Improvisation on "Blues for Alice" by Richard Metzger

The bop players returned from time to time to the 12 bar Chicago blues as a means to "touch bass." Very often their take on the blues was quite different from the Chicago player or, for that matter, any blues player. Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice" uses the 12 bar as its superstructure, though it is not readily apparent in listening. It does not use the dominant 7 spellings of the tonic (I) and subdominant (IV) chords normal for blues, except in the Bb7 (IV) that appears in the fifth bar. The middle part of the progression is filled with chromatic sequencing, and this section gives the overall impression of a descending structure. This is the section that is difficult to improvise through since the key changes are quick and require the player often to start a phrase in one key and end it a half step lower.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• epiphone triumph
• Charlie Parker
• jazz guitar improvisation
• blues for alice

[rmetzgerguitar]

@shecky308 Indeed, the Stathopoulo family did. The sound on the video does not do the guitar justice. Acoustically, this guitar is loud. It ihad to be, since it was intended to be played unamplified in Swing bands!

[shecky308]

Boy,the greeks sure knew how to build good guitars!!