Around ten years ago I sat down to transcribe the first track off Bill Holman's first major self-led big band album "In a Jazz Orbit," and before I knew it I had written out all 9 tracks. I had been listening to that record over and over for years and ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3pt4p1ZjrI Despite the four-deep horn section, Skunk Hollow Blues has a three-part counterpoint on the head, some solo space with simple riff backgrounds, and one of the gnarliest shout sections of the swing era, all at a tempo perfect for beginner dancers and written with utmost efficiency. Written by ...
Al Porcino died two weeks ago at the age of 88. I never met him, but he is still a definitive part of my own lead playing. Al Porcino might be the greatest lead trumpet player the world has known. At least one of the top guys, along with Snooky ...
For two weeks in September 1948, the Miles Davis Nonet, a semi-informal group of young jazz musicians coming of age in the early days of bebop, played a live set, about an hour or so long, of newly-composed music that would ultimately be a significant contribution to the evolution of ...
Earlier this summer I sat down to transcribe a wishlist tune I had discovered on my favorite Youtube account, a tune called “Flying the Coop,” recorded by Chubby Jackson’s band in 1950. I soon picked up a full album of Jackson’s band and proceeded to get all of the recordings ...
If you ever attended Berklee School of Music in Boston and took any class with even a hint of composition, you can probably thank John Bavicchi. John started teaching at Berklee in 1964 and was a major influence on not just the Composition department, but the Jazz Composition department as ...
