Jazz Trumpet Licks

It’s always cool to hear a famous Jazz trumpet player like Terence Blanchard at a jam session. I’ve never got to hear him really play without a whole bunch of bends  in his trumpet solo until I watched this Jazz video clip of him at the 2007 Vitoria Jazz Festival. I’m not 100% sure of the chord changes, I think it is from the tune Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise.

Notice how Terence Blanchard uses a whole bunch of chromatic Jazz licks as his style of trumpet playing which is cool. Even though Terence Blanchard is jamming, he maintains his own unique style on the trumpet. He really doesn’t use a whole lot of breaks though. Instead he goes hard core pretty much all the way until the end of his jam session Jazz solo.

Here’s a neat sounding turnaround Jazz lick that leans on the b9 when it’s on the V7 chord. The b9 is what makes the lick sound really cool because it makes the pattern want to go towards the next chord change.

Here is a sound sample on trumpet:

How to memorize this turnaround in 12 keys:

First know that it is a iii VI ii V7 I turnaround (3, 6, 2, 5, 1). In other words, it’s a ii V7 up a whole step, then a ii V7 I pattern in the tonic key. Very easy to get used to and it’s used in a whole lot of Jazz charts. If you’ve already worked a lot on various ii V7 I patterns, this Jazz lick will be very easy for you to get down.

Here is my take on it in a snap shot, starts on the 5th of the iii chord and is a minor arpeggio to the 3rd of the VI chord, up to the b9 and down the scale to the minor 3rd of ii chord, then do a turn on the b7th to the 3rd of the V7 chord up to the b9 and down the scale to the III of the I chord.

You’re obviously not going to think about all of this while playing the lick. You’ll mainly just want to mess around with your ii V7 I Jazz patterns and you’ll be able to come up with some really nice turnarounds on your own.

It was nice to hear Freddie Hubbard’s rendition of Joy Spring by Clifford Brown. I never heard him take a ride on this tune. Freddie Hubbard definitely does a great job of adding his unique Jazz style to the tune.

One thing I’ve always noticed about Freddie Hubbard is that he likes to takes really long trumpet solos. That’s cool with me, he definitely had the chops for it back in the day, if you know what I mean. I really wish Freddie Hubbard was still alive and soloing all over the place so I can get even more Jazz licks from him.

If you know the chord changes to Joy Spring, there are a whole bunch of great Jazz licks you can get from this solo.  I’m going to go through the Jazz solo and see what I can steal myself.