Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you for continuing to be subscribed to my newsletter. I hope you've found some of these helpful, and as always, let me know if you have suggestions for the next month!

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This month I wanted to highlight this recording from Live at Emmet's Place. This is an outstanding collection of live performances hosted by pianist Emmet Cohen, all of which are high quality and free. These performances feature some of the most amazing musicians playing tunes we've heard! I also am highlighting this because some of the best soloing information you can get as a bass trombonist can come from bass players! This video features the house bassist Russell Hall, and bass legend Christian McBride on Birk's Works! 

The bass player has been doing 8vbebop before it was cool, so dig into these great solos and you can take from this already perfected low register language! This month's free PDF is actually a series of exercises I use to work on my valve proficiency. Oftentimes we have to line up slide position, articulation, lip partial, and then up to two valves for a note change to happen effectively (thats up to five different factors!). In order for me to take one level of complication off of the table, I practice just being able to move my valves in time effectively. Ensure that you move the valves in time so that the note speaks on the beat or subdivision, and aim for a relaxed but efficient grip with your left hand. There are some trickier ones that I call "Valve Twisters", so feel free to give these a go, and make up some more of your own!

As a final bonus, check out my transcription of Charlie Parker's solo on Cherokee, which includes a PDF with valve positions. There are TONS of great ideas in this solo, so don't hold back!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I hope you all are getting an opportunity to rest, relax, and remind yourself how amazing you are for doing what you do every day!

This month's newsletter will be short and sweet, because I would also like to get back to some R&R. This newsletter contains a holiday gift to all of my newsletter subscribers, and that is my new arrangement of The Christmas Song for Big Band, which can feature Bass Trombone. I only request that you do not sell or distribute this, but please use it freely in your own performances and study. I sincerely hope you have the opportunity to perform and be featured on this piece, as I know we very seldom get the spotlight in the bandstand. Here's also a link to the performance I just posted of this arrangement

Lastly, I just want to express my sincerest gratitude for everyone who has subscribed to this newsletter. This has been a wonderful opportunity for me to reach out and connect with more people in the community, and I hope that you have found these etudes and recordings useful. I'm sending love and well wishes to you as we round out 2022,

Hello again! Thank you again for being a subscriber to my newsletter! If you have any suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact me at chrisglassman1@gmail.com, I would love to hear what you think of these!

This month, it's back to the etudes, and this one is over the jazz standard "There Will Never Be Another You". This etude focusses on leaning into tension notes with the chord changes (often times notes that are a half step above or below a chord tone). This practice, as well as using long, syncopated notes, creates a playful tension that can make your improvising sound exciting! I highly recommend taking this and adding it over your favorite songs, even just isolating practicing playing delayed resolutions on their own.As a more general practice, I myself try to highlight a musical decision I can make, and practice "over-doing" that concept over all of my favorite tunes, even over every single chord it fits in. This builds a muscle memory that you can apply naturally during real time improvising. And, once you get that down, try creating sequences of these that mix up the rhythm or which tension note, and even integrate this alongside another musical decision you've been working on!

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This month, I wanted to highlight an album that I'm almost certain you wouldn't expect! While I know that I focus heavily on the bebop and blues part of being an improviser, I find myself inspired by all types of music within our beloved genre. This month's album is Tigran Himasayan's "StandArt". Tigran Hamasayan is an Armenian pianist who began studying jazz at age nine. He his known for his application of Armenian folk music into his jazz compositions, and his use of highly complex rhythm and polyrhythm. He often composes and arranges works that are in odd meters, or uses quintuplet and septuplet divisions as a staple of his writing. This album is a wholly unique take on standards. If you look at the track list, you will see common standards like "All the Things You Are" and "Softly as In a Morning Sunrise".  Once the tracks start, however, you're greeted by a cascade of rhythm and harmony that creates a fresh take on these classic songs. The one thing that sets these arrangements apart to me , however, is that you can still hear the song within them!As a final note, I'm so excited to be back home after six months of touring with Michael Bublé, and I'm happy to have some free time to accommodate a few new students. Should any of you be interested in diving deeper into any of the concepts we've talked about, or are interested in anything that I can offer, feel free to reach out to me and we can coordinate time. I am also happy to accommodate students that are of any economic situation, so please let me know if you have need for financial accommodations!

