I was playing along with this recording. The head is really interesting, rhythmic and syncopated. Birds solo is so simple and cool, just makes the changes.

I've been playing along with the melody and the solo for a couple days, and then trying to take my own choruses and keep Bird's vocabulary if I can. It's not easy for me.

So give it a shot if you want. It should not be difficult to transcribe.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Dkovins

For all of the Philly/Tri-State members of this site, Dan Kleiman, a hugely gifted musician and co-leader of the group Siora along with singer/guitarist Phyllis Chapell, has suffered a massive stroke while apparently preparing to undergo treatments for lymphoma. The damage to his brain was caused by what his surgeon termed a "shower of clots." The damage to his brain apparently is irreparable, such that he would not have any quality of life. I also learned he may not survive the night. Please remember Dan, Phyllis and their families in your thoughts and prayers.

The best thing about a jazz swing bass line is it does 2 things. The first is it is supposed to outline the chord changes very clearly. The second is in it's main function it insists on being played on each beat. A great way to study chords and improvisation is to play bass lines.

This doesn't have to be strict for our purposes. By this I mean you don't have to stick to the low end of your instrument. If you're not a bass player just play quarter notes and outline the chords. Below is an example of a simple blues bass line.

In this section we'll study different grips.

Chord Tone Solos
Tony Miceli

Here is a video showing a close-up of Alexey Chizhik's 5 mallet technique. At the beginning of the video, you can see how the sticks are laid out.

"Alexey Chizhik (vibraphone) and Zhenjia Glukk (journalist). Show on TV VOT 2008 (summer). St-Petersburg Russia. Playing Over the rainbow by Harold Arlen."

Barry

Here is a Bass and Drum Play-Along track (generated from BIAB) to go along with Jazz Waltz No. 1 by Simon Kanzler. See Check This Out for the PDF and Simon's version.

If you want to change the tempo, the free program, Audacity, has a plug-in, called "Change Tempo" that changes the tempo without changing the pitch (which would happen if you just changed the playback speed).

Barry