Todd M said
Oddly enough I just stumbled across Kenny Garrett by accident and heard his "Sing a Song of Song" from his Songbook album and really liked the sound and the song. I'm going to need to listen to more of his stuff.
  

Actually I‘m playing this song with my band. There is an entire Kenny Garrett Play Along. It is very nicely done! on there Sing a Sonh of Song is also part. It is in a very unusual key for alto Db. 

Very cool moment, Michael. If you gain any more insight about it, let us know!

Tom N. said
Actually, I missed the challenge too. I am certain I checked the site several times up until the end of August but never saw the actual challenge. It simply was not showing on my page. Strange. Well, looks like I missed it. I will try to squeeze it in with one of the next ones. 
So, is the next (September) challenge up somewhere as well?
 
Thanks,
-Tom
  

Yes it is here.. https://lessons.bobreynoldsmus.....friends/ 

I have the Walt Weiskop book and the Ramon Ricker book on triads.

I never really worked on it extensively this is a great challenge. The transcribe your solo create your own solo by ear. 

When I studied with Barry Harris our class was constructing solos by ear using his methodology and trying to figure out what Charlie Parker and Bud Powell were doing. Everything by ear. Another cool thing is that he used to verbally dictate the line and we used to have to figure out from his voice what he meant and we had to play it. Another thing he did I was interesting he used to play the line on a very very small keyboard he had on his lap and by ear we used to have to copy the line. Trying to transcribe the line from his voice was a thousand times more difficult than listening to him do it on the electric keyboard. Thought that might be something else you might want to do in a future lesson verbally single lines that we all have to transcribe.

Have a wonderful time in Lithuania!

BTW my great-grandmother immigrated from Lithuania in the late 1800's to the United States.

Blessings 

Dean

Michael S. said
Gang, I was on fire the whole night. I sat in with the house band for a tune before the open session started. This was the first time the horn came out of its case since like April and I burned through maybe the single nastiest, most coherent solo I’ve ever played. Zero expectations, just a spirit of “MFs I came to PLAY.” I felt totally locked in with the rest of the band, and after talking to the group between sets, they were like “where TF did that come from?!” I crushed it for the rest of the night, albeit not to the level of the first tune.

LOVE this!!! 

I've had this experience a few times as well. Amazing what can happen when we detach for awhile. 

Maybe some stuff had been percolating in the back of my head for awhile, maybe I took long enough off where I straight up forgot digital patterns I had settled into and licks I’d been too reliant on

YES! Where music can happen and not so much of a "I need to try executing all this stuff I've been working on in the practice room."

…maybe I’m completely overestimating my own quality. But I think the real lesson from this experience is that showing up with no expectations is the key to total freedom from self judgement and leads to much better playing. I think the reason my playing quality dipped was because I started having expectations of my playing, so it’s a real sticky trap even if I intellectually understand it.
  

👏👏👏

Really appreciate you sharing this here, Michael.

So, is the next (September) challenge up somewhere as well?

Thanks,

-Tom

MikeJolk said
Pilgrim, hear my tale of woe. I need a tenor mouthpiece!
...The 9* is exciting to play — a big ol’ sound but it also plays with finesse. It’s more tiring to play, though. Maybe the right reed would help me be more comfortable.
  

I'm literally dealing with this right now. I'm in Poland, but for the past few nights of shows, I've been switching between three different 9* Otto Links (the ones that Theo Wane is trying to make as a carbon copy of the the custom tone edge I've been playing for a little over a year). It's really tricky because it actually sounds and feels nicer with a harder read up to a point, and then it's just exhausting. I'm navigating between a D'Addario Royal 3.5, a Jazz Select 3 medium, and a Jazz Select 3 soft. 

Shaun said
Sounding great Peter. I love this version of his. Kenny is one of my all time favorite alto players. Especially his earlier recordings when he seems to play with more abandon! 
  

Absolutely.