘layers’ of time going on...if you want to learn to really play like one of the guys in the trio the transcription is really just a guide map. Ears are much more informative. There’s just no way to represent the more intangible side of what three improvising musicians can do on paper.
However you can just about get the nuts and bolts down, and try to work out what on earth is going on, which, in this case, is more than enough to be getting on with...
(clicking on the files takes you to a page where you can download them, along with a complete Keith Jarrett transcription of ‘Prism’ from Personal Mountains)

Tags: Brad Mehldau, transcription, All the Things You Are

Ok, well, this guy is my new favourite pianist. I can feel a binge coming on. Simon Purcell played me a bit of him a few months back and I was pretty blown away, but didn’t follow it up until now. The above CD was recorded in 1992 with Gary Peacock and Bill Stewart, but not released until now. I can’t figure out why not....
First of all, he plays the piano beautifully - I mean he cares about his tone, his touch etc. Maybe that’s why some people compare his to Jarrett, but to be honest I don’t see it that much. For me it’s his improvisational style that stands out - harmonically ambiguous at times, freewheeling, never trying to strike a stylistic pose but just completely honest, personal musicality. Peacock and Stewart sound brilliant on this album too, and fit right in; needless to say tracks like Coleman’s ‘When Will The Blues Leave’ and the standard ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy’ swing like hell. Carrothers has probably the best website I’ve ever seen from a jazz musician too....

I've had the pleasure of hearing two great takes on the sax/bass/drums format over the last week, both anglo-american groups who have gigged in london and come into Trinity College of Music to do masterclasses. First up is Julian Siegel's trio with Joey Baron on drums and Greg Cohen on bass; they have a great CD out from last year on Basho records. I come into contact with Julian a fair bit at Trinity, usually in classes and combos, so it is always great to hear him practice what he preaches, which in the case of this band means tonnes of feel, amazing sound, and a lot of heart! And of course loads of clear, brilliant ideas. Coupled with what is a deeply grooving, sensitive combo of Cohen and Baron they had a packed out Vortex completely enthralled.
As if that wasn't enough to get me worried about job prospects for pianists, then came along Julian Arguelles with his trio of Michael Formaneck (bass) and Tom Rainey (drums). I've always loved Julian's beautiful fluidity and harmonic ideas, and it's great to hear them in the context of some more open-ended writing; when I asked him about the setup he described it as 'limitless'. I was blown away by the resolve and improvisational understanding within the group. Must track down their CD now. I'd love to hear a gig with these trios taking a half each......

Tags: julian siegel

Apologies if you've been getting grainy mp3s from my site, or indeed my Myspace page...have discovered that it is a problem with the iTunes mp3 encoder and I'm now going back and re-converting everything in Logic! Fun......should all be crystal clear soon....

Tags: iTunes

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My 'personal project' for my last year of the Masters course at Trinity College of Music is based around a recent splurge of listening to Brad Mehldau and his trio/trios (the first trio with Jorge Rossy on Drums, the second with Jeff Ballard, both with Larry Grenadier on bass). I'm working on the daddy of all transcriptions; a complete transcription (ie all three instruments) of a large section of the first trio's recording of 'All the Things You Are' from the 'Art of the Trio vol 4' record, recorded live at the Village Vanguard. It's kind of an important recording for me as it opened up the weird and wonderful world of odd time signatures; the trio play the well-known standard in 7/4, and, whilst they were far from the first to do this kind of thing, all the way back in 1999, I love the way they do it, especially the amazing sense of exploration and swing. It's pretty dense stuff, but right down to the smallest level there is an amazing interaction and balance in the group, and a sense of propulsion that is largely due to Jorge Rossy's incredible ride cymbal (something I have to say I miss a little in the trio with Ballard, phenomenal drummer though he is).
I'm not going to be putting the transcription up on the site as it's a large project that I may look to get professionally published when finished, as I know a lot of people who have expressed an interest in seeing it so far...but I will put up a few more of my findings on here soon.

Tags: Brad Mehldau, 7/4, All the Things You Are

I recently did a transcription and analysis of Prism by Keith Jarrett's European Quartet (Garbarek, Danielsson, Christensen, Jarrett) on the ECM live CD Personal Mountains. Jarrett plays an astounding solo on this tune and I just had to know what he was up to. In case you want to find out, here's where you can download the transcription .
Get the CD, and have a listen along - amazing use of small ideas, great shape and phenomenal technique, all applied extremely expressively. Great stuff....

This was for an online music review site, spoonfed.co.uk

I like the Vortex. In case you haven't been, it's a small not-for-profit club just of the Kingston Road in Dalston, East London (www.vortexjazz.co.uk) and a great place to see some of the world's top jazz musicians up close and personal. We were sat right at the front, almost inside drummer Martin France's kit - intimate doesn't quite do it justice.
John Taylor, a pianist who has worked with some of jazz's biggest names over the last 30 years (Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, John Surman...) has recently cemented his place amongst them as a leader, largely due to his excellent work with drummer France and Swedish bassist Palle Danielsson, and their acclaimed 2006 release "Angel of the Presence" (CamJazz). He was joined by in-demand sax man Julian Arguelles for a gig that promised much new material, both from the trio's new CD (Whirlpool) and in the form of a new commission based around the work of American Science Fiction Writer Kurt Vonnigut, who died last year. Despite some great playing in the first set (particularly on tunes such as Kenny Wheeler's Consolation, the opener on their fine new album), it was this new suite which provided the greatest moments of the evening. Framed by Taylor's brief but characteristically jovial references to Vonnegut and his work, including an effective reading of one of his poems during the last piece, the music was colourful and inventive without being fussy, focused without being cerebral. Highlights included the gentle pathos of the opening and closing Requiem, and Arguelles' fluent, perfectly formed solo tenor interlude, his dazzling technique and melodic sensitivity going hand in hand. France bubbled away inventively but never imposed, and Danielsson's earthy, melodic playing served to remind us why he was the bassist of choice for giants such as Keith Jarrett and Jan Garbarek. Keep an eye out for a recording of this music - it's some of the most satisfying jazz Taylor has ever produced.
I can't think of a better place to see musicians of this calibre than the Vortex - and all for the reasonable sum of £15 (most gigs are much less). It needs and deserves as much support as it can get - however, if gigs as good as this one keep on popping up, I don't think it'll be having any problems.

This Christmas saw the passing of another giant - Joe Zawinul and O.P. in one year is certainly a sad thing for jazz musicians. Night Train was one of the first records I listened to and I always keep coming back to Oscar to remind me that how you play the notes you play is just as important as the notes yourself. His break and solo on C Jam blues on the Night Train album swings like nothing else - a few months ago I felt I had to transcribe it to see what he was up to. It was amazing - the notes he were playing were are straightforward as you could imagine - very few extensions, a few interesting arpeggios....but it was his touch, timing and accentuationg which made it so infectious. And you always got the sense he was enjoying himself too....