The recording I am most proud of is a song I wrote called "Three"
Recordings
- All of Me (2010) - 2 guitars, I played both of 'em.
- L-O-V-E, from elizabeth's CD, with me on guitar. Buy it on iTunes or CD Baby.
- when will the blues leave? - andrew cox on bass and dan schlessinger on tenor. We spent a summer playing in the streets of europe together, and made this recording when we got home.
- three (2003) - a recording of a tune I wrote when I was at the new school
- on thin ice (2004) - a tune of mine I arranged for septet, this is a minidisc of us at a gig
- there's a small hotel - me playing solo
Wedding Music
Juilliard
Orchestrations
Lead Sheets
Studies
Transcriptions
Recent posts on music:
Written solo on "Daahoud"
by paul, on 02.12.2012
I just wrote out a guitar solo on the Clifford Brown tune, "Daahoud", an old favorite that I've always found a bit challenging to play. I was working on this tune recently and instead of re-learning Clifford's solo, which I transcribed years ago but have forgotten, I decided to write out a well structured guitar solo.
Here is a PDF of the solo. I haven't done a lot of this kind of composition before, but haven't really felt like my jazz solos have really been developing much over the past year or so, so I thought I would try something new.
Categories: Music
january listening notes
by paul, on 02.02.2012
Trying to make it out to see more live music this year, and also blog a bit more about it. I saw 3 great shows this month: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at the Jazz Gallery, Barry Harris at the Village Vanguard, and the NYC Guitar Festival Marathon at the 92nd St Y.
The Secret Society gig at the Jazz Gallery was an amazing show and we barely got in, it was packed. Wonderful, timely, current music, played by an amazing group of musicians. I'm taking a lesson with Darcy this month and really looking forward to it.
I have seen Barry Harris play countless times, as when I first moved to NYC I went to his workshops at the Y near lincoln center every week. Barry is a traditionalist, so I was floored by his opening number, Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely?": This was truly a Jazz Twilight Zone moment, especially if you know Barry's feelings about most modern music. The rest of the set was great, and Barry played quite a lot of Bud Powell inspired tunes, including a beautiful rendition of "Sweet Georgia Brown". Barry is consistently great, and I'm glad I came out to this.
I'll definitely be going back to the 92nd st Y, as it's a wonderful venue, and particularly the guitar festival. I saw close to 3 incredible hours of music. Highlights for me were Nigel North's wonderful rendition of PICCININI's toccata, played on theorbo, Gyan Reilly's virtuosic rendition of "2 songs in lydian", and Pino Forastiere's awesome 6 string electro-acoustic adventures.
Categories: Music
new peter bernstein transcription
by paul, on 01.14.2012
From looking at the transcriptions on this site, it's pretty apparent that peter bernstein has always been my favorite jazz guitarist. I was lucky enough to meet peter and get a lesson from him when I first moved to NYC years ago, and have caught many gigs since. I've done a lot of transcriptions of his over the years to understand how he approaches tunes and phrasing. Even though I learn to play solos directly from recordings and don't use sheet music, I started to notate my transcriptions a few years ago because I found I would forget solos, and it's nice to have a reminder, and also I hope it's helpful to other musicians.
Here is my transcription, and here is a clip of the solo. This tune is the same changes to "Doxy", and Peter's pacing and phrasing are wonderful as always. Harmonically, he sticks pretty close to the changes throughout, but he builds intensity both through dynamics and also register, like the high Ab in bar 20. I often don't notate articulations much, but for this solo I've tried to get the slurs as close as possible to the original. Note that he picks the diminished run in bar 38, on a faster tempo he would slur the half steps.
As always, I ask that you buy a copy of the recording, Eric Alexander's "Full Range", if you like this solo. It's an awesome record and a great way to support this wonderful music.
Categories: Music
2011 compositions
by paul, on 01.01.2012
Compositionally, 2011 was a good year and I got the opportunity to write wedding music for 2 different sets of friends, which I very much enjoy doing. For the other stuff, I focused more on writing through composed pieces, as opposed to vehicles for improvisation. I finished about 8 pieces, which isn't bad for me. Looking back, there's quite a few things I've left unfinished, so I've got a good start into 2012. Mostly for my own benefit, I'm going to do a quick compositional recap.
- For Evan and Diana - A piece for Evan and Diana's wedding that I blogged about extensively.
