Improvising Over The Blues: Wynton Kelly All you need to know to solo over the blues is the blues scale. Right? Listen to Wynton Kelly improvise over the blues and you will hear him use not only the blues scale but also chord sound. Watch (more...)
Gospel Blues
Gospel music and the Blues are intimately linked. Gospel tunes are often based on the blues progression and because of this the Blues naturally lends itself to gospel style inflection. Wynton Kelly elegantly (more...)
Improv Drill: Arpeggios
Bill Charlap, the reigning mainstream jazz pianist, makes commanding use of arpeggios in the second chorus of his solo over the tune Blue Skies from his 2000 Blue Note recording Written in the Stars, his major label (more...)
Improvising Over Just in Time
The melody of this 1956 standard tune is, you could say, spare. The basic motive is composed of two notes a half step apart that are repeated in quarter notes up to 15 times in each section. To say that Anthony Wonsey's solo (more...)
Wynton Kelly Gospel Lick
Nothing freshens a solo over the blues more than a touch of gospel flavor. Wynton Kelly does just that in his solo over his blues head Old Clothes from his 1959 Riverside album Kelly Blue.
After several choruses of knucklebusting bebop lines, he changes pace with this simple gospel lick. Listen for it at 1:39.
Gospel Vamp Keith Jarrett has composed more than a few tunes on little more than a two bar gospel vamp. Check out his tunes Sun Prayer and U Dance from his 1991 ECM album Tribute.
Here is one for you to play with:
This vamp has some sus4 sound created by the Bb major triad hinted at in the second measure of the second bar.
To learn how to Gospelize your own soloing over the blues watch the Gospel Blues Lesson.
from his 1959 Riverside album 
and 
from his 1991 ECM album 
.
Here is one for you to play with:
