Bebop heads: Donna Lee

[Mick-7]

Would this not qualify as using a lick as raw material for improvising?

And tab in an instance like this is not super useful … maybe you could give us a sense of where you’re coming from with this?

Maybe, I just don't think of it that way because I could pick any set of notes and reassemble them like that, in this case the first eleven notes of the tune, which you could hardly call a lick because it's just a descending series of notes. Actually I used your "play it backwards" idea (from the note C). Thanks for that, it's not something I've done. Also, I'm trying to incorporate more wide interval leaps into my playing, thus the b9th & 7th.

Is there a software app you or others can recommend for writing notes/fingering? I'm using an old tablature app I had on my pc, I could use an upgrade.

Here's that Joe Pass video again that I posted earlier but with a transcription of Joe's playing, don't know how accurate it is.

[Christian Miller]

There you go.
Happy Peter???? Are you happy now??????

You can’t see my fingerings. They are the same as Mancuso’s.


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[pamosmusic]

You can’t see my fingerings. They are the same as Mancuso’s.

Ah the manchso fingerings - I notice a distinct lack of emotion and nuance.

[PMB]

Ah the manchso fingerings - I notice a distinct lack of emotion and nuance.

That could be the hangover...

[PMB]

A single-bar ii7b5-V7-Imaj7 progression that I associate with Cole Porter (I'm thinking the opening to I Love You, Night & Day and the second phrase of What Is This Thing Called Love although these all occur in a longer form).

[pamosmusic]

That could be the hangover...

Mancuso’s people are going to be after you for libel.

[pamosmusic]

A single-bar ii7b5-V7-Imaj7 progression that I associate with Cole Porter (I'm thinking the opening to I Love You, Night & Day and the second phrase of What Is This Thing Called Love although these all occur in a longer form).

Ah that’s quite clever!

[PMB]

Thanks. Now I'm hearing an extension of that idea - the first two main phrases over a Bbm7 Eb7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gm7 | progression:

[PMB]

By the way, although Miles Davis took credit for writing Donna Lee, the first two phrases are almost identical to the opening of Fats Navarro's solo over his tune Ice Freezes Red, recorded more than three months before Bird and Miles hit the studio.
Check out the following clip at 1'34":

[AllanAllen]

There you go.
Happy Peter???? Are you happy now??????


You can’t see my fingerings. They are the same as Mancuso’s.


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I'm happy. Seeing you take the pieces and use it over a blues is very helpful.

[mr. beaumont]

Vocabulary wise, I think the rhythm is important.

So this is just screwing around with a lick that has the same rhythm as the opening phrase of DL. Fits over the same chords.

Tempted to write a whole solo using the same harmonic rhythm as the head but different notes. Not sure if I'll have the patience...

But I mean, here's bebop playing in a nutshell...start a line on the 3 of a bar, finish on beat two of bar 4...start with a triplet, triplet in bar 3...

[AllanAllen]

Vocabulary wise, I think the rhythm is important.

So this is just screwing around with a lick that has the same rhythm as the opening phrase of DL. Fits over the same chords.

Tempted to write a whole solo using the same harmonic rhythm as the head but different notes. Not sure if I'll have the patience...

But I mean, here's bebop playing in a nutshell...start a line on the 3 of a bar, finish on beat two of bar 4...start with a triplet, triplet in bar 3...

Saw the video before you added the explanation. I was wondering why the second twiddle was a 1/2 step... and also why it sounded so weird. That's an impressively Parker-ish lick.

[Christian Miller]

Mancuso’s people are going to be after you for libel.

Mancuso has people fr


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[mr. beaumont]

Mancuso has people fr


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He does. I know a guy who called his playing "just for likes on Instagram" and Josh Meader and Antione Boyer slashed his tires.

[Jimmy Smith]

Mancuso has people fr

MM and PG are the head maestros and virtuosos.

[Mick-7]

Donna Lee is a killer for me with the first phrase going from A natural to the C. You jump up or down and then a minor third up. My brain and fingers just don't like that.

I think it's a matter of mechanics. I have never focused on playing fast, this thread is encouraging me to work on it.

It's got me thinking, how would Frank Gambale play Donna Lee? He uses a specific fingering and speed picking technique, which involves picking a specific number of notes per string, sweep picking, etc. I think it's possible to do this with most of the lines in Donna Lee. I'm gonna work on that.

P.S. - I found the attached lesson on speed picking by Frank Gambale

Frank explains his philosophy in this interview with Rick Beato:

[AllanAllen]

Inspired by Christian’s video, I used the licks to make a blues head.

[Jimmy Smith]

Sounds good!

[Jimmy Smith]

Alright mofos, here's my final submission! I worked this tune in college back in the 00s and I guess it came back to me. I did every instrument on my digital piano and spliced them together. Took it at 155.

[Mick-7]

Alright mofos, here's my final submission! I worked this tune in college back in the 00s and I guess it came back to me. I did every instrument on my digital piano and spliced them together. Took it at 155.

Ah, come on Jimmy, who are you trying to kid, anyone can tell that's Milt Jackson playing that on the vibes.

[Jimmy Smith]

Thx!

[AllanAllen]

You’re only supposed to do the first four bars.

[Jimmy Smith]

[mr. beaumont]

The vibes are quite "believeable!" That's cool.

[pamosmusic]

Inspired by Christian’s video, I used the licks to make a blues head.

Super cool ...

... one small point. The arpeggios in the main riff seem to be min7 off the thirds of the dominant chords in the blues form. You might want to lower those fifths. In context, the nat 5 makes for the natural, rather than flattened, 7 off the chord in the tune.