Friday, June 25, 2021

Transcription: Al Harewood comping

What the hell, I'm on a roll, waiting for this weekend's blanket of suffocating heat to descend on the entire Pacific Northwest. Let's look at some more of Al Harewood, on yesterday's same record by George Benson. It's a live album, and the band is cooking, and this is Harewood playing during the piano solo on the title track, Witchcraft. Choruses are 40 bars long, and I've written out the first three. Tempo is quarter note = 255, and he does swing the 8th notes. The transcription begins at 0:52. 


 

The transcription is slightly simplified, for ease of practicing— I've just given the audible cymbal, snare, and bass drum parts— and toms occasionally. No hihats (he doesn't play them in a real pronounced way anyhow), no miscellaneous cymbals, minimal dynamics except where they're more pronounced. I haven't made any special effort to pick out any ghosted notes.   

I suggest practicing this in four or eight measure phrases. The individual “ideas” are not particularly difficult or varied, this is all about the larger phrase— which is a good general approach to take with comping in jazz.  

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