Steve's session on Tuesday certainly packed it in despite only dealing with one tune. Using the great Joe Henderson tune Recordame (Real Book - Edition 5) he showed us how displacing a rhythmic motif into different places in the bar give a totally different feel. He then went on to look at the structure of the tune, the importance of playing in time rather than an emphasis on what notes to play and then went on to ask us to learn the tune and the chords. He said that David Leibman had been at Trinity (where Steve teaches) recently and had emphasised the importance of transcribing solos and learning them as the best way to learn the jazz language. He recommended Transcribe! the programme.
The feedback from members on this session has been very good. The tune was a bit tricky for some people to read but this will be overcome by doing it again next week. It is a 16 bar tune and starts with 4 bars of A minor followed by 4 bars of C minor (both dorian). The second 16 bars are a series of 251s over two bars each starting on the 8th bar. The sequence is easy to remember because each new tonality starts as a minor of the previous major so Bbmaj7 is followed by Bb-7, the 2 of the next 251. For the last sequence Gbmaj moves to F#minor so a departure there. The last chord is altered so think of it as the melodic minor of the last 251 which is Fmaj.