Today’s review is about a great transcription book by Petter Wettre entitled “The Lighthouse Omnibook”. This book has been sitting on my shelf for a few years but I was reminded of it the other day when John Greiner (a great tenor player that I played with at Berklee in different ensembles) mentioned the […]
Book Reviews
Body and Soul: The Evolution of a Tenor Saxophone Standard Review
For the last couple of weeks, I have been diligently working through a great new book by Eric Allen entitled Body and Soul — The Evolution of a Tenor Saxophone Standard: Transcriptions and analysis of solos by: Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Sonny … Brecker, Chris Potter, Spiral-Bound Book Body and Soul — The […]
The Dick Oatts Solo Collection Review
Today I am reviewing an awesome new transcription book of solos by alto saxophonist Dick Oatts. Dan Bayliss wrote the transcriptions and did the work of putting this ebook together. It includes 9 solos from 3 albums and is 68 pages long. The CD’s the solos are from are Dick Oatts “Standard Issue Volume […]
The Real Jazz Solos Book Review
Today, I am reviewing a new transcription book titled “The Real Jazz Solos Book”. This is another great book by Hal Leonard that is filled with great jazz solo transcriptions. Unlike many other transcription books, The Real Jazz Solos Book has transcription from a variety of different musicians including as far back as Louis Armstrong […]
The Real Latin Book Review
Anyone who has been following my blog for awhile knows that I can be a bit of a nut when it comes to Real Books. I love getting new tunes that I have never played and trying them out on gigs. Sometimes when I do a duo gig for a cocktail hour the piano player […]
The John Coltrane Omnibook Review
*I posted all the recordings I could find on Youtube that go with this transcription book at the bottom of this review………Enjoy! Those of you who know me and my musical history know the impact the Charlie Parker Omnibook has had on me since I discovered it in High School many years ago. I was […]
“A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist” by Ben Britton
Recently, I received a copy of A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist by Ben Britton. Ben is a great saxophonist and educator in Pennsylvania. I first heard of Ben many years ago when I stumbled upon a youtube clip of him trading fours with Chris Potter. That, in of itself is very […]
Chris Potter Plays Acapella Solo Standards by Eli Bennett Review
Chris Potter has been one of my favorite tenor saxophone players for about the last 10 years. I remember being on a gig somewhere and a friend of mine said “Have you heard Chris Potter?” When I said “No”, he just shook his head and said “Dude, you’ve got to check this guy out!” I […]
“Live” Approach Note Patterns on R&B
Back about 10 years ago, I decided to work on my approach note patterns. I had been taught a few of these patterns in lessons with Jerry Bergonzi and wanted to really get them down. As I started to really work on the approaches in every key I found myself finding others to add to […]
Mastering the Dominant Bebop Scale
Mastering The Dominant Bebop Scale The Dominant Bebop Scale is a scale that can be used over a dominant chord. It has both the major 7th and the flat 7th in the scale so in the key of G the scale would be GABCDEFF#G. The reason that the dominant bebop scale sounds so great is […]
Approach Note Books and Lessons
“Approach Note Velocity” by Steve Neff Approach Note Velocity is a book that I created for myself so that I could master all the different approach notes in every key. I have divided the book up into sections by key and have written out the exercises so that you can practice them and read them […]
Chris Potter on Standards Transcription Book
While I was searching the internet a few weeks ago, I stumbled across this site. AJ Kluth has put out a transcription book of Chris Potter solos. Chris Potter is a phenomenal tenor saxophone player that is pretty popular on the jazz scene these days. I’ve been working on transcribing a few Chris Potter solos […]
The Portland Collection Contra Dance Music Real Books
About a year ago a soundman and good friend of mine ,Dave Fagan, played a CD through the sound system that immediately caught my attention. It sounded great and I asked him what it was. He said it was “Contra Dance Music” I had never heard of it before. After talking more about it, he […]
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