Notating musical examples
There’s no better way to really dig into music than transcribing it. That’s the stage I’m up to with the Mwandishi book. So far this week, I’ve notated examples from Herbie’s early work – solos from ‘Pentacostal Feeling’ from Donald Byrd’s “Free Form” and Byrd’s ‘Marney’ from Jackie McLean’s “Vertigo,” and a clip from Horace Silver’s ‘Blowin’ the Blues Away’ (as an example of a kind of chordal riff that Herbie would come to adapt and adopt). From the Mwandishi band, I’ve done two examples from ‘Ostinato: Suite for Angela’, and I’m working on slices of ‘You’ll Know When You Get There’ and ‘Sleeping Giant’ (both of which I first notated two years ago so that I could create my own arrangements to play live). What’s ahead are examples from each of the three tunes on “Sextant.” You’ll be able to see these examples when the book is released, but I this process as a great way to listen more closely.
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