The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #101

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    We used to bust this out at funk Jams, to break up the monotony of too many tunes with one chord vamps LOL. Anyway, here's a quick hack through it.
    Cheers!


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  3. #102

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jazzism
    We used to bust this out at funk Jams, to break up the monotony of too many tunes with one chord vamps LOL. Anyway, here's a quick hack through it.
    Cheers!

    Wow ...
    You do well with modern phrases.
    Building tension in improvisation involves playing inside and outside.
    If you had played inside from time to time/f.ex be-bop line/, it would be more appropriate to play outside.
    Solo would then take on a more emotional expression.
    As a listener-recipient, I like playing where the proportions between inside and outside playing are important.
    Then it arouses the interest of the audience.
    This is not a criticism, but my feelings.
    Anyway - Your playing is at a high level and no problmes with Donna Lee.wow
    Cheers
    ps.
    Perhaps I am confused with this outside playing, but your phrases sound like that.

  4. #103

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    I'm glad that someone /Jazzism/ finally showed up who doesn't complain about Donna Lee's head.
    From my many years of experience as a jazz musician, I know that all musicians who have dealt with Donna Lee have moved to a higher level of playing and perception of music.
    This is an investment for the future.
    Keep it up.

  5. #104

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris
    don't you know Miles?
    Here is a miles composition of the same era. Notice how similar it is to Donna Lee stylistically.



    lots of running scales, and quite relentless 8th notes, use of honeysuckle motif etc. Rhythm is actually quite ‘square’ almost. DL sounds like an etude in bop language almost; ‘here’s how to play the changes’. Miles at this point kind of solos like this too.

    Parker did not write anything I can think of that sounded like this. His compositions tend to be a lot more rhythmically varied and less ‘scaley’ to my ears.

    If you can find me a Parker tune that sounds as much like Donna Lee as Little Willie Leaps does, I’ll reconsider! But definitely in camp Miles…
    Last edited by Christian Miller; 09-27-2021 at 03:36 AM.

  6. #105

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    Quote Originally Posted by Triple_Jazz
    I completely understand your position. I also agree that the head can be viewed similarly as running a sub-6 minute mile (for adults our age). There are many merits worth striving and attaining in this music but it is not paramount to do so. I’ve avoided Donna Lee. (the head) all this time and I’m using this V-jam as the catalyst to get to work. Everything before me is not null and void because I didn’t learn the head.

    I think the spirit that Peterson put forward is spot on and yes this tune will be called at a jam session. You are also right that others are putting too much into the tackling of the head in an improv thread but hey, if someone’s bringing Donna Lee into the mix it deserves a cursory discussion at minimum.

    All in all the session doesn’t define us. Better yet, the music we are serving is a music born from strife and we can’t be surprised that elements of competition rise to fray here and there, but they are just pieces of the puzzle and not the full picture. In a nutshell, it’s all good.
    No philosophy or spirit is needed here.Taking up Parker's music is quite a challenge for any guitarist. It takes a lot of effort and work. I can give you a list of Ch.Parker's tunes that will be technically problematic for guitarist.
    Generaly it is alto sax music/I mean Parker's takes/.Transcribing for gutar is a big challenge.Guitar is completly different than alt sax.Parker's music is so deeply rooted in jazz that we probably wouldn't be here without it.I once watched a movie based on this musician's biography, I highly recommend it.

  7. #106

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    Here is a miles composition of the same era. Notice how similar it is to Donna Lee stylistically.



    lots of running scales, and quite relentless 8th notes, use of honeysuckle motif etc. Rhythm is actually quite ‘square’ almost. DL sounds like an etude in bop language almost; ‘here’s how to play the changes’

    Parker did not write anything I can think of that sounded like this. His compositions tend to be a lot more rhythmically inspired.

    If you can find me a Parker tune that actually sounds like Donna Lee, I’ll reconsider!
    I'm not an expert on Parker and Miles music.I live in Poland and I am far from the USA.
    Maybe colleagues from the US are more knowledgeable about the subject.

    Best
    Kris

  8. #107

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris
    I'm not an expert on Parker and Miles music.I live in Poland and I am far from the USA.
    Maybe colleagues from the US are more knowledgeable about the subject.

    Best
    Kris
    just have a listen and see what you think. Compare to the well known Bird tunes, Scrapple, anthro, Confirmation, Billies Bounce etc etc. I think it’s an open and shut case, but that might just be me and my ears.

    Anyway Little Willie Leaps is a fun one to learn. Based on ‘All God’s Children Got Rhythm’ (from the Marx Brothers ‘A Day at the Races’ IIRC) which is a really fun tune tune that doesn’t get played much, but a favourite of Bud and therefore Barry Harris

  9. #108

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    There are also Miles bebop heads that don’t sound that much like DL - Dig and Old Milestones spring to mind

  10. #109

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    just have a listen and see what you think. Compare to the well known Bird tunes, Scrapple, anthro, Confirmation, Billies Bounce etc etc. I think it’s an open and shut case, but that might just be me and my ears.

    Anyway Little Willie Leaps is a fun one to learn. Based on ‘All God’s Children Got Rhythm’ (from the Marx Brothers ‘A Day at the Races’ IIRC) which is a really fun tune tune that doesn’t get played much, but a favourite of Bud and therefore Barry Harris
    Sure.Later I will listen.I have to go out from my home.
    Best
    Kris

  11. #110

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    There are also Miles bebop heads that don’t sound that much like DL - Dig and Old Milestones spring to mind
    I know these tunes.
    Dig/ chords similar to Sweet Georgia Brown/.
    Old Mlistones-it was here on Virtual jam...:-)
    Best
    kris

  12. #111

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    Sippin’ at Bells is another Miles tune that reminds me a bit of Donna Lee, it’s like a continuous string of notes with very few rests.

