The Language of Lester Young

[brent.h]

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[pamosmusic]

I have not had time to watch these, but I am pro-this and will get to them soon. Thanks for posting.

[JazzPadd]

Lester Young plays jazz like how it was always meant to be played. Light, lively, lyrical, buoyant, bluesy, rhythmic, and so sophisticated (without ever needing to sound like bebop).

Very well put, thank you for this.

[Christian Miller]

Nice! Struck by how much like CC these lines sound on guitar when you play them. Of course he studied Prez, I don’t know if he transcribed him, but notes wise the blues licks and things like arpeggiated drop 2 voicings and things show up in Prez.

Which is interesting because the latter seems so guitaristic….


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[olliehalsall]

I'd been listening to quite a bit of Lester on Spotify before I saw your post. Thanks for sharing these, can't wait to try them out.

[bebopblues]

Good stuff! Thanks for posting.

[pamosmusic]

Beautiful.

[montes707]

Video #12: ii-V lick

The lick starts on the downbeat of 4 in the measure before the ii. Played in the keys of Bb and Eb.

You should make these post public on youtube man. Got some real nice nuggets here

[montes707]

thanks

but im kinda shy and don't wanna be found too easily on the interwebs/youtube..

just thought posting videos here where fellow nerds might appreciate them more..

Fair enough man. Hope you keep up the good work nonetheless

[pshin]

The trad guys and swings guys really do have a lot to offer for many players. Something I have found that is oftentimes ignored is that many clarinet players played very beautiful and melodic lines. Pee Wee Russell, Jimmie Noone, and Albert Nicholas are some of my favorites. Lester young also played some great clarinet as well!

[pamosmusic]

I'm also starting to notice another pattern, after listening to his collaboration with Teddy Wilson and Billie Holiday. In many of his solos on slow to medium tempo tunes, he almost always uses some form of iv-6 or V+ or VII when he's going back to the tonic.

On up-tempo tunes with Count Basie or Glenn Hardman, he doesn't use the V+ or VII too much.

I'm guessing he associates the sound more with 'sweet' tunes than with fast swing tunes.

I love that iv to I sound … I was working on an Ed Bickert solo on I Should Care recently and he uses that sound a lot over V. Which works because that iv minor is in the tune too.

[buduranus2]

I love that iv to I sound … I was working on an Ed Bickert solo on I Should Care recently and he uses that sound a lot over V. Which works because that iv minor is in the tune too.

This has been my new toy for the last couple of months. For a iv-I move (in C for example) I'm looking at it as Fmi6>C, which says melodic minor to me. In the alternative I'll look at the Fmi6 as Dmi7b5 (>G7b9>C) in which case W/H diminished seems to work quite nicely, at least to my ears.

[Mick-7]

I love that iv to I sound … I was working on an Ed Bickert solo on I Should Care recently and he uses that sound a lot over V. Which works because that iv minor is in the tune too.

You have the common half step movement there: Bb-Db-F-G (Bbm6) > A-C-E-F (Fmaj7/A), and Bbm6 = C7b9sus. Doesn't sound dominant though if the tonic chord is minor.

[AllanAllen]

Wow what a great thread! Lot's of great stuff here.

[AllanAllen]

Allen Eager is really great! I listen to a few Paul Quinichette albums often because they have Freddie Green on them and he's up in the mix, more so than the Count Basie recordings.

Interestingly, the Allen Eager compilation on Spotify has every track marked Explicit Content.

[AllanAllen]

Bud Freeman comes up a lot on this jazz podcast.

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