FINAL MAG

The Chris Dean solo is from It’s Getting
Late by Matt Bianco and is easily found
with a Youtube search. Don’t hold me
responsible if searching for this results
in a spontaneous outburst of dancing
dads to Matt Bianco’s great back
catalogue. This was one of the better
bands of the mid eighties, often calling
on some fantastic jazz musicians for the
instrumental breaks and backing riffs, the
trumpet of Guy Barker and the baritone
sax of Ronnie Ross included with Chris.
The track is in Gb major and Eb minor.
Unusual pop keys but interestingly a
commonly used key for trombone as lots
of gliss. slide shifts work really well and
you get to exploit all the idiosyncratic
trombone phrasing we love so well.
Note the Eb minor Ellington solos such
as The Mooche and Ko Ko. The actual
instrumental break solo is superbly
crafted with all the characteristic
question and answer phrases and little
thematic links of a great pop solo.
Playing along to those “bow wow” riffs
is really addictive, including the E in 5th
position, and as for whacking out the
top Db gliss. to Cb, well that’s just sheer
gratuitous trombone. Have fun. All in all
a very stylish solo; suave, urbane and full
of panache, very unlike the protagonist in
the lyric.
As always, remember that with
transcriptions the notation is just a guide.
Play along by ear as much as you can,
and glance down at the transcription just
to speed up the learning.
Transcriptions by Rob Egerton
Ever since I first got into jazz, I have
enjoyed listening to solos and writing
down what was played.
About six years ago, I decided to share
my growing personal collection of jazz
trombone solo transcriptions (almost 100
and counting) on YouTube. They quickly
proved popular and, recently, after
listening to regular requests from many
of my 4,000 subscribers, I made them
available to purchase as PDF downloads
at my new store: Rob Egerton Jazz
Transcription - Digital Goods Store.
You can also find them by clicking on
the link in the YouTube info boxes of
each clip, or by following my page on
Facebook or Twitter.
I wanted to make them as accessible as
possible. For this reason the PDFs are
available, not only in Bass Clef, but also
Bb Treble Clef to cater for all the many
jazz-loving brass band musicians.
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