Thanks for continuing to be a subscriber to my newsletter! I'm hopeful that you're finding these etudes and recordings I post every month helpful and inspiring, as researching and writing them have been for me!This month is a very special month for me, as I'm celebrating the release of my debut record, "Living The Dream". As a thank you for being subscribed to my newsletter, I'll be giving you all a free leadsheet to my original, Belley's Bounce, in lieu of an etude. I thank you for your subscription, and I hope you enjoy it!

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In celebration of "Living The Dream" being released. I wanted to share with you some exclusive insights into my music. Each piece actually has an emotion and a story behind it. A lot of times as composers, we can get lost in the details, sometimes it can be helpful to start with something outside of music! I encourage you all to try writing a piece inspired by a memory or feeling, and below are a few from the record!

Animosity (Anger): This composition encapsulates one of the most visceral sensations I experienced as a child, the anger and jealousy associated with sibling rivalry. As a child I grew up with intense and unjustified animosity towards my siblings because they were always at least one step ahead of me (embodied by the tempo, intensity of melody, and the lead into the second time through the melody). Deep within this feeling of resentment, however, was a sense of admiration and idolization of my brothers’ skills, intelligence, and abilities (encapsulated by the angular usage of lydian chords throughout the form of the tune). The final moment of the composition is the revelation: this competitiveness is a tool, and these individuals can actually be my greatest allies in life.

Belley’s Bounce (Joy): Belley’s Bounce is written for my brother’s first child, Annabelle Noelle. To me, her birth served as a moment for me that I have entered adult life. I’ve been inspired watching her grow and I will forever be grounded by her innocent smile and uninhibited joy. During the recording of this album, having the opportunity to perform with a band of mentors, led by master mentor and musical hero Michael Dease, and with special guest Steve Davis (a musician to which I’m endlessly inspired by), finally sank in. A key memory I will keep in my head for years to come is the smile I shared with Steve Davis as we swapped solos.

Twister (Fear/uncertainty): As children, we all have fears that may or may not be founded in reality, my greatest being tornadoes. Living in Colorado near the plains of Tornado Alley, it constantly haunted my nightmares of my home being destroyed by this natural disaster. Encapsulating this fear and uncertainty is the unmistakable sound of the alarms used for drills in my elementary school, a sound I tapped into in composing this melody. In addition, the composition reflects how from a distance, a tornado (much like feelings of fear and uncertainty) can seem like a distant unmoving system, but in truth moves incredibly quickly and can overwhelm you before you know it.

Blossom (Aspiration): This composition reflects on how hope and aspiration can blossom and bear fruit. Its introduction is designed to elicit a flower unfurling its leaves to reveal vibrant colors .The longer and more harmonically static form aims to portray how aspiration and hope can take a long time to come to fruition, and the consistent motion of the brushes reflects how constant efforts are the driving force for transforming aspiration and hope into change.

Lush Life (Cynicism): To the untrained ear, Lush Life sounds like a lovely and smooth ballad about romance and prosperity. Once you dig past the surface, however, it reveals itself as a cynical and tired reflection by one of jazz’s greatest songwriters, Billy Strayhorn. In situations where I’ve been burned by life, I’ve found it all too easy to fall into cynicism and isolation, and the cadenza repeats the lyric “Life is Lonely” over and over, descending to portray that hopelessness we can feel.

Pencils Down (Anxiety): Evaluation and examination is an unending part of the 21st century life, whether it be standardized testing as a student, evaluation at a job, or the constant evaluation we have on ourselves within our day to day lives. I was a part of one of the first generations of students who received standardized, state mandated testing every year starting when I was in 3rd grade, and I can still distinctly recall the anxiety I felt opening up that first test booklet. This composition aims to encapsulate that moment.

Thanks for continuing to be a subscriber to my newsletter! I'm hopeful that you're finding these etudes and recordings I post every month helpful and inspiring, as researching and writing them have been for me!

This month's etude is over a favorite, but deceptively tricky tune, and that is Miles Davis's composition So What. For many people, this is the first jazz tune they ever learn, because it seems accessible with only two chords; D minor and Eb minor. The more you dig into playing it, however, you realize that these static minor chords can create issues of their own. 

