Peter Bernstein's solo on "Chant"

by paul, on 10.02.2009

Here is my transcription of Pete Bernstein's excellent solo on "Chant", from his Criss Cross album "Brain Dance". You can listen here. The usual lazy jazz musician transcription rules apply, I don't mark any slurs or accents or anything, that stuff is best gotten directly from the source. These transcriptions really serve as more of a reminder of the harmonic and rhythmic material Peter uses over these types of tunes.

The CD this is taken from, "Brain Dance", was the first jazz guitar CD I heard that made me really excited about jazz guitar. I got it when I was in college, about 19 or 20. I was fairly serious about learning jazz, but had focused my listening on Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the other traditional jazz heavyweights. I didn't listen to too many guitar players and when I did, I honestly didn't really hear many recordings where the guitarist was just part of the band, but had equal footing as a melodic and harmonic voice. So this CD really woke me up to the possibilities of the guitar in a jazz ensemble. The other immediate reaction I had was: "Wow, I want to sound like THAT". I think every musician I know has had kind of a role model, and Peter was definitely a model for me in that way.

I have been lucky enough to hear Peter play a lot since then, take a lesson, and also to make his acquaintance over the years. A few thoughts on his general technique: - Peter mostly uses 3 fingers, only occasionally shifting to the pinky in his lines.

- he plays up and down the neck quite a bit, as opposed to moving across the strings while playing lines. he shifts positions really quickly.

- he uses a very subtle and distinctive vibrato quite frequently on long notes.

This solo shows Peter's strong Grant Green influence and has a lot of great lines, and more importantly, showcases his awesome, laid back feel. Notice the flurries of 16ths in his second chorus. A lot of people say Peter doesn't play many notes, but he does bust out the double time really effectively, especially in medium and slow tempos like this.

Please let me know if you catch any mistakes, as I'm sure I made a few.