“On the Sunnyside of the Street” - one of my favorite standards played here with a nod to the great pianist Art Tatum. There was a period when I was heavily into pianists like Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Fats Waller, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Dave McKenna and Dick Hyman. All masters of the piano and where I got a lot of inspiration.
Well, I didn't spend enough time practicing the "concert" part, but these are the tunes I've been working on:
Falling Grace
Very Early
Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are
16 bars of fun with Chromatics, Accents, Scales,
Arpeggios, Stickings, pedaling and Control!
Approximately:
On Green Dolphin Street
My Song
Invitation
When Roy Hardgrove passed, i thought it maybe would be a good idea to play something of him for the mini concert. I founded an Roy's arrangment of Autumn Leaves, I transcribed it quickly and i had a try recording it with Alone Togeher, which i hadn't played since last August. Then i practised hard about 10 days and Yesterday was my final recording, as planned. But the on/off button of my ZOOM Q3 recorder choosed this exact time to quit.... Lot of frustration...
I think the vibes sound really great in a church, and after playing a couple things at my friend's wedding this summer I decided I'd like to develop some wedding repertoire. So...for my mini concert I recorded arrangements I'm making for two standard weddings pieces. Didn't feel ready to play them in concert, but yet here they are!
Two songs, You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You, and Moonglow. 2X each. Love to play the Omega when I get the chance.
I'm playing I Love's You Porgy and Falling Grace.
I love doing mini concerts because of the challenge of playing 2 or 3 tunes without stopping.
No matter what level you are at, try doing this. Even if it's just the melody to two tunes. It's great practice!
Improvising on “All The Things You Are” using chord tone soloing along with one tension. For the Major and Minor chords, I’m using only tension 9 and either 9 or b9 for the Dom 7 chords. In most cases, I’m using the b9. The improv can also incorporate other tensions like the 11 and 13 as well as diatonic and chromatic approach notes. This is a fundamental and valuable improv technique covered in Volume One of The Complete Guide to Improvisation. The concept allows us to clearly sound the changes since most of the notes are chord tones.
