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When I think Rhythm Changes, I instantly think Parker. Here are some videos of Bird over the form. Note his contrasts. He does an amazing job of switching from harmonic generalization (Bb triad or blues material) to harmonic specificity (hitting chord tones of the changes). Also, as always, his phrasing is fresh and unpredictable. With Rhythm Changes everyone is chasing the bird.

Here's a solo etude on rhythm changes based upon the use of four note groupings.

Hey Folks,
Putting together a few lesson on the topic of iv to I cadences in jazz standards. Here's part 1.
-Tyler

Some tips on creating voicings.

This is why I bought the MalletKat. To play stuff like this with my shirt off. Now wouldn't that be cool??

Some of you guys are NOT going to dig this. But some of you are going to flip. I flipped.

Simple ideas that will help keep the harmony moving.

This is just to give you an idea of a concept and way of playing.

It eventually will let you play lines with two mallets while using your outside left mallet to comp.

Check out the pdf below.

You should know the tune. Write in the names of all the chords. Play all the voicings in time. Once you have it down, add rhythms.

Here is take two of Autumn Leaves with some thoughts on improv. A simple technique is to play a motive and move it around the scale. The strength of the motive allows it to be played out of the scale of the underlying chord or used over a reharmonized chord. I'm doing this at the beginning of my solo. The motive is a simple three note scalar motive that I'm moving around. When it sounds out, I'm playing A, B, C# during the measure of the A-7b5. The dissonance creates the interest. If everything is always perfect and played in the scale with a minimum of tension, it can get pretty boring.

Here's a clip of Billy and I playing the classic Autumn Leaves. We did two takes. This was first tune of the day that we played. The topic of comping has been popular on the site with Behn doing some nice lessons. This clip shows some various comping possibilities.

Some of the techniques include double stops, single note walking type bass lines, pedal point (on the bridge), reharmonization, use of guide tone lines, stacking voicings, open versus closed voicings, chord arpeggiation, counterpoint with the soloist, etc.