May 11, 2013: Andrea Vicari

Many thanks to Andrea Vicari for an interesting session in which we performed:

“Resolution” by John Coltrane
“Get Busy Living” by Andrea Vicari

To start the session we listened to “Resolution” as performed on the “A Love Supreme” recording. We then discussed a few of the approaches used in the improvisations of McCoy Tyner and John Coltrane and attempted to apply a few of them in our solos. In particular both rhythmic and melodic motifs were explored. This is a particularly tricky composition to improvise on because of the high amount of band interaction required, but I think that most people enjoyed it.

Andrea made notes during our initial attempts and gave us a bit of critique and encouragement afterwards which was insightful.

After the break we played one of Andrea’s own compositions “Get Busy Living” which is a much lighter affair played over a New Orleans beat. This is a fun tune based on dominant seventh chords and so was a great place to get some bluesy feel going.

Thanks again to Andrea for a great session.

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