    I’m a bit busy this week so may not have a chance to do DL. I did learn it years ago, I find the changes easy enough but the head is probably a bit rusty by now.

  13. #112

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    Quote Originally Posted by grahambop
    Sippin’ at Bells is another Miles tune that reminds me a bit of Donna Lee, it’s like a continuous string of notes with very few rests.

    I’m a bit busy this week so may not have a chance to do DL. I did learn it years ago, I find the changes easy enough but the head is probably a bit rusty by now.
    Ah yeah I forgot about that one! I think I learned it at one point?

    Its so weird isn’t it that his early tunes are so notey, given he became the arch minimalist? They do say the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Also I guess he may have had a realisation that he was never going to be as good a bop trumpeter as Clifford? Who knows.

    I went through a phase of learning all the bop heads I could inspired by David Baker’s advice that if you learn 50 bop heads you have all the language you ever need. (Plus you win at the all important game of ‘tiresome jam session vibing by calling obscure Parker heads.’) I never got to 50, but learned a lot.

    The thing is unless I play that stuff ALL THE TIME especially on gigs, it disappears from my rep; true of any tune but it’s a lot easier to wing a GASB standard lol. And I basically never play those tunes on gigs. Most jazzers on London who are not bop specialists don’t know more than a handful and even the boppers often know a rep specific to their particular group of guys they gig with. So they don’t get called. No doubt different in NYC, but that’s NYC for you.

    OTOH Donna Lee is one that often comes up at gigs (even trad jazz gigs lol, bored Dixieland horn players often play it on Indiana), so I try to keep that one in a reasonable state of repair. It’s tough to find time to practice everything, for sure. I’m not doing much practice at all at the moment for various reasons, which is not ideal, but that’s life. I’m also not currently playing any straight ahead pickup gigs for some reason.
    Last edited by Christian Miller; 09-27-2021 at 05:08 AM.

  14. #113

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    Christian +1
    Look...Parker on tenor sax.I mean on recording.:-)

  15. #114

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    It's interesting that when you listen to Parker's solos, you can hear phrasing from Donna Lee.
    And these are completely different songs.


  16. #115

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    Here’s how I play it. Attempt at 200 at the end if you want to skip


  17. #116

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    Ah yeah I forgot about that one! I think I learned it at one point?

    Its so weird isn’t it that his early tunes are so notey, given he became the arch minimalist? They do say the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom. Also I guess he may have had a realisation that he was never going to be as good a bop trumpeter as Clifford? Who knows.

    I went through a phase of learning all the bop heads I could inspired by David Baker’s advice that if you learn 50 bop heads you have all the language you ever need. (Plus you win at the all important game of ‘tiresome jam session vibing by calling obscure Parker heads.’) I never got to 50, but learned a lot.
    Yes all the tunes Miles wrote for that session with Bird on tenor are similarly complicated (Milestones, Little Willie Leaps, Sippin at Bells, Half Nelson), I wonder if he was trying to ‘flex his composing muscles’ or something? Ian Carr’s book makes the point that his solos are still very spacious and relaxed, in contrast to the melodies themselves (he calls them ‘overwritten’). It wasn’t too long after that that Miles did the ‘birth of the cool’ stuff, so maybe he realised that was a better way to go for his style of playing.

    I learned quite a few of the difficult bop tunes but as you say, unless I practise them regularly I can’t play them without some kind of train wreck. They are just not naturally configured for the guitar, I think. But good for your technique to learn them, no question.

  18. #117

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    Peterson, very nice playing -- smooth and fluent, I wonder if studying this tune contributed to the way you play.
    Also I really like how the guitar sounds -- many acoustics tend to be harshly bright for this kind of lines.

  19. #118

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    Quote Originally Posted by Peterson
    Here’s how I play it. Attempt at 200 at the end if you want to skip
    Peterson, you can do it! What was all the fuss about?!

  20. #119

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    Warning...unreliable content.

    I read somewhere (& somebody here better know this or I'll have to go down a rabbit hole & find it), that Miles turned a Fats Navarro line into DL as a critisism of Navarro's playing..

    Solo at 1.35 if y'all can't wait...


  21. #120

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    Yes I’ve read something about that before. There is a reference to it here:

    Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Donna Lee)

  22. #121

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    Quote Originally Posted by dot75
    Warning...unreliable content.

    I read somewhere (& somebody here better know this or I'll have to go down a rabbit hole & find it), that Miles turned a Fats Navarro line into DL as a critisism of Navarro's playing..

    Solo at 1.35 if y'all can't wait...

    Recorded: New York City, NY January 29, 1947...
    so who is a composer of Donna Lee?...oops...
    Very interesting...:-)
    “Donna Lee” was first recorded in May, 1947, by Charlie Parker’s All Stars

  23. #122

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    Quote Originally Posted by ragman1
    Peterson, you can do it! What was all the fuss about?!
    Of course, anyone can do it. Music is for all people.
    Peterson has analyzed the head of Donna Lee very well / each phrase /.
    Great, very nice head played/200 bpm/.
    The next step is to play the solos at the same tempo.
    Great work!!!

  24. #123

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    Quote Originally Posted by kris
    Recorded: New York City, NY January 29, 1947...
    so who is a composer of Donna Lee?...oops...
    Very interesting...:-)
    “Donna Lee” was first recorded in May, 1947, by Charlie Parker’s All Stars
    Right, and who was playing trumpet? ;-)

  25. #124

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    Quote Originally Posted by Peterson
    Here’s how I play it. Attempt at 200 at the end if you want to skip

    Very nice.

  26. #125

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    Quote Originally Posted by Christian Miller
    Right, and who was playing trumpet? ;-)
    I like the trumpet but not always.