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Swing Blues Heads
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Mark
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Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:00 pm    Post subject: Swing Blues Heads Reply with quote

Fellow Guitarists,

Anyone who knows me as a player, composer, and coach is well aware of my affinity for the "blue side" of jazz. I realized many years ago that within the context of a swing (or bebop) blues progression lies almost all of the essential harmonic tools for improvising over traditional jazz changes. As a result of that conclusion, early on I focused my attention on establishing a command over the jazz player's blues as a means to an end, also realizing that it might positively impact my traditional blues work in the process by expanding the possibilities over basic blues changes.

All of the above and the ensuing success led to the Swing Blues: Doorway to Jazz wing of the LBM program over ten years ago, easily the most popular course I've authored to date. Many here are very familiar with it. Even though the 24 lesson chapters contain some of the best-known blues heads (aka melodies), there are numerous others that I've played over the years on both guitar and bass. I've also composed close to a hundred original blues tunes, the majority of them cut from the swing blues cloth, plus my students have written some excellent heads, too.

Long story short is that I thought this would be a perfect place to discuss personal swing/bebop blues favorites, share recordings, improv slants, and to give aspiring players unfamiliar with the style some guidance. Anyone up for it? And if so, what are some of your favorite blues heads?

- Mark
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nylenny



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291

PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's so hard to pick just a few blues heads, because there are so many great ones.

I particularly like Wes' Sundown and West Coast Blues, and just about anything by Charlie Parker -- especially Billie's Billie's Bounce.

All Blues is amazing, and it's always fun to play in 6/4 (or 3/4 depending on your POV).

Freddie Freeloader is an essential piece -- most jazzers know it, and it's a lot of fun to play over.

I think all of these heads are in Mark's Swing Blues course (or some may be in later lessons).
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Don MacArthur



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 50

PostPosted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I love the blues side of jazz, even more so than straight ahead jazz. I has just playing K.C. Blues this moring. It's one of my favorites.

Don MacArthur
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Mark
VM Coach


Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:29 pm    Post subject: "Bloomdido" (Bird) Reply with quote

nylenny wrote:
It's so hard to pick just a few blues heads, because there are so many great ones.

I particularly like Wes' Sundown and West Coast Blues, and just about anything by Charlie Parker -- especially Billie's Bounce.

All Blues is amazing, and it's always fun to play in 6/4 (or 3/4 depending on your POV).

Freddie Freeloader is an essential piece -- most jazzers know it, and it's a lot of fun to play over.


Len,

All great heads, and very different. You've got the unique changes with Sundown and West Coast Blues, the 3/4 - 6/8 feel with both West Coast and All Blues, a great Bird bebop classic and standard swing blues format with Billie's Bounce, and in Freddie Freeloader more of a conventional I-IV-V except for the bVII chord at bars 11-12.

Speaking of Bird and his numerous blues compositions, here's a recording I did not too long ago of Parker's Bloomdido (into/head only). Hope you guys enjoy it. Don mentioned K.C. Blues as a favorite Bird blues. That one almost feels like it was made for guitar, as opposed to Parker's more bebop-oriented heads.

Btw, my first exposure to this style of blues was courtesy of (organist) Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell, with tunes like Organ Grinder Swing, Blues for J, and Blue Bash. More to come...

- Mark
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Don MacArthur



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
Posts: 50

PostPosted: Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Over the last couple weeks I have been going back through the material in the Swing Blues course, picking out bits and pieces that I had not totally committed to memory and I think its been about 4 years since I completed the program. I like all the tunes in the SB program, for instance, Naptown Blues, The Sweet Alice Blues, Things Ain't What...etc. Though from the SB wing, Freight Trane by Tommy Flanagan is one that is on the top of my list. I think it has a really cool sounding melody and the changes are not the typical jazz blues progression which also makes it more interesting to try soloing over.

