Herbie Hancock – Seven Steps To Heaven (From the album “Seven Steps To Heaven”) LOTW #67]
Here is a famous Herbie line from Seven Steps To Heaven. To start this one off Herbie comes down a D- pentatonic, then what I love is he starts a the G7 harmonies a beat early by playing a b13 going to the 3rd of the G7 then landing on #9 on beat 1 of […]
Herbie Hancock – Dolphin Dance (From the album “Maiden Voyage”) [LOTW #66]
To kick off the Herbie series I started with simple line from Dolphin Dance. Simple yet extremely pretty and elegant sounding to play. Herbie is playing triplets that start on the 11 which resolves to a the E, a chord tone. From there he simply is moving up in thirds diatonically and repeats the same […]
Bill Evans – Minority (From the album “Everybody Digs Bill Evans”) [LOTW #65]
Here is a nice one over a 2-5-1. Bill starts his line on beat 3 in the first measure which I love. He was always so aware of the beats he started and ended his lines on. Definitely something to practice in our own playing. In this line he goes up to the b5 then […]
Bill Evans – Five (Pt. 2, From the album “New Jazz Conceptions”) [LOTW #64]
Here is part 2 of yesterday’s post continuing our line. Bill breaks back into a more bebop esque style with the second half of this line by really outlining chord tones and creating simple approaches. In this measure he approaches the third of the G7 which lands on the up beat of beat 2 funny […]
Bill Evans – Five (Pt. 1, From the album “New Jazz Conceptions”) [LOTW #63]
Now here is a serious line. This is some great language to learn over sequential dominants. Meaning, dominants that are resolving down by 5ths. Bill Evans starts out with a simple triplet line that goes up to the #11 then resolves to the 1 of the B7. From here it begins to get interesting. Bill […]
Bill Evans – Waltz For Debby (From the album “Waltz For Debby”) [LOTW #62]
Here is a famous track by Bill called Waltz For Debby. This line is the beginning line of the 4/4 swing that happens after the 3/4 melody. This is a pretty simple line but Bill Evans has some nice approaches and movements in this that make it stand out at the beginnging of his solo. […]
Bill Evans – Beautiful Love, Take 2 (From the album “Explorations”) [LOTW #61]
We begin the Bill Evans series this week! Bill was such a huge influence on jazz pianists all over. His creativity and endless drive to push the boundaries have inspired so many. He was truly one of the greatest of all time. I chose this great quarter note triplet line to start off with because […]
Wynton Kelly – Kelly Blue (Pt. 2, From the album “Kelly Blue”) [LOTW #60]
This is a great 2-5-1 lick over the last measures in a blues. A few great things Wynton Kelly does in this one are his 16th trill, grace, notes and approaches, as always. In the first measure he chooses to use B natural over the C-7 chord. This note works because it is simply a […]
Wynton Kelly – On Green Dolphin Street (Pt. 2, From the album “Kelly Blue”) [LOTW #59]
Here is the second half of the Wynton Kelly line from #58. After coming from an Eb, he resolves down into the fifth of the G7 and walks down to the third and starts a two beat triplet pattern. After doing the Wynton Kelly series, I’m sure you can see he loves using triplet patterns. […]
Wynton Kelly, – On Green Dolphin Street (Pt. 1, From the album “Kelly Blue”) [LOTW #58]
There are so many learning components in this line by Wynton Kelly, I had to make it two parts. In this first part, Wynton starts off the line on the up beat of 2 which is a great thing to do. Starting lines on upbeats really intensifies the swing feel. He goes down a half […]
