I recently picked up the Cannonball Adderly record 'Live at the Lighthouse', featuring Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, Victor Feldman, and his brother Nat. A lot of people don't really 'rate' Cannonball. Poppy, too accessible, too many licks and clichés, etc...maybe all valid points. The guy was an entertainer - he loved audiences, loved to crack a joke and dish out some suave patter. But the reason we love him is because of his feel. His swing is so deep that all those all-too-familiar licks sound musical and expressive, rather than just filler.
I decided to transcribe his solo on 'Big P' (a minor blues) following some of Dave Liebman's advice, first learning to sing the whole solo and then working it out on the piano aurally. In fact I've done the whole thing, including transposing into 4 different keys, without writing anything down, only producing the written pages below this morning as the end of the end of the process rather than the beginning. This is a new thing for me, and I have to say it is a revelation-- any kind of melodic transcription I do in the future I will do this way. It makes things like transposition a thousand times easier to have every note available on-demand from your own voice, and seems to be a much better way of capturing some of the 'feel'. So here is the transcription; there is no articulation or phrasing marked (or chord symbols - just a minor blues), as I see it really as just a reference point for anything notes-wise that is tricky to get off the record. Still I hope it's useful....


Download the solo in C
Download the solo in Eb

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....

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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.

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....