- For Sarah and Ben - A piece for Sarah and Ben's wedding. I had to write this so that it could be easily played by Andrew on guitar.
- La Belle Epoque - This piece reminds me of some salon music in a paris cafe or something. I could, and probably will, extend this out more.
- Travelling Light - I wrote this after getting some ideas from a Ralph Towner book on acoustic guitar, and taking some harmonies and writing a melody on top. I think this turned out quite well.
- Five Ways - Just a lead sheet I wrote for playing on. This was written as a vehicle for improvisation.
- Rainy Tune - A kind of melancholy, straight 8ths type feel tune. I like the way the melody came out on this one.
- All Twelve - A short, atonal piece.
- Empty House - I wrote this while Sarah was out one day, for the band I play with on fridays downtown, which is a quartet. I don't know whether or not I really like this tune yet, need to play it more.
- Before The Rain - A lead sheet for a longer form piece I am working on. I often write music when it is raining out, so my titles tend to contain the word "rain" quite a lot.
Hopefully 2012 will be as good or better for me compositionally, and will be the year I finally make an album of my music. I always feel good about spending time composing; it's very satisfying to me and I think and hope that my friends and family also enjoy hearing my music and that it adds a little beauty to the world.
Categories: Music
new short composition
by paul, on 12.09.2011
I haven't been blogging much lately, but I'm trying to compose a lot more, and here is a PDF and a MIDI MP3 of a short piece I wrote for violin and cello.
The piece is called "all twelve" because, unlike a lot of music I write, it uses all twelve notes in equal weight and doesn't really have a key center.
Categories: Music
Fats Navarro solo on "Wail"
by paul, on 10.23.2011
My transcription of Fats Navarro's solo on "Wail".
Listen to the solo.
Ethan Iverson's wonderfully written anthology on Bud Powell inspired me to go back and listen to Bud's early stuff, which features some great playing by Sonny Rollins and Fats Navarro.
I studied with an amazing pianist named Ed Paolantonio, who in turn had studied with Lennie Tristano. Lennie's thing, which Ed taught me, was that you picked a soloist, learned to sing 10 or so of their solos with the record, then without, then you learned them on your instrument.
You picked either Lester Young or Charlie Christian for your first round of this, and then for your second, you could pick Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, or Fats Navarro. I picked Charlie Christian and then Charlie Parker, and I can still play and sing all those solos. Nevertheless, I always meant to go back and check out Fats Navarro, given that Lennie obviously thought so highly of him.
Here is a PDF ( listen MP3) of Fats' great solo on the Bud Powell tune "Wail", a rhythm changes tune in Eb. The solo mixes really melodic, almost sing song phrases with some wicked bebop. Check out that bridge! It's pretty much a continuous thought from the start through to the last 8, a wonderfully spun phrase, which is especially unbelievable given the tempo. The articulations are approximate and are meant to mark how I hear Fats play the phrases, as I'm not a trumpeter, they aren't meant to suggest tonguings or anything like that.
I hope you enjoy discovering this wonderful solo as much as I did!
Categories: Music
Wes Montgomery's Solo on "Ecaroh"
by paul, on 08.28.2011
Here is my transcription (mp3) of Wes Montgomery's wonderful solo on the Horace Silver tune "Ecaroh". I did a particularly bad job of soloing on this tune on a gig recently, and so I learned Wes' solo in an effort to improve on negotiating the changes. As always, hearing a masterful solo like this makes the changes seem much simpler than when you're reading down the tune for the first time.
Since Wes was incapable of playing a bad note, this is obviously a great solo. I love how he mixes some bluesier phrases in with some very pretty lines that really get into the harmony of the tune. Wes is definitely not one to glide over the changes. The second A is kind of interesting, it's hard for me to hear what Melvin Rhyne is doing in the harmony but the repetition Wes does over it clearly works.
Categories: Music
Bird's Solo on "Groovin' High"
by paul, on 07.12.2011
I just did a transcription of Charlie Parker's half-chorus on "Groovin' High". Here is a PDF and you can listen here.
Bird sticks pretty close to the changes on this solo, to me, the genius of this solo is in his inventive phrasing. The last phrase in the solo is particularly surprising, and I smile every time I hear it! Even on bars 14-15, he takes the end of his line in a new direction, providing a kind of climax both in pitch and in drama.
Categories: Music
orchestration!
by paul, on 04.27.2011
Here is a recording of my orchestration of Messiaen's "La Colombe", originally written for piano, re-imagined for orchestra. If you're interested, you can follow along with my score.
