Kevin Sun

I first wrote about "Head Trip," Aaron Goldberg's contrafact on "One Finger Snap"  from his début release, Turning Point  (1999) , almost three years ago. Listening to this, it's revealing how much of the language Mark plays on this up-tempo, dominant-chord dominated tune is bebop (in particular what he plays over the concert Ab7 of each chorus right before the descending minor ii-Vs). Some of the other now-trademark Mark-isms are present in varying degrees— e.g. , the almost ostentatious use of quarter motifs (first chorus), accordion-fold arpeggios (top of fifth chorus)—but there's notably minimal altissimo on this particular take.  Aaron has played with Mark since the early '90s, and was very generous in sharing his perceptions on Mark and the scenes they came up in. I ultimately only slipped in a brief quote in the finished piece in order to keep the length manageable and give everyone interviewed a chance to have their say, but here's mo...

When I first heard about the Live at the Plugged Nickel  (1965) recordings in high school, I had only ever listened to the 'First Great Quintet.' Based on the track listing for these recordings, I was expecting to hear some moderately updated takes of existing repertoire, but I had no way to process what was happening. Where was the harmony? Where was the form? Where was 'one'?  A few years later, I came back to these recordings while feeling in a slump about playing over standards—the hopelessness of breaking free from 32-bar forms that began to feel like prison cells—and they instantaneously opened my ears to the possibilities of creating vibrant, living music within old forms. It wasn't about making the most pristine or slick melodic/harmonic/rhythmic statement within the form; it was about exploding these forms, overspilling their boundaries with the momentum of the music.  The opening tune from the first set of the second night, "If I Were a B...

It's been a while since I've posted any solos, but now that Herbie's been giving the  Norton Lectures  at Harvard, I was reminded to revisit a solo I'd transcribed a while back but forgotten about.  This is from the alternate take of "One Finger Snap" from  Empyrean Isles  (1964), which is noticeably brighter than the master take and a little more rough around the edges. Freddie's solo on this take is brilliant; the interplay within the band is raw and deeply engaging throughout. This is Herbie's brief second solo statement after Freddie's solo and before Tony's. Check it out: C Bb Eb * * * It's hard to believe that it's already been another year. Thanks, everybody, for continuing to read and share your thoughts on this blog. I mentioned last year around this time that I was hoping to try to write more thoughts about music rather than just post transcriptions all the time, and I think that I've made some pr...

View from famously uncomfortable seats In case you didn't know, Herbie Hancock is this year's Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry , which is a fancy designation at Harvard that allows the university to bring one distinguished artist each year to give a series of free lectures in the school's biggest lecture hall, Sanders Theater. The term "poetry" is interpreted broadly here—similar to how "sports" are interpreted broadly for Rhodes Scholar applicants—and past Norton lecturers have included Igor Stravinsky, e.e. cummings, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, and Leonard Bernstein (whose lectures are up on YouTube !). Homi Bhabha introduced Herbie for the first lecture, and his opening remarks were notable for two primary reasons: (1) Bhabha pointed out that Herbie was the first African-American Norton lecturer, which was received with moderate applause (kind of shocking, considering that the Norton Professorship was endowed in 1925), and (2) Bhabh...

After a tumultuous weekend (and an even more extraordinary week), there's not much to do but to keep on with regular life as best as we can. Two weeks ago, I posted Herbie Hancock's solo on "Riot" from Speak Like a Child  (1968). At Miguel's urging, I've been working on another solo from the same record, "First Trip," a Ron Carter tune that was also recorded on Joe Henderson's Tetragon  (also released in 1968). Here's the solo: * * * * * Today marks the last installment of my Crimson Arts column "Flirting with Coherence,"  which is a brief attempt to diagram the births of major 20th-c. American jazz saxophonists  and summarize a few major strains of influence—all in 1300 words. A few friends of mine have already pointed out some contentious points, so I expect to update this and really give it the due diligence it deserves at some point in the future, although I'm satisfied to have a starting point fo...

A few weeks ago, I had two back-to-back lessons with Miguel and John McNeil. At the end of my lesson with Miguel, I was asked to transcribe Herbie's solo on "Riot," the opening track from Speak Like a Child  (1968); in my lesson with John, this same solo was recommended to me for study. When I told John how Miguel had just mentioned the same solo, he cracked a big grin and was visibly delighted to hear that other musicians were checking out the same music. He told me an anecdote about asking a saxophonist in the Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock, 2007 (Wikimedia Commons) past to study the solo over winter break, and how his phrasing was transformed after studying the solo. At this point, there was no way I could not transcribe the solo, so I went ahead and checked it out for myself. This isn't the flashiest Herbie I've heard (compared to his solo on "No More Blues" from Double Rainbow , for instance), but it's certainly some of the most thoughtfu...

Last week I passed on Transcription Tuesday because I had made a pledge with some friends not to bring our laptops to Vermont during spring break. In retrospect, I still think that was a good call, but I thought I'd make up for last week with an extra solo. Ever since Miguel has been having me transcribe classic '60s Blue Note Herbie for my lessons, I've been increasingly cognizant of the great players in the bebop tradition and thought I'd take a closer look at their improvisations.  Hank Jones at Newport '05 (Ed Newman) I don't think many would disagree that Bill Evans and Hank Jones are two pianists who are most reliably described as "elegant." They're definitely two of the more mainstream, more widely disseminated stylists of the jazz piano tradition, but certainly for good reason. In some ways, I hear a strong Bill Evans influence (or at least confluence) in some of Chris Potter's rhythmic bebop phrasing—all the instantaneous shifts ...