I have included the one-measure pickup before the first bar of the solo.
What better way to start a jazz solo than by changing something! I've made this pickup a E7b9 chord, because 1) It leads so nicely into the A- , and 2) Often on a bandstand, during this one bar pickup the soloist is often left alone. It's a nice change of tonality. It's written as a two-footer. If you don't like that, then use your 3rd string lowered-lever instead of 4th string with pedal 7.
I decided that the solo should start in the lower registers to let it build. The rest of the bars are reminscent of a phrase I copped from Bill Evans. If you don't like the pedal 7 move in bar 3, and you have "D" as your first string you can use it instead.
Mr. Gleason, the ball is in your court!

[This message was edited by John Steele on 05-18-99]

28 years ago after some years as a self-taught (with some classical training) jazz pianist I went to a well known dude in Boston for some work on swing and bebop fundamentals. (Charlie Banacas (sp), if anyone cares). Lesson One: Autumn Leaves. This week, the head and changes in C, write three choruses worth of new heads, and be prepared to sing them. Next week, same assignment, Key of C#. (I forget now if we worked up chromatically or ran the cycle of fifths). Twelve weeks later I was starting to get the hang of Autumn Leaves.

I'm following your project with extreme interest because two-five is a real weakness for me on steel.

All you hip Beboppers out there will, of course, recognize the quote from "Hot House" that starts the first two bars. Couldn't resist.

I'll try to stay "in the pocket" as much as possible with this solo, meaning that I will usually play around a position where the chord is; as in the last two bars where I stay close to the seventh fret, where there's an easy voicing for the E minor chord I'm improvising over. This is essentially the concept I use for improvising on C6, that of visualizing chord positions and deriving single note lines from those "pockets". Bebop phraseology (is that a word?) requires quite a bit of bar movement, but I'll try not to jump around too much.

I should add that there are many different ways to play these lines, so if the way I've tabbed it doesn't suit you, feel free to find an easier path.

Jerry

[This message was edited by Jerry Gleason on 05-19-99]

Quote from "Laura"
   A-             D7b9#5                 GM7             CM7
1---------------|----------------------|----------------|----|
2---------------|--6~~~~~6(6)-6--------|----------------|----|
3---------------|--6~~~~~6----6----6~7-|-7(7)--7(7)-----|----|
4--12(7)--12(7)-|--6~~~~~6----6--------|-7(7)--7(7)--7~~|~~--|
5--12-----12----|--6(5)~~6(5)-6(5)-----|-7-----7-----7~~|~~--|
6--12-----12----|----------------------|-7-----7-----7~~|~~--|
7--12-----12----|----------------------|-------------7~~|~~--|
8---------------|----------------------|----------------|----|
9---------------|----------------------|----------------|----|
10--------------|----------------------|----------------|----|
    1   2  .  34 1 2     .    3    4 .   1     2     .34 1234

Notes on bars 9-12:
Anyway, the phrase I did write in involves making the A- into a minor 13th chord, a nice voicing for it, follow by a phrase which lands squarely on the b9 of D7b9.
I don't have any web space, but I have made smallish wav files of my portions. If anyone wants to hear them, please e-mail me, and I'll e-mail them back to you.
-John
p.s. This is a riot!

[This message was edited by John Steele on 05-19-99]

from the steel I went to a Boss GX-700, then to a Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer, then into a Power Mac G3, using the built in audio, no separate sound card. The files are recorded with ProTools audio recording sofware as nice clean 16-bit files, then reduced to rather crappy 8-bit .wav files.

John Lacey, bar 17 is especially for you!
If you look at the notes I used, you'll soon see they are all derived from the A melodic minor scale. (the second note is G#) You'll notice a * on the first string on the note following it. If you use D as your first string, it might be easier to use it rather that pedal 7 on 3rd string.
In bar 18, I went for the B7b9 (my habit).
(They're a no-brainer... there's one every 3 frets!) I had a different phrase in mind for this B chord, using an "alt" voicing instead, but I doubt I could pull it off for the wav. file. If I could, in bar 18, I would have played:

    B alt  
1--------------------------------------|
2--------------------------------------|
3---12(7)------------------------------|
4----------12(7)-----------------------|
5-----------------12-------------------|
6---------------------12(6)~~11(6)-----|
7----------------------------------12--|
8--------------------------------------|
9--------------------------------------|
10-------------------------------------|
     1      2                 3    4
           {....triplets...}

[This message was edited by John Steele on 05-20-99]

Sorry I didn't post more tonight, but I just couldn't find the time. I'll try to continue with the second 8 bars of the bridge tomorrow night.

On that subject, I think it's a little misleading to talk about this tune having a "bridge", since it never returns back to the A section. A usual configuration for a 32-bar standard is 8 bars of the A section, a repeat of the same 8 bars, a bridge or B section, and a return to the A section for 8 more bars (AABA) I think of this tune as more like AAB, with the B section of 16 bars.

MIDI file for Autumn Leaves

[This message was edited by Jerry Gleason on 15 June 2005 at 11:43 PM.]

Ok, I snuck another bar in there, but I just had to let that chord ring.... I know we said no weird levers, but I'm sure I'm not the only one that lowers the 5th string a whole tone with a knee lever. That's what (-1) means. If you don't have that lever- well, sorry.... But if you do, it gives you a very pretty and dissonant voicing for a minor ninth chord. You can also add the 5th pedal and hit the tenth string for the root. The other knee lever I used (K) is just the standard lever that lowers the third string 1/2 tone.

So there you have it. A whole chorus of steel guitars trading fours on a jazz standard. You guys can keep going if you want to, but I'm about out of room for sound files until I can delete these. Please save these files for future reference, since I won't be able to leave them on my server indefinitely.

Giant Steps, anyone? You take the first 8...one, two....

[This message was edited by Jerry Gleason on 05-22-99]

Thanks for taking the time to share this information. You guys are awesome!!

Jerry: Thanks to your kind advice in setting up my new Carter (D-10 8/7) last year, I have that LKR that lowers the 5th string a full tone.

Best regards,