All Blues

April 20, 2013: Robert Mitchell

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Many thanks to Robert Mitchell for an interesting session in which we covered the following compositions:

“Inchworm” by Frank Loesser
“All Blues” by Miles Davis

We warmed up with a bit of trading where one player would provide a simple phrase and then the rest of the group would play it. We finally ended with a G7 phrase which we took through all the keys and which ultimately segued into a performance of Inchworm taken through the keys.

After the break we played All Blues with each member taking a key and soloing a couple of choruses in turn.

Thanks again to Robert for a challenging session.

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February 2, 2013: Laurence Cottle

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Many thanks to Laurence Cottle for a great session in which we covered the following tunes:

“Blues in F”
“Caravan” by Juan Tizol
“All Blues” by Miles Davis

In a very well attended session with plenty of new faces, Laurence got us warmed up with a “Blues in F”. The main part of the session was taken up exploring “Caravan” with Laurence teaching a great bass figure to the bassists to play through the A section. Most of the members got to solo through this before a 5/4 time change was introduced every other bar in the A section to ramp up the difficulty for the remainder of the members!

Laurence suggested using the triads found in the C7b9 half whole diminished scale (C, Eb, F#, A) together with the rhythms found in the bass groove as improvisation ideas.

The session was wound down with a relaxing play through “All Blues”