Check out this blues lesson I have on Sax On The Web about Thin man
Watts;
http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Blues1.html#Watts
It's a lick from his CD-" Return Of The Thin man".I took three sections of Charlie Parker's solo on "Buzzy" and open it up through the keys.I chose...The first four bars of his last chorus on "Buzzy" via four bar phrases through twelve keys.
The second four bars of his last chorus on "Buzzy" via four bar phrases through twelve keys.
The last four bars of his first chorus on "Buzzy" via four bar phrases through twelve keys.
Listen... to the phrase shape through the four bars. Bird was a perfect phraser. Beautiful! Listen to the note choice, rhythmic twists, tension and release. This is the ultimate in blues playing! It doesn't get better than this. It's nasty and dirty low-down and hip all at once. Listen how these three phrases work.HERE IT IS- http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Blues2.html
I hope this brings some light to your shed time and also let me add,
my feeling is that if you've absorbed a lot of the known vocabulary of the greats , then you'll naturally gravitate to looking for other things ,
or even begin to hear things of a different nature.
Bird-ology phrase study on "Ko Ko".....http://www.saxontheweb.net/Price/Bird-ologyStudy.html
Study "Ko Ko" and then try some phrases like this on your own.
It's a life long process-. When you're twenty yrs. old, you just run off desire and youthful animal energy to practice. In the long run, the creative person needs to find a way to maintain a level of interest and aliveness in his art. This takes work and intelligence,it is not separate from living, just another aspect of it.
The concept of daily practice is an important one and is the best way to make
any kind of musical progress. Daily effort keeps you finely attuned to
continuous movement and the accumulation of effect. Practicing sporadically
causes you to lose the thread of your practice and is thus much less effective.
Through diligent , consistent daily work, a tangible musical substance is
incrementally developed. First of all, you develop physical stamina through
the repeated effort. Also , from day to day, you accumulate ideas and expand
on the themes of your practice. If you are working Major chords; the first day
you might just work on arpeggios, the next day you might see some connection
with other musical sources, such as songs, or through or whatever is interesting to you. By continuing to work with focus on the same things from day to day, you will find that your level of proficiency has risen and expanded to include all these other sources. Your practicing every day results in the acquisition of
technique, musical intelligence, improved tone, and stamina. Just the quest to continuously find something to practice will increase you creativity.
There are so many variations of scales melodies, and melodic patterns. So many sounds to make, articulations, songs to learn, music to listen to and analyze, technical problems to sort out. The only limitation is your focus and creativity.
For example: let's say that you have adequately practiced your horn and now want something else to work on. You could sit down at the piano and transcribe a song, learn a song by ear that you may have previously learned by wrote.
This , is one of the most beneficial practices you can do. Ear training, learning songs, listening to other players, hearing bass lines, melodies or whatever. Ok. Now you've spent a few hours and learned a tune the way its supposed to be played. You know the tune inside and out, in essence a great organizational mind skills study too. However your mind works. Don't overload-otherwise nothing sticks. Your capacity will increase after you have spent more and more time. It's amazing how connections are
made,they seem to occur in a fashion which is beyond the conscious ability to
plan and organize.Daily practice also allows me to imprint the material in my mind until it
becomes instinct. One long practice session will not do this. For
most players, useful techniques can only be acquired through repetition. I
always try to work new materials into songs, lines and grooves that I like.
For me it's sort of like upgrading my musical mind so that my playing becomes
reoriented in the directions I choose. Increasing familiarity with they materials is a good thing. It's like learning a language--music is a language.
....WORK HARD....Have a great week- Tim Price
Zoot Sims was one of a group of tenor saxophonists born in the mid-1920s whose early professional experience came in big bands and who idolized Lester Young.Zoot was one of the most important tenor saxophonists in jazz ever.The basic jazz skills of most of these reedmen were developed by the time they had reached their early twenties. But their styles flowered in the bebop atmosphere in which jazz matured so dramatically following World War II.If you play tenor saxophone...you need to hear and study Zoot Sims now. Listen to everything you can get your hands on, this man was one of the wonders of the world. A real jazz tenorman. Timeless, important as anyone and never ending in creativity.Charlie Parker, who had been shaped by Young's example in his own formative period in the late 1930s, became the second great influence on this talented collection of tenor men. They melded Parker's complex harmonic discoveries with Young's sound (light, dry, sunny) and rhythm (powerful currents of swing beneath a laconic surface). In addition to Sims, some of the most accomplished members of this school of tenor saxophone were A/ Cohn, Stan Getz, Paul Quinichette, Allen Eager, Brew Moore, Herbie Steward, Bill Perkins, Bob Cooper, Richie
Kamuca, Dave Van Kreidt, Bill Holman, Phil Urso, and Don Lanphere. 
Zoot Sims had neither a top-forty record nor mass box office appeal.He played and had something more important- HE WAS REAL.What he played night to night meant something. But almost from the beginning of his career, be had the unreserved admiration of virtually all jazz artists, whatever their generation or musical persuasion. Over the years, his following among listeners steadily grew. Musicians and aficionados alike recognized the basic human qualities of honesty and warmth that Sims projected in his playing without in any way diluting musical values or contriving to find an acceptable style. This is a player that opens the door to things in jazz that are NOT in books or learned at University's.
- - Go to YOU TUBE...Listen to Zoot play..." You Go To My Head". See ya next week...Tim Price