The reading went pretty well and I was happy with the results. After it was over, I wondered if I shouldn't have picked something a bit more dramatic, like with my shostakovich orchestration, but ultimately I think this is a beautiful, somewhat quiet piece and I hope I did it justice.
Categories: Music
Written solo on "Daahoud"
by paul, on 02.12.2012
I just wrote out a guitar solo on the Clifford Brown tune, "Daahoud", an old favorite that I've always found a bit challenging to play. I was working on this tune recently and instead of re-learning Clifford's solo, which I transcribed years ago but have forgotten, I decided to write out a well structured guitar solo.
Here is a PDF of the solo. I haven't done a lot of this kind of composition before, but haven't really felt like my jazz solos have really been developing much over the past year or so, so I thought I would try something new.
Categories: Music
january listening notes
by paul, on 02.02.2012
Trying to make it out to see more live music this year, and also blog a bit more about it. I saw 3 great shows this month: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society at the Jazz Gallery, Barry Harris at the Village Vanguard, and the NYC Guitar Festival Marathon at the 92nd St Y.
The Secret Society gig at the Jazz Gallery was an amazing show and we barely got in, it was packed. Wonderful, timely, current music, played by an amazing group of musicians. I'm taking a lesson with Darcy this month and really looking forward to it.
I have seen Barry Harris play countless times, as when I first moved to NYC I went to his workshops at the Y near lincoln center every week. Barry is a traditionalist, so I was floored by his opening number, Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely?": This was truly a Jazz Twilight Zone moment, especially if you know Barry's feelings about most modern music. The rest of the set was great, and Barry played quite a lot of Bud Powell inspired tunes, including a beautiful rendition of "Sweet Georgia Brown". Barry is consistently great, and I'm glad I came out to this.
I'll definitely be going back to the 92nd st Y, as it's a wonderful venue, and particularly the guitar festival. I saw close to 3 incredible hours of music. Highlights for me were Nigel North's wonderful rendition of PICCININI's toccata, played on theorbo, Gyan Reilly's virtuosic rendition of "2 songs in lydian", and Pino Forastiere's awesome 6 string electro-acoustic adventures.
Categories: Music
new peter bernstein transcription
by paul, on 01.14.2012
From looking at the transcriptions on this site, it's pretty apparent that peter bernstein has always been my favorite jazz guitarist. I was lucky enough to meet peter and get a lesson from him when I first moved to NYC years ago, and have caught many gigs since. I've done a lot of transcriptions of his over the years to understand how he approaches tunes and phrasing. Even though I learn to play solos directly from recordings and don't use sheet music, I started to notate my transcriptions a few years ago because I found I would forget solos, and it's nice to have a reminder, and also I hope it's helpful to other musicians.
Here is my transcription, and here is a clip of the solo. This tune is the same changes to "Doxy", and Peter's pacing and phrasing are wonderful as always. Harmonically, he sticks pretty close to the changes throughout, but he builds intensity both through dynamics and also register, like the high Ab in bar 20. I often don't notate articulations much, but for this solo I've tried to get the slurs as close as possible to the original. Note that he picks the diminished run in bar 38, on a faster tempo he would slur the half steps.
As always, I ask that you buy a copy of the recording, Eric Alexander's "Full Range", if you like this solo. It's an awesome record and a great way to support this wonderful music.
Categories: Music
2011 compositions
by paul, on 01.01.2012
Compositionally, 2011 was a good year and I got the opportunity to write wedding music for 2 different sets of friends, which I very much enjoy doing. For the other stuff, I focused more on writing through composed pieces, as opposed to vehicles for improvisation. I finished about 8 pieces, which isn't bad for me. Looking back, there's quite a few things I've left unfinished, so I've got a good start into 2012. Mostly for my own benefit, I'm going to do a quick compositional recap.
- For Evan and Diana - A piece for Evan and Diana's wedding that I blogged about extensively.
- For Sarah and Ben - A piece for Sarah and Ben's wedding. I had to write this so that it could be easily played by Andrew on guitar.
- La Belle Epoque - This piece reminds me of some salon music in a paris cafe or something. I could, and probably will, extend this out more.
- Travelling Light - I wrote this after getting some ideas from a Ralph Towner book on acoustic guitar, and taking some harmonies and writing a melody on top. I think this turned out quite well.
