Jerry Bergonzi solo on "How High The Moon"

This is an improvised solo by the great saxophonist, Jerry Bergonzi on his composition "Between Worlds", which is based on the chord changes to the standard "How High The Moon". It was captured on one of Bergonzi's weekly sessions at The Lilypad, in Cambridge, MA, on June 27, 2016. Masterful lines, phrasing, rhythm & time feel by JB. Rhythm section is Greg Loughman on bass and Luther Gray on drums. Enjoy. Gustavo

Click on the link below to view/download the PDF of the transcription in both Concert & Bb versions:

Jerry Bergonzi solo on "How High The Moon" - Transcription (Concert & Bb)

Jerry Bergonzi solo on "I Hear a Rhapsody"

This is an improvised solo by the great saxophonist, Jerry Bergonzi on his composition "Bafandine", which is based on the chord changes to the standard "I Hear a Rhapsody". It was captured on one of Bergonzi's weekly sessions at The Lilypad, in Cambridge, MA, on September 7, 2015. Masterful lines, phrasing, rhythm & time feel by JB. Rhythm section is Matt Stavrakas on bass and Luther Gray on drums. Enjoy. Gustavo

Click on the link below to view/download the PDF of the transcription in both Concert & Bb versions:

Jerry Bergonzi solo on "I Hear a Rhapsody" - Transcription (Concert & Bb)

Jerry Bergonzi solo on "Stella by Starlight"

This is a solo by the great saxophonist, Jerry Bergonzi on his composition "Creature Feature", which is based on the chord changes to the standard "Stella by Starlight". 
This was captured on one of Bergonzi's weekly sessions at The Lilypad, in Cambridge, MA, on April 18, 2016. Rhythm section is Bruce Gertz on bass and Luther Gray on drums. I had initially transcribed a few lines from this solo, but as I kept listening to it there were too many things I liked, so I did it all. I will be including an analysis soon. Enjoy. Gustavo

Click on the link below to view/download the PDF of the transcription:
Jerry Bergonzi solo on "Stella by Starlight" (Creature Feature) - concert & Bb

Vertical Improvisation

This is a past article from 2000 that addresses a variety of Tension Resolution techniques for jazz improvisation.

Vertical Improvisation (Article)

Motivic Development & Dynamics by Gary Burton

Here is the audio & transcription of an improv clinic by Gary Burton in Argentina in 1987 dealing with "Motivic Development & Dynamics" on the chord changes to the standard "On Green Dolphin Street".

It's great to hear/see how Gary manipulates three different motivic ideas on "letter A,B & C" of the transcription. The rest is a demonstration on the importance of dynamic contour in lines. I put in some dynamic markings. You may want to plug in the chord changes once you've downloaded the file. Gustavo

Go here to visualize/download the transcription:

Gary Burton - Motivic Development & Dynamics - "On Green Dolphin Street"

Chord Tone Soloing Article

The examples in this article on Chord Tone Soloing are directly from the book The Complete Guide To Improvisation.  I think it's an important topic since being able to create a strong solo with only chord tones is fundamental to being a good improvisor. I spend a good deal of time on this topic in my improvisation class at Berklee. When learning a new tune, improvising with strictly chord tones is a good way to begin and really learn the changes.

Additional areas addressed in the chord tone soloing chapter of the book include: phrasing, guide tone lines, creating a solo with guide tone lines, creating a chord tone solo with specific intervals, and chord tone solos on Coltrane's Moment's Notice and Irving Berlin's How Deep Is The Ocean. Here are a few things to look out for in the solo (based on Coltrane's Moment's Notice) in this article: use of guide tone lines, motives, how the chords are connected, use of syncopation.

It's not easy to create a nice sounding solo with strictly chord tones since all of the notes are stable and "inside" notes. Because of that, we need resort to the use of motives, variety of phrase lengths, starting and ending phrases in varying places, pacing, rhythmic variation, melodic angularity, etc, in order to build a strong solo. The goal is to try and make the chord tone solo sound melodic, flowing and musical as opposed to an exercise. It's not necessary to sound all of the chord tones for each chord. Also, it's helpful to avoid sounding arpeggios and running the chords up and down. 

A few other things to think about: try to sound a single melodic idea across the bar line as opposed to playing an idea in one measure and another idea on the next measure. Another thing to keep in mind is to avoid consistently hitting beat one.

You can download the article here:

Chord Tone Soloing (Article)

FNGs, Pentatonics, USTs & US7th Chords on "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To"

Practicing improvisation on Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To". Mixing up improvisational techniques including Four Note Groupings, Pentatonic Scales and Upper Structure Triads/7th chords.