Don MacArthur
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Dave Illig



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 67
Location: Houston, TX

PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 6:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One of the first blues heads I learned was Swingin' Shepherd Blues. I was on one of my first gigs and the sax player called it. I thought it was pretty cool that he had a head to play over blues changes. Of course I learned quickly that there are a lot of blues heads.

Since Don brought up Freight Trane which uses Bird's Blues, I have to talk about my all time favorite blues head, Frequent Flyer. I was honored a few years ago to have Mark write and dedicate this song to me. I recorded it shortly after he wrote it. If you would like to hear a recording of me playing Frequent Flyer, click on this link: "Frequent Flyer". It took me a couple weeks to dial it in. The head was challenging for me. Once I had it down I had to decide how I wanted it to sound. I was experimenting at the time with many different recording methods. The cut that I liked best was one with a mike in front of the guitar and a mike in front of the amp. It gave the tone a nice mix of acoustic and amp, sort of like a live sound in a small place where the dominant sound is the acoustic property of the guitar. On the solo, I tried to incorporate many of the lines and ideas I had learned from Mark's web site and educational materials. It is amazing how much Mark has to offer us. I am in awe of his wealth of knowledge. To view/download a chart for this tune click here.

Mark wrote a spotlight article about me for Just Jazz Guitar magazine. The article appeared opposite the chart of Frequent Flyer. Having Mark write this song and dedicating it to me is one of the highlights of my music experience. If you would like to see a PDF version of the spotlight that appeared in Just Jazz Guitar magazine, click JJG Spotlight.
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nylenny



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291

PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don Said:

Quote:
Over the last couple weeks I have been going back through the material in the Swing Blues course, picking out bits and pieces that I had not totally committed to memory and I think its been about 4 years since I completed the program.


I relate to this totally. It takes me about four years for Mark's lessons to totally sink in. I think I've got it when I'm working on it, but to really play the tune, there is about a four-year delay!
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memorary



Joined: 20 May 2008
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Freight Trane is a really cool tune to play. Whenever I meet my friend who plays sax, we race through the head. I`ve never won the chase... Smile
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Larry_DC



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 207

PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really like the songs that have the blues lurking underneath but sound like something else on the surface. Air Conditioning is one of my favorites. The score looks deceptively simple until you try to play it in time. A non-jazz audience would never suspect it was a blues.

I was at a jam with a rock drummer one night. When I played Bloomdido and told him it was written over a blues structure I got the deer in the headlights look.
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nylenny



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291

PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One thing I love about the blues is how well it lends itself to harmonic substitution. Mark has written some great heads in the R&B and Swing Blues courses that have chord punches, double stops, and chord melody going on. I'm always on the lookout for interesting harmonic ideas for the blues -- it creates such a "fresh" sound to change up the choruses.
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nylenny



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 291

PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've heard that it is important to learn many blues heads. I can understand two reasons for this. First, there's the obvious; it increases your repetoire. Second, you can use parts of the heads for soloing ideas. Any thoughts on why it is important to know lots of blues heads?
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Mark
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Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 479
Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:46 pm    Post subject: Re: "Bird's Blues" Reply with quote

nylenny wrote:
I've heard that it is important to learn many blues heads. I can understand two reasons for this. First, there's the obvious; it increases your repetoire. Second, you can use parts of the heads for soloing ideas. Any thoughts on why it is important to know lots of blues heads?


Jazz Blues Guys,

I'd better chime back in before there are too many posts to reference. Laughing Len, I'll start with your most recent comments. First of all, you can never learn enough blues heads in my book, and if you really stop to listen to my originals, you'll hear lots of classic clichés and variations from both well-known (in addition to obscure) tunes and solos.

