Jazz Trumpet Licks

I first heard this Arturo Sandoval trumpet solo on YouTube without the transcription. Thanks to Joseph Prieto you can now take a look at the transcription of Arturo’s trumpet solo on There Will Never Be Another You and try to get some new Jazz licks from it.

It would’ve been nice if Joseph added the chord changes to this video as well, but that really isn’t a big deal as you can find the changes in your Real Book (B Flat, Sixth edition) anyway.

Download Arturo’s trumpet transcription of There Will Never Be Another You.

Hope you enjoy!
Keep shedding,
Sweets

Here’s a Jazz lick that I took from a Kenny Dorham solo on “Donna Lee”. I like to
play over 2-5-1s or on two bars of a dominant chord that leads to the one (like on the
bridge of rhythm changes).

Here is a sample played of the Jazz lick played over Donna Lee:

How to memorize this Jazz lick in 12 keys:

The Jazz lick starts on the fifth of the minor chord and goes down the minor triad to the tonic. From there, it goes down a half step and encloses the third of the dominant chord. In the second bar, the lick starts on the fifth of the tri-tone of the minor chord (as I like to think a minor chord that’s a half step above the dominant chord) and goes down the triad all the way back to the fifth. The last two beats of the second bar is just enclosing the fifth of the one chord.

It’s a little tricky to get the sound in your ear at first, but it’s a fun lick to play!

Hope you find this lick useful.
John

I wanted to write about this Miles Davis Jazz trumpet solo over Freddie the Freeloader Jazz standard because of how simple Miles Davis keeps the solo. Miles never goes crazy with it and he makes really good use of space (silence) in his trumpet solo.

A lot of times in today’s Jazz music musicians tend to forget to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). What I mean is they never take a break in their improv solos. Instead, they constantly play as much as possible to fit every note and idea in. I wouldn’t say this is a rookie thing to do, but if you think about the listener, they most likely don’t want to hear all kinds of notes anyway as they are trying to listen and relax. So it’s best to be creative like Miles Davis and not play too many notes. And don’t forget to use a lot of space in your Jazz solos.

What do you think?

Is it a good idea to think about K.I.S.S. when you are taking a ride or does it really even matter?

Please share your thoughts below.