Jazz

Backing Tracks & Lead Sheets

Basically Basie: Audio, Rhythm & Trombone, Trumpet & Tenor, Alto & Bari

Buffalo Head: Backing Track (set playback to 0.9%), Recording (starts at 1:28)

Video Game Lead Sheets

Recommended Listening

Big Band

• • • Count Basie - Straight Ahead

    • Count Basie - Atomic Basie

    • Count Basie - April in Paris

    • Count Basie - Sinatra at the Sands

    • Maynard Ferguson - M.F. Horn Two

    • Thad Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra - Central Park North

    • Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - Live in Cuba

    • Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra - They Came to Swing

    • Woody Herman - Giant Steps

Combo

• • • Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

    • John Coltrane - Giant Steps

    • Art Blakey - The Jazz Messengers

    • Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Live at the Quick

    • Snarky Puppy - We Like it Here

    • Maceo Parker - Life on Planet Groove

    • Miles Davis - Porgy & Bess

    • Eric Clapton - Unplugged

Individual Performers

• • • Alto Sax: Charlie Parker, Phil Woods, Cannonball Adderley

    • Tenor Sax: John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Victor Goines

    • Bari Sax: Gerry Mulligan, Dennis DiBlasio

    • Trumpet: Wynton Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval, Dizzy Gillespie

    • Trombone: Wycliffe Gordon, JJ Johnson, Curtis Fuller, Michael Dease

    • Guitar: Freddie Green, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall

    • Piano: Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Dan Nimmer, McCoy Tyner, Count Basie

    • Bass: Carlos Henriquez, Paul Chambers, Victor Wooten, Ron Carter, Pino Palladino

    • Drums: Art Blakey, Jeff Hamilton, Ali Jackson, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Steve Jordan, Bernard Purdie

Tips for improv: 

• • • Victor Wooten's focus on improv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBNT5K2sEFQ

    • Avoid the "Spray & Pray" method. You can make a really mature solo sound good with few notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5-xZygYKL0 

    • A great place to start is with major and minor pentatonic scales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIggxG7Kon8&feature=youtu.be

    • Learn "scale running": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5_lEYU5Z1w

    • Improv based around the melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCq1698x6a0

    • Wynton's advice to beginning improvisers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4xg8lpPUYY

Demo videos:

• Great unison section playing on a soli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXqC45PE7ZY

• J.J. Johnson Quoting other melodies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsTHCpVv1-0

• J.J. Johnson destroying a blues solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y94-2qE56p0

• Professional jazz musicians talking about the benefits of marching band (watch 2:10-4:45): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UazwIkuOvs

• Jethro Tull giving his flute "the business" and improvising very creatively: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feEDRaAyk4k

• Wynton Marsalis' masterful solo on Cherokee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj-sqraJ4gk

• A great rhythmic example of improv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2H1tu7MSE4

• A good example of rhythmic improv and call & response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTwo2nT_APU