Amazing Bebop - How to play like Sonny Stitt

[@JensLarsen]

Do you have a favourite when it comes to Bebop players? The best lines and greatest phrases?

[@peterrazumnov5706]

Jens Larsen, Benny Green is great!

[@peterrazumnov5706]

The pianist I mean

[@JensLarsen]

Sure! I knew who you meant 🙂

[@juliendrouot128]

So much : Barry Harris, Bud Powell, Bird of course, Tal Farlow, Clifford Brown, etc...

[@alban1964]

Dexter Gordon.

[@SirDerp909]

One interesting story about Stitt's version of 'Au Privave' concerns Charles Mingus. Mingus was played the record for a Dowbeat 'Blindfold Test.' He had, on another occasion, been played a recording by a Bird copyist, and thought it was Parker. So, I guess they wanted to see if Mingus would confuse Stitt (who was wrongly accused of copying Bird's style) for Bird. Nope, no dice.

[@Learnjazzstandards]

Some of the most burning bebop/hardbop stuff ever on the album "Sonny Side Up" on the tune "The Eternal Triangle." Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins just destroy. Awesome lesson Jens!

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks Brent! True! That's an amazing album 🙂

[@vova47]

Yes, Sonny Stitt did destroy Rollins on this one IMO. And don't forget Stitt's classic solo on "Sunny Side of the Street". Everybody should learn that solo.

[@emmetfettig9196]

@@vova47 oh my word yes

[@NotRightMusic]

Right on Jens! I love this whole solo! Videos like this is why this channel is so great! Nobody else is putting out such quality content about music like this on guitar.

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you very much Markus! That's very nice of you to say so 🙂

[@zenncatt]

Great lesson Jens. Thank you. Yes; your guitar looks awesome. I thought it would be a treat if one day you can introduce us to your beautiful guitar collection that is hanging on wall. Best regards.

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! True I keep talking about doing it but I never really get around to it!

[@caponsacchi9979]

Stitt's scariest, most pyrotechnical album is "New York Jazz." (Not for beginners.) I've known guys who learned everything from listening to Stitt. He's more "symmetrical," and a little more accessible than Bird-- ust enough to make him a useful teacher.

[@SirDerp909]

I read a very well-made, very detailed essay on the differences between Bird and Sonny. The proof is in the listening. But one thing that does stand out is Bird's much more asymmetrical phrasing.

[@mdmellis]

Great work, Jens. I'm a pianist, but really enjoy your lessons, ideas, analytical skills, etc. In just over 5 minutes of presentation, you have given me inspiration for hours and hours of practice and exploration. Keep swinging.

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks! Gald you can use it on piano as well 🙂

[@rayrayzz1]

Nice🎸🎶 Sonny Stitt 👌 keep those lines coming. Great stuff

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks Ray! I will! Hopefully I have a Grant Green lesson up tomorrow!

[@alban1964]

Great stuff as always. Honeysuckle Rose as stolen by Donna Lee, stolen once again! Great phrases live on.

[@JensLarsen]

Exactly that Idea though here it is only with one note, and Honeysuckle rose uses a complete triad. Actually that is what George Benson does in the line I talk about in that video :)

[@PhrygianPhrog]

The first phrase corresponds to Bert Ligon's outline #3, but with a different ending. Just like outline #3, he starts on the 5th of the minor and goes down to the 3rd of the dominant, then in the dominant he goes 3rd to 5th to 7th (with an octave displacement) - but then, instead of going to the 9th/b9th and then resolving to the 5th of the major, he goes back down to the 13th of the dominant and resolves on the tonic of the major (via a passing 9th). Pretty cool stuff!

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks! Then maybe we know where Bert got it from? 🙂

[@fynn1589]

Amazing video! I think thats very cool stuff do work with!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you 🙂 ideas for other artists?

[@fynn1589]

As I wrote under the Pat Martino video I really like lines from other Instruments! For Sax on of my Favorites is a other "sonny"- Sonny Rollins. I think he is really on the top of the game! I am not sure if you familiar with the great pianist Makoto Ozone-he is really one of my favorite musicians(beside pat metheny), so for me of course it would be awesome if you would make a video about him!:D But there are so much great people for me:) : Oscar Peterson, Freddie Hubbard, Kazumi Watanabe, Lage Lund, Bill Evans....! A other thing: Not sure if you remember: Last year I wrote with you that i would have a foreplay at university....I did it quiet good and I can go to study to Mannheim( the the teacher is Prof. Frank kuruc if you know him..). I just want to thank you very much for youre videos-you were and are very big help for my and very much other guitar players! But excuse me, I really write to much :D:D

[@JensLarsen]

Great that you can go to Mannheim! One of my friends studied there. Congrats on that! Sonny Rollins is indeed a great idea 🙂

[@carguy3460]

So crazy man, I literally wrote down on my work notebook today (as I'm listening to Stars Fell On Alabama by Sonny Stitt, whom, I've never really heard of before) "0:49 - Learn that". Amazing coincidence. The universe rules.

[@JensLarsen]

Haha! The universe does rule!