- Five Ways - Just a lead sheet I wrote for playing on. This was written as a vehicle for improvisation.
- Rainy Tune - A kind of melancholy, straight 8ths type feel tune. I like the way the melody came out on this one.
- All Twelve - A short, atonal piece.
- Empty House - I wrote this while Sarah was out one day, for the band I play with on fridays downtown, which is a quartet. I don't know whether or not I really like this tune yet, need to play it more.
- Before The Rain - A lead sheet for a longer form piece I am working on. I often write music when it is raining out, so my titles tend to contain the word "rain" quite a lot.
Hopefully 2012 will be as good or better for me compositionally, and will be the year I finally make an album of my music. I always feel good about spending time composing; it's very satisfying to me and I think and hope that my friends and family also enjoy hearing my music and that it adds a little beauty to the world.
Categories: Music
new short composition
by paul, on 12.09.2011
I haven't been blogging much lately, but I'm trying to compose a lot more, and here is a PDF and a MIDI MP3 of a short piece I wrote for violin and cello.
The piece is called "all twelve" because, unlike a lot of music I write, it uses all twelve notes in equal weight and doesn't really have a key center.
Categories: Music
Fats Navarro solo on "Wail"
by paul, on 10.23.2011
My transcription of Fats Navarro's solo on "Wail".
Listen to the solo.
Ethan Iverson's wonderfully written anthology on Bud Powell inspired me to go back and listen to Bud's early stuff, which features some great playing by Sonny Rollins and Fats Navarro.
I studied with an amazing pianist named Ed Paolantonio, who in turn had studied with Lennie Tristano. Lennie's thing, which Ed taught me, was that you picked a soloist, learned to sing 10 or so of their solos with the record, then without, then you learned them on your instrument.
You picked either Lester Young or Charlie Christian for your first round of this, and then for your second, you could pick Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, or Fats Navarro. I picked Charlie Christian and then Charlie Parker, and I can still play and sing all those solos. Nevertheless, I always meant to go back and check out Fats Navarro, given that Lennie obviously thought so highly of him.
Here is a PDF ( listen MP3) of Fats' great solo on the Bud Powell tune "Wail", a rhythm changes tune in Eb. The solo mixes really melodic, almost sing song phrases with some wicked bebop. Check out that bridge! It's pretty much a continuous thought from the start through to the last 8, a wonderfully spun phrase, which is especially unbelievable given the tempo. The articulations are approximate and are meant to mark how I hear Fats play the phrases, as I'm not a trumpeter, they aren't meant to suggest tonguings or anything like that.
I hope you enjoy discovering this wonderful solo as much as I did!
Categories: Music
Wes Montgomery's Solo on "Ecaroh"
by paul, on 08.28.2011
Here is my transcription (mp3) of Wes Montgomery's wonderful solo on the Horace Silver tune "Ecaroh". I did a particularly bad job of soloing on this tune on a gig recently, and so I learned Wes' solo in an effort to improve on negotiating the changes. As always, hearing a masterful solo like this makes the changes seem much simpler than when you're reading down the tune for the first time.
Since Wes was incapable of playing a bad note, this is obviously a great solo. I love how he mixes some bluesier phrases in with some very pretty lines that really get into the harmony of the tune. Wes is definitely not one to glide over the changes. The second A is kind of interesting, it's hard for me to hear what Melvin Rhyne is doing in the harmony but the repetition Wes does over it clearly works.
Categories: Music
Bird's Solo on "Groovin' High"
by paul, on 07.12.2011
I just did a transcription of Charlie Parker's half-chorus on "Groovin' High". Here is a PDF and you can listen here.
Bird sticks pretty close to the changes on this solo, to me, the genius of this solo is in his inventive phrasing. The last phrase in the solo is particularly surprising, and I smile every time I hear it! Even on bars 14-15, he takes the end of his line in a new direction, providing a kind of climax both in pitch and in drama.
Categories: Music
orchestration!
by paul, on 04.27.2011
Here is a recording of my orchestration of Messiaen's "La Colombe", originally written for piano, re-imagined for orchestra. If you're interested, you can follow along with my score.
The reading went pretty well and I was happy with the results. After it was over, I wondered if I shouldn't have picked something a bit more dramatic, like with my shostakovich orchestration, but ultimately I think this is a beautiful, somewhat quiet piece and I hope I did it justice.
Categories: Music
