For jazz saxophonists, transcriptions play a vital role in our musical development. Many of us have bought transcriptions books featuring solos by various players such as Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, Bob Mintzer, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins to name just a few. Since transcribing is one of the best ways to improve one’s playing, [read more…]
Although folks like Joe Henderson feel that the best way to learn the language of jazz is to learn a solo by ear and memorize it, there’s definitely a place for reading transcribed solos, and possibly committing them to memory off the manuscript. Some of us might be as ambitious enough to transpose transcribed solos into [read more…]
Any devoted jazz saxophone player with an internet connection knows Charles McNeal’s love letter to jazz history, CharlesMcNeal.com. As a Facebook friend of Charles myself, there are periods where he cranks out, literally, a transcription each day. As an equal opportunity transcriber, he’s taken down hundreds of solos from all ends of the jazz legend [read more…]
A Labor of Love I remember being in sixth grade and asking my sax teacher the inevitable question: “Who’s the best saxophone player in the world?” Of course, there can never be a definitive answer to a question like that, but my teacher didn’t miss a beat when he replied, “Michael Brecker.” And he wasn’t [read more…]