[@michaelfuria4257]

fine, easy to follow tutorial on how to learn be-bop lines..

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! I have another one coming this Saturday 🙂

[@artompkins7958]

Hi Jens - I love studying and practicing things like this, and the idea that whenever I see an appropriate ii-V coming up, I’ll just pull this phrase out of my “vast vocabulary” and apply expertly, but that I’m finding is a lot harder than it sounds. In another video, you said that’s not a very effective way to approach playing over changes in the first place, and suggested simplifying down to two-to-three or so notes in a rhythmic pattern and develop from there.

[@JensLarsen]

Ok, The video is certainly not telling you to play these licks in your solos, it is taking them apart so that you can make your own? I also wouldn't really consider it a tutorial on playing over changes?

[@artompkins7958]

understood, Jens. Thanks for the reply! You're a fantastic instructor - I wonder if your local students know how fortunate they are!

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you! :) I don't feel under-appreciated 🙂

[@ozilan7284]

One of ur best videos👍🤘

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you vert much! 🙂 If you have more ideas for videos then do let me know 👍

[@ozilan7284]

Jens Larsen Well the Passquale Grasso playing style is a great subject. I actually tried something similar myself: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnKXXql3qN9-rpY

[@ozilan7284]

Jens Larsen Besides that I love what u did here takin a lick n implement it to ur playing via exercise, loved the process made too. Maybe a similar vid of Kurt Rosenwinkel implementation would be cool😉😋

[@JensLarsen]

I guess I should do a Kurt video at some point! My Foolish Heart is not by Bill Evans, it's by Victor Young who also wrote Stella if I remember correctly

[@ozilan7284]

Jens Larsen U might be right haha I just was very moved by hid version😊

[@Shuzies]

Yes.....your Git looks and sounds Great.....Low D Sonny

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks Ron! Sonny is indeed going for the Low D! (I guess it's an F for him?)

[@Shuzies]

Right....love these videos.....still working on Just Friends....I like Sonny

[@davidtardio9804]

LJS beat me to it, but yes, Eternal Triangle is just amazing.

[@JensLarsen]

Thanks David! Yes that is a great album!

[@juanmaidana8185]

You're great, Jens! Here's a question for you: How do you practise all these lines? Do you just play them over the 12 keys and then try and incorporate them to your vocabulary?

[@JensLarsen]

Thank you Juan! You can practice the lines in all 12, that is certainly a good exercise. I wouldn't really spend time trying to get the whole line into my playing. Instead I would lift Ideas from it and practice making lines with that idea. I talk about it in this video as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqSbdYqwh5mUfa8

[@charlescoleman6896]

Did Jim Hall appear on any other Sonny Stitt records?

[@JensLarsen]

Not that I know of, but I had also forgotten he was on this one 🙂

[@JazzGuitarScrapbook]

Barry Harris is a bit dismissive of Sonny Stitt ("he could fool you at fast tempos, but you'd hear on a ballad he didn't have the triplet in his playing") Personally, I dunno, Stitt sounds badass, and I'm not Barry. However if you want to hear the both of them together I recommend Tune Up and Constellation!

[@JensLarsen]

Interesting! I learned "East of the Sun" from a record with Stitt and Barry :) I have said it before there are great things about Barry, but he is also human. Dismissing Hancock and Chick Corea as he did once in a workshop I was at was also a bit strange. At the same time I don't mind a few quirks, if it doesn't turn into 20 min. rants.

[@JazzGuitarScrapbook]

Ah, you know what you are getting into with Barry. It's no surprise he dismisses Chick and Herbie seeing as he dismisses pretty much anything post Coltrane (including Trane's modal music on)... But even within bop he's picky... It's fair enough, he has his own approach and aesthetic and is legitimately a jazz great. A lot of the old guys are/were like that, prickly, outspoken, rude, irreverant and opinionated. Now jazz is sociologically a branch of classical music with a Canon and Respect, and PhD's about Peter Bernstein's comping, and all of that. There's a great article by Brad Mehldau discussing Barry Harris and his teaching (he went to his workshops in NYC)... Brad disagrees in the most scholarly and respectful way about triplets in bop phrasing lol... But it's really interesting what he says about Dexter and Trane and so on... www.bradmehldau.com/carnegie-05 (read the next one as well 06)

[@JazzGuitarScrapbook]

OK which doofus brought up anything to the left of early Trane in a Barry Harris workshop? Seriously? Don't do that. You were lucky it was only 20 minutes. Anyway, check out this awesome series of articles by Brad Mehldau - this one discusses Barry Harris's thoughts on phrasing, and Brad's own thoughts... Really great stuff. www.bradmehldau.com/carnegie-05

[@JensLarsen]

Actually Barry was guest lecturer in Jazz History when he was here there for a week, so that doofus :) I think they never did that again because it was a bit embarrassing. His cult loved it and most of the students where shaking their heads. I think it is better to focus on all the things you can learn from him and not the other stuff 🙂 The Brad article looks interesting I will get to to it later Thanks for that!!

[@vova47]

Barry is getting senile in his old age, Great as he was in his day I'll take Sonny Stitt over him any day.