Clifford Brown Sandu solo on guitar

Buco

Following Vic's video I decided to learn again this solo from Clifford Brown. Back then I only learned the second chorus, first one was way advanced at the time. Even this time, it was too fast at their original recording tempo of around 140bpm. Mine was about 120bpm. I could play all the parts individually at 140 but to put it all together would take much longer. And that's not the point anyway. I felt at 120 it's achievable but still challenging. Also this time around I can connect his phrases to the chords understanding the relationship between them. Still, trying some of these phrases elsewhere didn't immediately click. But what did work is to move notes around to what I hear working.

https://youtu.be/eAUN_TvRnbI

wim

Nice Buco! Were you aware that Gwen Cahue covered this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAGCtpN9dw

Buco

Thanks man!

Ah yes, totally forgot and that was one of my favorite albums a few years back. Thanks for bringing it up.

BillDaCostaWilliams

Terrific!

Joyspring next?

Buco

Thanks Bill!

I'd be pretending if I acted like I'm familiar with the title. I'll check it out.

PS It's by Clifford Brown, of course... I'm flush in the face...

Lango-Django

Wonderful, except the banjo was almost inaudable...

...man you must’ve worked your ass off to learn all that cool stuff...

Bravo! Well done, old chap!

Buco

The banjo player couldn't make it to the session that day, his favorite restaurant served his favorite dish: black ink squid risotto.

Thanks Will. Learning, by ear, it took two evenings. Then practicing over next 2 days (I started at less than 50% original speed) and getting a keeper take on third. That f'n record button is like a f'n kryptonite. Maybe I should've kept some of the outtakes with some choice words in Bosnian.

Thing is, you hear this advice a lot to learn solos by horn players. But like anything else it would take some serious time and dedication to get that stuff under your fingers and into your playing. The fingering was much less awkward than I feared. Actually for the most part not at all. But the order of notes isn't guitar intuitive and a few spots have lines that aren't hard to play but the shapes aren't something I'd visualize on guitar. I guess it's exactly those places is what one should try to absorb.

The whole thing is really beautiful musically. Combination of blues pentatonics and bebop chromatic phrases. But so pretty. I really enjoyed playing. And without a doubt my favorite moment was when I figured how to kinda approximate the sound of trumpet momentarily jumping to a really high note and then running down to a target note, it's at 0:30 during head. If I put just that one thing into my playing, it'd be golden.

billyshakes

Buco, I hear you on that record button issue. What I started doing was just hit record on the video and keep playing. If I had a backing track, I'd loop it. Eventually, I'd get a good take because I was just chilling and practicing. Then, I go back in the video, snip out that take, and save the "Bosnian curses" for the blooper reel.

Also, tell that banjo player to beware that black squid risotto. Turns out the digestive system makes the black come out to be a weird green color. 😂

Buco

I was mostly doing that on the day I finally got a passable take, just keep recording. That mental aspect is such huge chunk of success in any performing. In the top athletes it's what really separates the winners from the rest, they all have the training to be the best but it's those who can keep their head in the right place that decides the podium. It's very much the same in the music field. I think it's what you noticed on that video with Moreno.

Lango-Django

Buco, on a scale of one to ten, how interested would you be in discussing those “not guitar intuitive” passages in more detail?

Some of these are phrases that no guitarist ever would conceive of! ... especially the stuff starting at about 1:00 in

And my questions are a) why the heck is that? and b) how do we learn to think outside of our comfort zone?

Buco

Yes, I'm totally interested. On one hand I'm very curious. At the same time, does it really matter? Because, about your "a" question, I don't know but I remember Suzanne (the clarinet player) once saying how totally awkward it it to play something on the clarinet that is like easiest thing on the guitar. I forgot what it was, Bill was there too and we were looking at each other, like "what, why...". But it's just how these things work sometimes. Actually just today, Randy, our concertina player was telling me how awkward it is for him to play that Cm6 arp from Minor Blues on his instrument. He said the fingering is kinda like mirror image from fingering patterns he would normally play and it throws him off.

I'm also thinking about making videos on each individual phrase. Mostly for myself, thinking it'll help me get more out of it if I talk about it out loud. Interestingly I believe having played this style for so long helped me to find fingerings that weren't awkward on guitar. And I wonder why? Could it be because Django was so influenced by Louis Armstrong, could that be a connection? Because I still have transcription from my jazz guitar teacher which I used all these years ago. This time I learned the whole thing by ear but I looked at his sheet and the fingerings are nothing like I'm using. But for me, if I went down that path, trying to get, say, some of Clifford's stuff into my playing, the main and only reason is because it's so damn pretty and beautiful music.