Frequent Flyer (thanks for the kind words, Dave Wink ) is a perfect example of the Bird's Blues format, like Freight Trane (Ab) and Blues for Alice (F), and if you examine the FF head you'll catch many examples of bebop licks and phrasing courtesy of Charlie Parker. Composing original blues tunes is much like writing a model solo as a means to an end. If it's a tribute to a friend or a mentor, it's even more meaningful to me on a personal level. In other words, when I play FF I think of my friend in Houston, and I am also constantly reminded of what I've learned from Bird and others. So it's clearly a "win-win" on all fronts. And keep in mind the fact that great players like Bird, Trane, Wes, etc, were constantly trying out their licks and concepts by doing the same thing. It's a well-known fact that almost every single Parker head is really one of his favorite solos that evolved from this modeling process.

Btw, my most recent version of Freight Trane is unreleased and was recorded last year, so most of my students and colleagues have yet to hear it. It's such a beautiful chord progression that I decided to improvise a fingerstyle rubato intro before the band and head kicks in, and many of my students will note that I included an upper-string chord solo a la Wes ("Like Wes, Like Bird") that is taught in Chapter #9 of the SB lesson wing. The solo is slated for release in the Monster Guitar Solo series in the near future, so stay tuned.

Second, keeping the above in mind I would highly recommend that every one of you takes a stab at writing an original jazz blues. It's not all that difficult if you know the progression and some language. Like Len pointed out in an earlier post, I like to use chord responses to frame a riff-based head, and the lick/riff you decide to use can be as basic as two notes (e.g. C Jam Blues) or more involved. If memory serves me, I believe that Dave wrote a cool blues original with an aerial reference in the title. Perhaps if he's reading this I can convince him to share it.

Don mentioned KC Blues and Larry brought up Air Conditioning, two of my favorite Bird heads. There are many others we can talk about. All for now and thanks to everyone participating in this discussion. Much more to come...

- Mark
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Dave Illig



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 67
Location: Houston, TX

PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow Mark, that version of Freight Trane was awesome! I think that is one of your best recordings. I hate to follow it with my blues composition that you mentioned in your post, but here goes anyway.

I wrote this song about two years ago. I named it Hydroplaning because I hoped it had the feel of sliding along. Well, that and the fact I have named everything I have written with some kind of aviation theme. If you would like to hear a recorded version of it, please click here:
"Hydroplaning"

I have a transcription of the song written in .pdf as well as some tab for the chord punches. I you would like a copy them, please click on the following links: click here for the chart.
and: click here for Chords.

I think working these heads up is one the best ways to improve your playing. Not only do I become intimately familiar with the chords, but playing all those ideas to come up with a good head really helps me learn what will and won't work.
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Mark
VM Coach


Joined: 26 Feb 2007
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Location: Portland, OR

PostPosted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:22 pm    Post subject: Re: "Hydroplaning" Reply with quote

Dave Illig wrote:
I think working these heads up is one the best ways to improve your playing. Not only do I become intimately familiar with the chords, but playing all those ideas to come up with a good head really helps me learn what will and won't work.


Dave,

Yeah, "Hydroplaning" is the name of the tune I was trying to recall. Great blues, solid solo, and a perfect example of using licks combined with call & response chord punches a la Wes, Oscar, etc. I couldn't agree more with using the philosophy of original compositions and modeling as a terrific means to an end in applying acquired language. This is precisely what players like Bird, Trane, and others did, so you and anyone who does likewise is following in historic footsteps.

Thanks for sharing and for the kind words on Freight Trane. I'm interested in hearing more on this subject and more blues faves, because we're only scratching the surface right now. Wink

How about "Opus de Funk" by Horace Silver? Or "The Thumb" by Wes? My dad was a HUGE Basie fan, so I remember growing up and hearing blues tunes like "Segue in C" and "Blues in Hoss Flat" (Db). Anyone besides my students familiar with "Elevation" by Elliott Lawrence? That's another one I've played on bass and on guitar for as long as I can remember. All for now...

- Mark
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Tony



Joined: 27 Nov 2008
Posts: 16
Location: Milwaukie Oregon

PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't know if this has anything to do with this subject But:

Has anyone spent time listening or transcibing Russell Malone ?
If I were to emulate any one guitar player it would Russell. He can really swing some blues...
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