Free / Gratuit

I had the chance to study with Peter Leitch (1944-2024) in the late 90's and he's always been one of my favorite players. Here's a really great solo on a tune called "The Bulldog", from his 1989 album, "Portraits and Dedications". There is a fantastic mixture of blues language, modern sounds with chord substitutions, great swing feel on eight-note lines, double-time runs, and chordal playing. Peter was a master at expressing himself with such ease using many tools, both form the guitar but also influenced from other instruments such as the saxophone and the piano.

I had the chance to study with Peter Leitch (1944-2024) in the late 90's and he's always been one of my favorite players. Peter plays a fantastic solo on this very nice Thelonious Monk tune called "Off Minor". You can hear it on his 1987 album, "Red Zone". This solo is a great example of Peter's complete mastery at outlining chord changes with single lines. The chord progression of this tune is rather complex and unusual and I've always been fascinated by how Peter navigates through complex changes. There's also some great examples of motivic development as well as great fast triplet lines.

Jimmy Raney's incredible mastery of the bebop language and amazing technique made him a very unique player with an instantly recognizable sound and phrasing. Some of his recordings can be seen as a blueprint for the  of tenor saxophone and guitar combination. This solo is from the Stan Getz/Jimmy Raney band on one of Raney's tunes called "Motion", based on the beautiful standard "You Stepped Out of A Dream". Raney's improvisational choices are quite interesting and "modern" for the early 50's, as they demonstrate his sophisticated language, both from the harmonic and rhyhtmic points of view.

Pat Martino, "El Hombre", is at the top of my list. His incredible rhythmic authority and fierce sense of melodic improvisation is infectious! I've always been a huge fan of his. This is one of my favorite solos. Pat plays an incredibly driving solo on "Along Came Betty", by the great Benny Golson, with a fast samba flavour to it. The way he deals with the changes with a flawless stream of notes is simply incredible. This is a great solo to study both for language, but also as a technical exercise. I often come back to this transcription to work on my picking technique as it forces me to focus on articulation and precision.

Here's a really interesting solo by the great Peter Bernstein on one of his original tunes called "Little Green Men", from his 2003 release "Heart's Content". It's a minor blues with a very cool harmonic twist. I absolutely love Peter's melodic sense and how he develops his ideas throughout this solo. You can hear very clear and effective thematic and rhythmic ideas on each chorus. A fantastic example of motivic developpement.