Personalizing Jazz Vocabulary

One of the hippest hardest swinging guitarists on the jazz scene Dave Stryker has placed his signature warm-toned blues-drenched lines (played on his Gibson 347 semi-hollow body guitar) in a wide variety of contexts as a leaderon 18 recordings. A prolific composer and potent player with a penchant for bop ballads and blues Stryker has incorporated such important (and wildly diverse) six-string influences as Wes Montgomery Pat Martino GrantGreen Sonny Sharrock and Albert King into a highly personalized guitar vocabulary while also reflecting the inspiration of such immortal composers as Duke Ellington Ornette Coleman Miles Davis Wayne Shorter and TheloniousMonk. On Big City Styker is reunited with the stellar drummer (and fellow Omaha native) Victor Lewis who appeared on the guitarist’s 1992 release Guitar On Top. He is also joined by bassist Ed Howard and pianist DaveKikoski in a program of swinging originals and savvy covers. From the introduction by Bill Milkowski

'When somebody tells me that they wish they could improvise I usually reply 'If you really want to you will'. This may seem quite a hard line to take but if the will to improvise exists there is no reason why anyone with however limited a command of their instrument (or voice) cannot realise their ambition the degree of proficiency attained obviously varying with individual abilities and above all the amount of personal effort. As much time as possible should be allocated to ear-training. There are many cassette courses available on the market - such as the David Burge course (for both perfect and relative pitch development). Also the development ofharmonic knowledge should be on-going and to this end use of a keyboard of some kind is imperative. Don't worry how bad a pianist you are - you can only improve. An improviser draws upon any sources available to enhance his/her vocabulary - a popular song for instance or a Chopin waltz or the modes of Messaien or the pandiatonicism (this being simpler than it sounds) of Stravinsky. It is very healthy to expose yourself to a wide spectrum of music - you will probably find this will lead to the development of other skills such as musical analysis or composition - which of course may well be of material use at times when engagements are thin on the ground and one can turn to arranging or writing a jingle or even a film score. All the pieces in this book have a theme followed by a quasi-improvisational section and a reprise of the theme. If you wish feel free to invent your own improvisation or play the written one or perhaps use the first four bars of the written one as a springboard. Please feel free to imbue these pieces with your personality making alterations and decorations as you feel them.' - Tony Coe

Wes Montgomery has proved to be one of the most popular and enduring guitarists of in Jazz history. His accessible but sophisticated style has become the foundation of the modern Bebop guitar style. In this unique lesson Jazzguitar authority Adrian Ingram moves beyond the famous Thumb-Octaves dissecting the tonality and personality of Montgomery's melodic vocabulary. You will receive a step-by-step guide to this unique soloing style withsubstitutions chords and concepts fully explored. Furthermore the disc features vintage and rare footage of the man himself as well as several demonstration performances by Ingram.

Guitar Solos By Howard Alden From The Film Sweet And Lowdown. Par HOWARD ALDEN. Sweet and Lowdown, Woody Allen's film from 1999, starred Sean Penn as the legendary, but fictitious jazz guitarist of the '30s, Emmett Ray. Emmett considered himself to be the second greatest jazz guitarist in the world next to Django Reinhardt. The versatile Howard Alden played all of the solo acoustic guitar parts for the movie, as well as coaching Mr. Penn to play guitar for his role (for which he received an Oscar nomination, best actor). This book contains note-for-note transcriptions in both standard notation and tab of Howard's Django-esque interpretations and improvisations of classic standards of the 1930s, as well as original solo guitar pieces written by Woody's longtime musical director, jazz pianist Dick Hyman. Sweet and Lowdown contributed greatly to the recent renewal of interest in and revival of swing and gypsy jazz guitar. Howard's guitar work is a warm and personal example of the timeless musical vocabulary of swing guitar. / Niveau : Intermédiaire à Avancé / Jazz - Solos / Recueil / Guitare