About “Solo Vol. 2 - Complete Transcriptions” - Part 1
On December 18th, 2023, “Solo Vol 2 - Complete Transcriptions” was released. This book contains note-for-note transcriptions of the album “Solo Vol. 2”, transcribed brilliantly by the great transcriber Michael Lucke. Below are my notes that accompany the book:
Transcribing is an important part of any jazz musicians’ learning process. Whether we learn just a few lines or chords from a solo we like, or transcribe every note of a track and put the whole thing down on paper, the process of lifting notes from recordings is a big part of how we learn to speak the language. Then absorbing and reprocessing that information is how we begin to have our own take on it. Practically speaking, learning by ear is in fact the only way to learn the language, as this music isn’t written down.
My own experience as a transcriber is long and varied, and began when I was about 13 years old when I transcribed a Paul Desmond solo on the song “Tangerine” (Dave Brubeck Quartet - “Live in Europe”). It was painstaking and difficult for me, but I wrote the whole thing out and learned to play it on the piano along with the recording. The experience was enlightening and rewarding: “Why did he play this on Fm7? And what might I play on Fm7?!” From then on I was hooked, and I transcribed as much as I could. Throughout high school and college I amassed a large collection of transcriptions. They were mostly of pianists: Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, as well as more contemporary players like Benny Green, Geoffrey Keezer, and Brad Mehldau, among others. By the time I graduated college I was quite fast at transcribing and ended up working for Second Floor Music as an in-house piano transcriber. I did this for about 2 years, and through Second Floor Music I actually connected with Geoffrey Keezer, who commissioned me to transcribe his landmark solo piano album “Heart of the Piano”. These years as a “professional” transcriber were deeply educational and rewarding for me.
I still transcribe occasionally today, and I love learning from great pianists and finding ways to recycle (aka steal!) elements in their playing. I use these ideas to deepen my own playing, and also to share with my students, in the hopes that they will catch the same spark of inspiration that caught me. I often find that something that I transcribed five, or even ten years ago, will appear in my playing after a long, subconscious, “digesting” process. Through transcription, we can truly inhabit the mind of the performing musician, and better ourselves in the process.
Of course it is best for musicians to do their own transcriptions, as opposed to reading them out of a book. That being said, it is also unrealistic to expect most beginner musicians to be able to simply listen to a recording of a pianist they love and learn it solely by ear without any guidance. This is where a teacher can help, or if a teacher is unavailable, written transcriptions can help. I am personally indebted to Bill Dobbin’s transcriptions of Chick Corea’s “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” album, various Pascal Wetzel transcriptions of Bill Evans, and various Howard Brubeck and Frank Metis transcriptions of Dave Brubeck as important influences on my playing as a young musician.
It is in this spirit that I (presumptuously!) wanted to present the music from “Solo Vol. 2” in this transcribed form. Also, as a transcriber for so many years, I (selfishly!) simply wanted to present some of my own playing in this manner.
Enter Michael Lucke. I became aware of Michael’s work from his brilliant transcriptions of Fred Hersch’s “Songs From Home” album. What stood out to me in Michael’s work was not just the accuracy of his transcriptions, but the clarity in which they were notated. When we look at a finished transcription, it may seem obvious that it had to be that way. But to actually process a recording and conceive of how it can look on paper takes enormous craftsmanship and creativity, and those are the qualities embodied in Michael’s work, beyond mere accuracy. I was thrilled when he agreed to take on the project of transcribing “Solo Vol. 2”.
Michael also graciously allowed me to assume the role of editor in these transcriptions. Michael’s transcriptions were of course perfect without my input. But as the player of the music, and an experienced transcriber myself, for certain passages that could be notated in more than one way, I knew what I was thinking when I played it, so I could guide its notation. In that respect, I believe this is a very unique transcription collection, in that the transcriber and the player really worked together to present something remarkably accurate. There’s typically a bit of guess work in any transcription - the transcriber never really knows exactly what the player is thinking. But here, what’s written is exactly what I was thinking when I played it - at least as much as any music can survive being written on paper. (More on that later.)
The result is a transcription collection that is accurate, easy to read, and hopefully fun to read through! For advanced pianists, any of these could be pieces performed from beginning to end - the ink. Or for others, perhaps just a line, chord, or texture could spark some inspiration in their playing. Non-pianists might enjoy it as a reference as well, for some ideas about arrangements or harmonies. However you may use this material, please know it is presented to you with the utmost care and precision, and Michael and I are thrilled to share it with you.
