7/31/08

RIP Griff- The Little Giant


Johnny Griffin, one of my all-time favorite saxophonists, passed away last Friday. Griff first capture my attention when I was 19 years old. I ran across his Little Giant record and was entranced by it. At that time I hadn't yet developed a taste for Trane, and was just moving toward Cannonball from Bird. Griff was so fluid, confident and his sound expressive. I couldn't imagine how he articulated as fast as he did, it seemed almost super-human.

I was fortunate to see Griff at his peak in the late 80's, when Griffin was making his return to the States after living happily in France for some years. It was a freezing night in the middle of winter and it was dumping snow. I was sitting in the second row of the old 1369 Jazz club in Cambridge. The house was packed. The bassist Charnette Moffet was late to the gig and Griff was pacing around angrily as he warmed up with a tube sock in his bell. The crowd was starting to rumble and Griff was becoming more pissed off as each minute ticked by.

Twenty minutes after the show was scheduled to start Charnette rushed in from the freezing cold and made his way through the packed house to the bandstand. As Charnette set up his bass Griff gave him a dirty look and made a snide comment. As soon as Charnette was ready to play, which must have been well before his fingers had thawed out, Griff counted off the fastest blues I had ever heard. It must have been approaching 400 beats per minute. It was BLAZING!

Griff had build up quite a bit of steam while waiting for Charnette and was going to make him think twice about ever being late again. Griff must have played over 50 punishing choruses on that first tune. The crowd went nuts.

We were experiencing a true giant.

Tim Price on Griff
NY Times obituary

S.O.S. solo transcription

Rhythm-a-ning solo transcription

YouTube video 1
YouTube video 2
YouTube- Blues for Gonz
YouTube- Griff & LockJaw
YouTube- Griff w/Art Taylor

7/17/08

Even MORE fake books!

I just found these links to a couple of pages with a ton of PDFs:

Russian site
Dearnell.com

7/13/08

Abul Fazul on the imperial musicians


" I cannot sufficiently describe the wonderful power of this talisman of knowledge [music]. It sometimes causes the beautiful creatures of the harem of the heart to shine forth on the tongue, and sometimes appears in solemn strains by means of the hand and the chord. The melodies then enter through the window of the ear and return to their former seat, the heart, bringing with them thousands of presents. The hearers, according to their insight, are moved to sorrow or to joy. Music is thus of use to those who have renounced the world and to such as still cling to it.

His Majesty pays much attention to music, and is the patron of all who practise this enchanting art. There are numerous musicians at court, Hindús, I´ránís, Túránís, Kashmírís, both men and women. The court musicians are arranged in seven divisions, one for each day in the week. When his Majesty gives the order, they let the wine of harmony flow, and thus increase intoxication in some, and sobriety in others." - ABUL FAZL ALLÁMI

From the AÍN I AKBARI, the administrative report of Mughal Emperor Akbar’s empire (completed between 1596 and 1604).





7/7/08

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Tin Pan Alley Fake Book


Tin Pan Alley Fake Book

Disney Fake Book


Disney Fake Book

557 Jazz Standards (Swing To Bop)

557 Jazz Standards (Swing To Bop)

Jazz Sax Duets

Jazz Sax Duets

Rhythm Changes Sax- Transcriptions

Rhythm Changes- Sax Transcriptions

7/6/08

Lovano book

Lovano transcriptions

Overtone book

Overtone book

Contemporary Techniques for Saxophone Book

Contemporary Techniques for Saxophone Book

Thousands of pages of Jazz transcriptions! INSANE!!!!!

Yes, here they are. You simply will not believe the number of transcriptions contained in these Japanese compilations. You need the passwords to open them.

Don't say I never did anything for you....

The Real Jazz Vol.V (password: nkjcjp)
The Real Jazz Vol.VI (password: qgssjp)
The Real Jazz Vol.VII (password:bvatjp)

7/1/08

Japanese Fake Book Bonanza!!!

Here are some very useful fake book volumes from Japan. Each document contains many fake books, so they may take a while to download.

Jazz Melody vol.I
Jazz Melody vol.II
Jazz Melody vol.III
Jazz Melody vol.IV

Popular Melody