Ten of My Favorite Jazz Albums

The list changes all the time, I suppose, but these albums have withstood the test of time.  In no particular order, here are ten jazz albums that I will listen to for the rest of my life:

1) Somethin' Else (Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Sam Jones, Art Blakey) - Miles's solo on Autumn Leaves is one of my favorite of all time.

2) The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (Wes Montgomery, Tommy Flanagan, Percy Heath, Albert Heath) - I think every aspiring jazz guitarist needs to listen to this album until they memorize it.  I should heed my own advice.

3) Out to Lunch (Erick Dolphy, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson, Richard Davis) - I vividly remember when I purchased this album.  I listened to it endlessly.  Hat and Beard is one of my favorite songs of all time.

4) Inner Urge (Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Bob Crenshaw, Elvin Jones) - This is such a dark and powerful album, period.

5) Undercurrent (Jim Hall, Bill Evans) - I think that Jim Hall and Bill Evans are simpatico in many ways.  They both approach their instruments gently, I think.  This album is a work of art. 

6) Saxophone Collossus - (Sonny Rollins, Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Max Roach) - One of the greatest jazz albums of all.  I especially love Sonny's solo on St. Thomas.

7) The Bridge (Sonny Rollins, Jim Hall, Bob Crenshaw, Ben Riley) - Jim Hall really stretches on this album, and compliments Sonny Rollins quite well.  Some have indicated that this was a bit of transitional period in Sonny's career, but I think he sounds amazing.

8) The Essential Charlie Parker - I have a ton of Bird's recordings, but this album distills his massive body of work down to, as the title suggests, the essentials. 

9) Mile Stones (Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones) - One of my favorite albums.  I love Milestones.

10) The Real McCoy (McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones) - What a lineup.  This is such a great album.

There are tons of other albums that I could've put on this list.  But these are all great albums, and I will continue to listen and learn from them.

The Art of Stealing

I have always been lazy about transcription.  I've cherry picked a line, here and there, but, up until recently, I never learned an entire solo on my instrument.  Now that I've really started to "listen" to the records, I know that I've deprived myself of arguably the most valuable tool available.  I guess my main reason for shying away from transcription had to do more with semantics than anything else.  I’m certainly not fearful that learning lines will somehow compromise my individuality or style.  I have no style, to be honest.

I was convinced that transcription forced one to write down everything one's learned.  While I know that writing down these lines would benefit my notational abilities, I absolutely hate this process.  I have no problem learning to play lines on my instrument.  I enjoy this process, actually.  After speaking with a fair amount of people about transcription, I've learned that some people write everything down; other people write down certain licks; others don't write anything out.  Transcription, or, if you will, stealing lines, is a very personal process.

A few months back, I toiled away at a Horace Silver's two chorus solo on Solar, from the Miles Davis album Walkin'.   The primary players on the album are Percy Heath (bass), Horace Silver (piano), and Kenny Clark (drums).  I picked this solo because I enjoy it, and it's not too difficult.  Within two choruses, Horace presents and develops a handful of ideas.  I am particularly attracted to the ii7-V7-I7 in Eb that he played during the first chorus.

Thus far, I've taken this line through 12 keys, as-is, and know I'm trying to disassemble and put it back together.  I may try to take the entire solo through all 12 keys, but I think I'm getting more out disassembling pieces of it and putting it back together.

Tonight, I may try to write out my own lines based on Horace's ii-V-I.  I think I could probably spend several years on this one solo. 

Grinding Gear

Like many guitarists, I've spent many years caught in the loop of searching for the perfect gear.  Like most middling players, I've finally realized that there's no such thing.  Dave Holland still sounds like Dave Holland, whether he's playing a cheap upright bass or a priceless, handmade instrument.

The guitar pictured here is a Japanese-made Ibanez AS-50.  I purchased one of these guitars for about $800.00, about five or six years ago.  Coincidentally, Ben Monder, one of the most amazing guitarists on the planet, plays one of these as well. 

I often joke that I thought I would be able to play as well as Ben, because I play the same guitar.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  Although I've never owned an uber-expensive instruments, I have owned quite a few guitars in my life, but this Ibanez is the first instrument that's remained with me for several years.  I've never thought about selling it, to be honest, and I doubt I ever will.

It's nothing fancy, really.  The only thing I've done is install a set of Grover tuners, and a set of handwound Smith pickups.  Having finally gotten over the need to find the "perfect" instrument, I have far more energy to devote to learning to play jazz.

A Litte Bit About Me

Sometime in my early 20s, I started playing my girlfriend's acoustic guitar.  She and my roommates asked me to take lessons or to quit, altogether.  I opted to start taking lessons, and I ended up studying with a jazz guitarist who was moonlighting at a local music store in Buffalo, New York.  Although I didn't know much about about jazz at that time, I was nonetheless intrigued by the chords that he played and the lines that he was able to weave.

To be honest, he was so adept that melody and harmony seemed to blend and merge.  I'd never seen a guitarist who could play bass, melody, and harmony at the same time.  The floodgates opened, as it were, and I decided that I want to try to learn how to play jazz guitar.  I have been playing for over a decade now, and I am still attempting to learn to play this elusive music.

Over the last decade, I've saddled myself with student debt by take college courses in music theory; I've sat in at local jazz jams; I've played  a few gigs; I've worked in an ensemble with young players who will one day work as professional musicians.  I've accomplished all of this while holding down various full time jobs.  I am currently working as a project manager, which means that I have limited time and energy to devote to jazz.  Regardless, I still play, most days, and I am still enjoying the journey.

I hope that this blog enables me to organize my thoughts regarding the process of learning to play jazz guitar.  A teacher once told me that jazz is a harsh mistress.  It certainly is.  There are times when I want to smash my guitar and be done with it, but I always come back to it, no matter how much jazz frustrates me.