Playing So What (or John Coltrane's more brisk contrafact Impressions), requires a HUGE amount of compositional decision making, which is what I focussed on in this etude. I tried as much as possible to stick with the diatonic scale, and focus on the ways you can use theme based, harmonic (leaning on juicy notes like the natural 6, the 9, the 11), and rhythmic playing. You'll also notice that I focussed more on triads within D minor (like A minor, E minor, G major), but didn't specifically use the D minor triad that much! This creates depth to the sound, and can get to one of the key colors of playing a modal tune like this.

I also always tried to let a singable melody be the guide for what I wrote, I sang every phrase out loud to ensure that I was in the sound I was hoping for, and I would advise the same to you as you develop your comfort with composing and improvising. That being said, don't forget that your bebop will always be at your disposal, as demonstrated in the last 16 bars of the second chorus. This is just cracking the shell of what's possible on this tune, so dig in and find out what sounds give you the most gratification!

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This month's Dig This is an album by the amazing trumpeter Brian Lynch, who is also Studio Instructor of Jazz Trumpet at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music. This album, entitled "Spheres of Influence" recently caught my eye as a standout especially for its inclusion of one of my favorite ballads, "You Know I Care". The band, featuring Jeff "Tain" Watts, Donald Harrison, David Kikoski, Conrad Herwig, and Brian Lynch, has great interaction, ensemble performance, and of course individual solos that can be listened on repeat. In particular, Lynch has mastered playing the language of jazz and bebop without sounding cliche, and leads with a crisp sound and fluency through the whole horn that's nearly unmatched. At times he reminds me of the harmonic isms of Woody Shaw, while not being afraid to dig deep into the blues for feeling.

Updates

I'm delighted to say that I have received my physical copies of "Living The Dream" and that Preorders will start going out as early as October 7th. Stay tuned for another surprise surrounding the October 14th Bandcamp release of the album, and I am just so excited to share this music with this incredible band with you all!

Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! My aim with these is to provide some resources to help you practice, including adding a free 8vbebop etude. 

This month’s etude is on the classic Jerome Kern standard "Just Friends". Here's a classic recording of the great trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker. When you're learning that's a song and has lyrics, I love to start by listening to a sung recording, and practice learning and singing the lyrics along with the recording (even though I have a less than stellar singing voice!). This allows you to learn the story of the song, and many of these songs continue to be played because their melodies and lyrics are timeless. In this case, the song is about someone who's getting friend-zoned!

On these etudes I try to mix a combination of vertical (harmonic or chord based) and horizontal (melodic or "line" based) playing, to show how bebop merges these two types into one sound.

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This month's Dig This is a great performance of the trumpet player Kenny Dorham, another song entitled "Mack the Knife". I aim to pick songs that can serve as a starting point for more listening, and "Quiet Kenny" is one of my all time favorite recordings, so I highly recommend just diving into the record! Not only is Kenny an incredibly adept bebopper, but what separates his playing from other legendary players is how many ways he can play just a single note!Lastly, Mack the Knife is a great tune with a simple form that begs to be moved up and down keys, so try practicing not just in F but in Gb and beyond! The more that you practice ideas (like in this great Mike Dease video) up and down half steps, the less scary it gets, and the more you can do with them, and the more that Gb and B and E and even C# just become another key, not the "hard" key!

Updates

I’ve recently rebranded (you may have noticed the color changes!), and my new photos and full brand colors are live on my website. Check it out if you’re curious! Thanks again for subscribing! Stay tuned for more updates, including an exciting announcement, coming soon!”

Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! My aim with these is to provide some resources to help you practice, including adding a free 8vbebop etude. This month’s etude is on the classic Jerome Kern standard "All the Things You Are". I'm linking one of the most famous performances of this by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, on top of Bird and Diz's amazing playing, check out Slam Stewart's bow and singing.

This etude is packed (almost too packed) with vocabulary, and I aim to highlight how using simple shapes in the melodic minor scale one half step up from the root of a V7 chord can create a very recognizable "Altered" sound! I also tried to continue using melodic development through the piece, and worked to create a singing, almost limerick-like, melodic development. Using sequencing and syncopation can create a playful rhythmic feeling for the melody.

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This month's Dig This is a new passion project for me, namely Charlie Parker's solo on Cherokee. This early recording of Bird has it all, rhythm, melody, harmony, swing, phrasing, you name it! Instead of analyzing the mess out of it, I'll just let you listen and see for yourself!

