Warne Marsh on "Lennie Bird"

When Lennie wrote that line ["Lennie Bird"], he had no regard for a horn player's need to take a breath once in a while. That was the same problem with Lennie's line on "See You In My Dreams," where the last 16 bars had no space whatsoever for a breath. When Warne and I played that, we worked it out so I would omit a couple notes in one place and he would do the same in another place so we could each grab a quick breath, but there would never be a break in the sound. But with just one horn that is tough.  
— Ted Brown 
Warne Marsh Jazz Saxophone Solo Transcription (Bb) — "Lennie Bird" Page 1


Warne Marsh Jazz Saxophone Solo Transcription (Bb) — "Lennie Bird" Page 2

Warne Marsh Jazz Saxophone Solo Transcription (Bb) — "Lennie Bird" Page 3

Warne Marsh Jazz Saxophone Solo Transcription (Bb) — "Lennie Bird" Page 4

Bb
C
Eb

*Back in the day, I used to be able to get through this solo passably.


* * * * *

So many things started, then life gets in the way. In a moment of unchecked nostalgia, I came upon some videos of myself playing solos I'd learned and since mostly forgotten, and I realized I'd never gotten around to posting the transcriptions of some of those solos (hence, this post). Most of it was just dropping the ball on my part, but I also rediscovered some drafts of longer, more discursive posts that I'd intended to post concurrently with these transcriptions; when the longer post got abandoned in the stream of day to day event, so did the smaller transcriptions. 

Living in New York, I've found it hard to feel motivated to continue the solitary, rather hermetic labors of the jazz blogger. Why muse in the corner on arcana when you can go out and be in the present moment, seeing shows and experiencing the scene in real time? But, having said that, I've felt a bit saturated lately in terms of seeing live music; between the weekday grind, practicing, and miscellaneous writing and editing assignments, I've let composing and music writing fall by the wayside. 

Two summers ago, I had the pleasure of attending a weeklong workshop outside of Chicago, where Rufus Reid was teaching. Among the various pearls he laid on us students, one observation, which came directly from Eddie Harris, comes to mind: "Anybody can start something; the real work is finishing it." Along those same lines, I don't remember who I heard this from (it may have been Reid, but I'm not certain), but the gentle reminder that not every composition you create has to be a masterpiece seems to be relevant to my tying up some of the loose ends related to the blog. I expect to have a few more posts done by the end of the summer, somehow already seemingly fast approaching.

Comments