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Steve Khan Licks

Steve Khan was born on April 28, 1947 in LA. He played drums when he was a teenager and only started playing the guitar when he was 19. He graduated from U.C.L.A. in 1969 and moved to New York.

He worked in various jazz and pop settings with people like Larry Coryell, The Brecker Brothers, Joe Zawinul, Buddy Rich, Miles Davis, Steely Dan, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Steps Ahead and Manyard Ferguson.

Steve Khan recorded a very well received solo acoustic guitar album called Evidence. The album is highlighted by an 18 minute long Thelonious Monk medley. In 1981 he formed the band Eyewitness which included Anthony Jackson, Manolo Badrena, and Steve Jordan.

Steve Khan is also a fine producer. He produced recordings for Larry Coryell, Mike Stern, Bireli Lagrene and Bill Connors.

Recommended listening : Let's Call This

Dominant Lick

1) This guitar lick comes from Steve Khan's solo on 'Got My Mental' from the album Got My Mental (click and scroll down to listen to a sample mp3).

Bar 1 starts with a chromatic phrase. Bar 2 has a Bb7 arpeggio targeting the #11 of Ab7 (Lydian Dominant) in bar 3. Bar 4 starts with a phrase that's repeated a half step lower.

Steve Khan wrote some great instructional guitar books: Contemporary Chord Khancepts (an excellent approach to comping) and Pentatonic Khancepts (shows you how to extend the use of pentatonic scales).

The Sibelius Score