Jazz Trumpet Licks

I wanted to share some info on this excellent Jazz trumpet solo of Clifford Brown on Now’s the Time. Clifford Brown not only shows off his great technique in the trumpet solo but also plays a very melodic and well put together trumpet solo. This trumpet solo of Clifford Brown is off his album The Complete Blue Note & Pacific Jazz Recordings. This trumpet solo of Clifford Brown gets really good towards the end.

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Here is a pretty easy ii V7 I Jazz lick to learn. A trombone player I used to work with showed this lick to me.  This lick is basically a minor pattern that repeats itself going down a half step to land on a chord tone of the I chord.

Here is a sound sample played on trumpet:

How to memorize this ii V7 I lick in 12 keys:

Start off by learning the minor pattern by itself first by going down in half steps all the way through the 12 keys, then apply it to a ii V7 I chord progression. This is the minor pattern: 5 b7 5 3 2 1. In the above example, you start on the 5th of the ii chord, play the minor pattern, then play it again down a half step, then finally land on the tonic of the I chord.

This minor pattern is useful by itself as well. Mess around with the pattern to find out how it’ll fit into your Jazz improvisation.

Here is a very cool live trumpet solo by Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Wynton Marsalis plays a lot of interesting licks and patterns on this trumpet solo. Wynton also plays some pretty long and crazy Jazz lines. I hope you enjoy the video.