Hello again!Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter! My aim with these is to provide some resources to help you practice, including adding a free 8vbebop etude. This month’s etude is on the famous Charlie Parker tune “Confirmation”. 

Learning this melody is in and of itself a challenge, but I highly recommend you all give it a try! With a tune like this, it’s really important that you start slow and take your time both learning the melody, the chord changes, and perhaps this etude.I also love how, pedagogically speaking, this piece has a lot to teach about harmony. The first four bars alone are insightful as they contain a sequence of continuous ii-V progressions resolving to Bb (the IV of F). This progression is commonly called the #4 walk down, as it goes through the cycle starting on the #4 (E in the key of resolving chord Bb, the resolving chord), and are very common in other famous compositions performed in jazz, like the #4 walk down in Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”.

In this etude, I tried to apply thematic playing to this form, both within the chord changes (like bar 11 and 12), and thinking more “macro” and playing just over F (like bars 1-6). Thematic playing can allow you to play over a lot of chord changes without having to constantly barrage eighth note lines. Also note how small rhythmic alterations to simple ideas can make them sound more playful and varied. It turns out you don’t have to reinvent everything to make a repeated idea sound fresh!While there’s a lot more that could be pulled from this etude (I’ll leave you all to do some digging on some of these quotes, especially bar 33!), 

I want to emphasize the importance of where the accents are placed. Because bebop is so rhythmic, let the accent notes be your phrasing anchor; allow them to pop, and focus on dynamically de-emphasizing the non accented notes in a phrase. Apply this to the melody as well, and you’ll find yourself swinging harder than ever!

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This month’s recording is of a great blues entitled “Farmer’s Market”, featuring the great tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray. Wardell Gray is one of the “missing links” between the swing and bebop era of playing.Originally from Detroit, Gray made his break at 21 playing with the Earl Hines Orchestra, and eventually spend a lot of his time in Los Angeles. 

He was also famous for having legendary tenor battles with Dexter Gordon, and his light sound was a foil for Dexter’s huge tone. Gray is also famous for his tenor battles in New York with Dexter Gordon, and performed with Basie and Benny Goodman, and Benny Carter’s bands. Sadly, Gray’s drug addiction finally took a toll and he passed from a drug overdose in May of 1955 at 34.

Wardell Gray’s playing was extremely melodic much like Lester Young, but you can clearly hear how his predecessors in Hines’s band, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, influenced his playing. I recommend taking his approach to emphasizing and de-emphasizing notes to the etude and your playing at large, as this will give your musical phrases variety and intention! I also highly recommend listening more of him as well as the band, trumpeter Art Farmer, Pianist Hampton Hawes, Bassist Harper Crosby, Drummer Lawrence Marble, and Congero Robert Collier.

Updates

As a small life update, I’m so excited to be going on tour with Michael Bublé and his world class big band in the United Kingdom from June 26th-July 25th. If you’d like to find out where I’m playing, check out my website’s “shows” page, or click hereThank you again for subscribing, and stay tuned for more updates next month!

Thanks so much for checking out my blog!  My aim with these is to provide resources that can help you in your improvisation practice, including providing you with a free 8vbebop Etude. This etude is over the classic Horace Silver Composition Sister Sadie.

I chose this tune because it's a great tune to learn if you're just getting comfortable with improvising, and it has only a few different chords. I used the extended G7 chords in the A sections to show some possibilities of bebop based ideas, blues ideas, diminished ideas, and minor ideas off of the ii chord (D minor). Feel free to reach out if you have questions, if you found this helpful, or if you'd like to see more content like this!

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In every newsletter, I'll be including a recording, live performance, or other music-related videos that I have found inspiring or helpful. This month's video is one of the most recent Live from Emmet's Place performances featuring Dr. Eddie Henderson and Steve Davis. I chose this video because:

1. Steve Davis and Dr. Henderson both have sounds, style, and language that we all strive for, as well as an improvisational fluency and comfort that is truly inspiring. In particular, Steve Davis is one of my musical North Stars because he always sounds like he has the "cheat code" to playing the most melodic and swinging phrases over any tune without any nonsense!
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3. Emmet and his trio have really revolutionized what an online jazz livestream could be, and they continue this series even as we have resumed our daily routines.
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5. If you dig to the middle of the video, they give some valuable pedagogical insights about improvising that Dr. Henderson learned from Miles. They also talk about an often overlooked but no less amazing musician; Jackie McLean.