2/17/09

Oasis collective live @ PDX Jazz Festival

Here are a few tunes from my sextet gig at the PDX Jazz Festival.

The lineup is:
Pere Soto- guitar
Max Ribner- trumpet
David Goldblatt- keyboards
Dan Schulte- bass
Todd Strait- drums
and myself on saxophone.

Artland (comp.- David Goldblatt)
Long Yellow Road (comp.- Toshiko Akioshi)
Algebra (comp.-David Goldblatt)
Bon Viatje solo (comp.- Pere Soto)

2/15/09

Transcription of Coltrane's solo on Crescent

Someone wrote to ask me if I had a a transcription of Trane's solo on Crescent (one of my favorite albums of all-time). My buddy happened to have it in one of the Andrew White transcription books that he copied from the Berklee library. Andrew White is a an overachieving madman who transcribed almost every single solo that Trane ever recorded and self-produced over 48 albums. You can order these transcriptions from Andrew's catalog, though I had a difficult time trying to find his website.

Coltrane's solo on Crescent

2/3/09

Dred Scott trio live at the Rockwood Music Hall


I met pianist Dred Scott when I moved back to the Bay Area from Boston in the early 90's . I co-led a quintet with saxophonist Kenny Brooks for several years. Dred was the pianist, Kenny Wollesen played drums and when he was available Larry Grenadier played bass. Dred had moved to Oakland from Akron with his trio, which he called Third Plane. This trio had something special. Their music, which was composed mostly by Dred, crossed stylistic boundaries and was truly electrifying. I became a huge Third Plane fan immediately. There aren't a lot of musicians that I know who I would consider to be true musical geniuses, but Dred would be one of them. One day Dred decided to pick up the drums. A few days later we were playing with Charlie Hunter on the street and just a few months after that he was playing in clubs, and sounding better than many drummers who had been playing for decades.

Dred moved to New York City several years ago seems to have really carved out his own niche there. He just released a live trio recording on the Ropadope label, but he also is offering free downloads of a full tune from the album.

this ain't no russian novel, baby

for more information about dred go to
dredscott.com
myspace.com/dred666


2/2/09

Mixing up the Pentatonics- Jerry Bergonzi transcription

In Jerry Bergonzi's book on pentatonics he has a recorded example of himself demonstrating the use of mixed pentatonics. My buddy Dave McGillicuddy transcribed Jerry's example in order to see clearly what he was doing.

Mixing up the pentatonics solo
Mixing up the pentatonics- concert transcription
Mixing up the pentatonics- Bb transcription