Josh Walsh @ Jazz-Library

Reader, The second chord of Take the "A" Train is a D7#5 with the #11 in the melody. It's an unusual chord, so I was curious to study what Ray Brown plays over that chord. Today we're continuing our series on Ray Brown bass lines by taking a look at what he plays over that tune. (If you missed part 1 on Night Train, you can read that here.) Take the "A" Train Ray Brown - bass Gene Harris - piano Gerryck King - drums 1984 This recording of "A" Train is pretty unique. The tune is more...

Reader, Join us this Friday, Aug 14th at 1pm ET for a workshop with Dr. Molly Gebrian, a professional violist with a background in neuroscience. Her book, Learn Faster, Perform Better, was eye opening for me. It pointed out some fundamental mistakes in how I was practicing, backed by the actual science of why they were mistakes. Then it showed me what to do instead. The impact on my playing was immediate and noticeable. Join us this Friday Aug 14th at 1pm ET. You are already registered. We...

Reader, I've been feeling limited in my walking bass lines lately. Over the years I've learned bass line formulas that were really helpful, but now I feel like I'm just stringing formulas together instead of actually being creative. I wanted to walk more authentic bass lines, so I reached out to a pro friend for a lesson. His schedule was full, but he told me everything I needed was already there in Ray Brown's playing. So I transcribed several of Ray Brown's bass lines, and I've got a lot to...

Reader, Bill Evans' take on Someday My Prince Will Come from Portrait In Jazz is marvelous. Today, I want to show you some of the rhythmic building blocks Bill Evans uses to make the jazz waltz really swing. Bill Evans Portrait in Jazz Many jazz takes on Someday, like from Oscar Peterson and Wynton Kelly actually change the tune to 4/4, but Bill Evans swing it here in 3. And in doing that, he leans heavily on 4 different rhythmic feels. The Traditional The traditional classical waltz is...

Reader, Yesterday, while driving to Costco for a hotdog, Spotify shuffled a Bud Powell track onto the truck stereo. As I reached down to my phone to rewind and listen again, I nearly took out a mama duck and her babies crossing the road. Realizing I was a distracted driver, I pulled into a school parking lot and stopped being an idiot. We've talked a lot about bebop lines lately. How they're built with scales, arpeggios, and enclosures to pull through the changes. This might be the perfect...

Reader, Over the last couple of years I've become more aware of the versatility of diminished chords. They serve so many musical functions, from passing chords, to dominant chord voicings, opening doors to change keys and more. And, as I've started to add them more to my playing, I've discovered some interesting movements, like this one. Diminished Chords are just Triplets The drop 2 variation is my favorite. The core of this movement is pretty simple to understand. A Diminished chord is...

Reader, We lost the great Sonny Rollins a couple of months ago. I had my "go to" tunes like Tenor Madness, St. Thomas and Pent-Up House, but I hadn't really spent time with his full catalog. His passing really motivated me to dive in, and as I listened and transcribed, I recognized how his aggressive tone, rhythmic drive and playfulness were sounds I wanted in my own playing... I Want to Be Happy Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins I love this passage from Sonny's recording with Monk. But as I...