Transcription VI - Steve Grossman "Fancy Free"

In December of 2019 I presented a partial transcription of Dave Liebman’s solo on “Fancy Free” from Elvin Jone’s Live at the Lighthouse. Today I am presenting a partial transcription of Steve Grossman’s solo on the same recording and song. There are many challenges to performing something like this on guitar. Of course, one has to contend with the incredible speed of certain passages. Generally speaking I like to pick as much as I can but to do so in this context I have had to make calculated switches between economy and alternate picking. Some of my favourite moments in Grossman’s solo are the most saxophone-specific—the ‘barked’ low notes which skip up or down an octave, for instance. This can be imitated of course but such effects are incredibly hard to execute on the guitar. You can find a partial transcription of the solo here and watch my performance of it here.

Transcription V - Hayden Chisholm "Oracle Hymn 13"

A few months ago I presented a transcription of Hayden Chisholm’s “Oracle Hymn 9”. Todays transcription, “Oracle Hymn 13” seems to me a sister piece to “Oracle Hymn 9”. The modal language is dense and knotted but not inelegant—quite the opposite in fact. As usual, Chisholm’s control, intonation, and phrasing are exemplary. Getting this kind of phrasing across on the guitar is tricky to impossible but I have found the attempt instructive. You can find a full transcription of the piece here and watch my performance of it here.

Transcription IV - Dave Liebman "Fancy Free"

People familiar with Elvin Jones’s recording Live at the Lighthouse will know that the performances of Jone’s two saxophone players Dave Liebman and Steve Grossman are, well, insane. Both players maintain feverish intensity throughout unusually long solos—all while articulating what now seems like canonic but what then likely seemed pretty fresh post-trane language. A full transcription is beyond the scope of this blog but you can find about a minute of Liebman’s solo transcribed here and watch my performance of it here.

Transcription III - Ben Van Gelder "Countdown"

This performance comes from a bootleg recording made, I think, by a friend of a friend of mine and was circulated among our musical community pretty broadly. Van Gelder’s solo on “Countdown” is remarkable for many reasons, from the heavy handed back-phrasing which opens the solo to the dizzying and long eighth-note lines that end it. Upon closer inspection it seems like Van Gelder was probably working out some rather specific musical ideas at this time—certain contours and melodies make repeated appearances. Harmonically, he seems to favour hexatonic colours rather than the changes verbatim. Without an accompanying chordal instrument, however, this particular emphasis is less apparent. The full transcription can be found here and you can watch me perform the last minute of it here.

Transcription II - Hayden Chisholm "Oracle Hymn 9"

I have admired the music of Hayden Chisholm for many years now. My favourite works of his are those written for saxophone ensembles, pieces like “Love in Numbers” and “Density Movements”. Also delightful are his pieces for saxophone and accompanying drone—usually a sruti box. “Oracle Hymn 9” stands out as a particularly moving example of such a piece. The modal colours seem unique among his other pieces. A full analysis is warranted but for now you can find the complete transcription here and view my performance of the piece here.

Transcription I - Chris Potter "Everything Happens to Me"

Paul Motian’s “On Broadway Vol. 4: The Paradox of Continuity” is one of my favourite standards recordings. It was listening to this record that first exposed me to the late piano player Masabumi Kikuchi. With repeated listening, I have especially come to appreciate Larry Grenadier’s incredible playing and the way it ties the ensemble together. The track “Everything Happens to me” features a really wonderful solo from Chris Potter. You can find the full transcription here and watch my performance of it here. There is a lot to talk about with this solo but if I were to offer only one observation it would be this: notice the incredible voice leading in measures 1-4 and 13-14. In measure 1-4 Potter weaves melodies around descending half-steps from an F# on beat one of measure one to a B on the ‘and’ of beat two in measure 4. He does this again, weaving melodies around a descending half-step sequence, starting with a G# on beat one of measure 13 and ending on an F on beat two of measure 14.