Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. My name is Marc and this is Jazz Guitar Insights here. I want to reflect a little bit on the things I learned from transcribing West Montgomery solos. So let's get going.
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So back then when I started to transcribe and really learn jazz guitar, of course I've been told you got to learn some West Montgomery stuff.
So the first track I picked is On Your Own Sweet Way on the album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of West. And one of the main reasons I picked it was because it was the slowest tempo on the record. It's really beautiful, nice chords, melody, and then he launches into lines and often it goes to double time lines as well, which is a solo that I didn't expect to be as intricate.
And the second transcription I'd done and that's wow, probably about 20 years ago, is No Blues, which is the first track on live and a half note with the Wynton Kelly Trio. So it's just the blues in, right? So there's three main takeaways that I want. I want to keep this short for you to share the really the outstanding things or things that are there that we wouldn't say they're unexpected, but really clarified while working on the transcription, going, really, this is what's up, this is what's happening.
And it's not necessarily on which scales are used and what kind of rhythms. And you know, what substitutions is more on the broader, a perspective getting into a solo like bird's eye view of a solo. So without further ado, first takeaway riffs. So West does not hesitate to repeat and repeat and repeat. So the band members around him latch on.
And also to create this level of intensity. So I'm bringing back to, no blues, right? It's just a 12 bar blues. So they start to shoot the head. It's just a sort of a riff with punches and then guitar solo. Right. And it's a five minute guitar solo. Swings. It swings really hard. The band's connected. It's awesome.
You guys know the record. If you don't stop everything going to listen to it? No blues live in a half, not with wounded Kelly West Montgomery. He starts basic lines. It's almost as if West is putting out a feeler. Then eventually he's going to riff on things with a specific punch in a certain area of the bar that comes back around and around and around, like Bill dee dee doo doo bah.
But they'll do that. They do a better bar to do better. Could it be that better be, better? I'm doing really poor singing of this, but you hear the bar is something that West is expecting and waiting for the band to to latch onto, meaning that after 2 or 3 times the drummer picks up and you hear the symbol hit at that same place bar as a punch.
So it's almost like making a micro arrangement that's reminiscent of, like, big bands, like with these sort of punches. But he's doing it on the fly. So first take away riff and repetitions. And the purpose of this, I think, and the like subconsciously, West is raising the intensity, going like, yep, let me play a few lines. Let me do like put out a feeler and then let's get into that riff together so we can ride that wave and just increase the intensity one notch.
All right. Good. Let's go to the next riff, repeat together and raise again the intensity. And again the intensity again until a point where West goes classic octaves. Right. And then he goes classic block chords and then wraps up his solo. So the riff and the repetition is really good. it's like a clay or it's like in the Play-Doh, which he can assemble his bricks of his solo to, to build a solid foundation.
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takeaway number two. I wrote down that no blues solo in part, and the main takeaway is like, while there's so much rest, the rests are clear and they come at the end of the phrases, and West has a chops to play forever and to continue on playing. But the placement of the silences frame his musical ideas super well, and I would dare to say that it's because of these recent silences and the way they're put together, the areas in which they are in the solo that makes the line stand out, basically.
So that's the takeaway. It just like men play a line, finish it, finish that sentence with a period. Start the next sentence with a capital letter. Make sure the spacing is good. It gives the band and the audience the time to digest, the previous line like emotionally digest the meaning of the previous lines and riffs. Good third takeaway it's about blues vocabulary.
So there's a good book by Dan Greenblatt. It's on. sure. Music. It's called The Blues Scales or the Blues scale. Blues scales plural. I think you can get the PDF. I'm not affiliated, but it's a good book that shows some lines and how to do major blues versus minor blues, and how to have other stuff within your blues lines.
So what fascinated me with the no blues solo by West specifically, is the use of extending of blues scale. So I felt like, oh, you play on the blues scale, you play on blues scale, or you're playing Mixolydian or Dorian or Altered or modes. That's that. But I think West is just blending them seamlessly, meaning that a line may start with a mixolydian thing.
A dominant chord is playing part of an arpeggio, so of course is really making the change, but that line may transition in to a blues lick, or vice versa. It may start out as a blues lick, and then he's fully making the changes and resolving to the third and using its flat line of chord whatever. So he's using blues traditional vocabulary, but extending it.
I think that's what bebop is known for as well. Right. Just to to be able to. Yes. Spell changes very plainly, almost in a classical music manner. At the same time, have the raunchy blues licks and the things that are really catchy and cliche. So that's it. So those are the main three takeaways. The recap riffs and repetition and the clear riffs and beginning and the phrases and the blues scale scales mixed up with other modes and materials.
Fantastic. So just a quick call to action to you guys. Tried transcribing it. I just had a talk yesterday with a gentleman who's transcribing, Grant green. And this is fantastic. Not just for the notes and, the the arpeggios and the positions at the technique, but also for the approach, like how this Grant Green or Jim Hall or Pat Metheny gets into that improv and we take away way more than the notes.
As you can see, this was a topic of the short podcast, which is basically a monologue, which is, hey guys, this is what I found out. And it's it is pretty cool. And you can make it not be daunting because often the problem is people think, oh, I got to transcribe the whole thing. I have to write it down.
I have to play it whatever. You could look at four bars that you really like and just set it on your guitar, be able to play.
