This solo demonstrates Lester's penchant for swing, great melodies, and harmonic inventiveness. His chromaticism on each pair of stop-time breaks is amazing.

I studied with Bruce during the majority of my time at USC. Most of my ideas regarding jazz are influenced by my studies and interactions with him. Bruce's three choruses on "I'm an Old Cowhand" clearly demonstrate his impeccable time, melodic sense, and great linear playing. Every jazz guitarist needs to be familiar with Bruce Forman.

The Art Farmer/Jim Hall Quartet performed and recorded from 1963 - 1964 and is one of my all-time favorite groups. Jim Hall's playing in the group demonstrates his ability of function as a replacement for piano as well as second horn, switching between chordal comping and single note counterlines. This article was written for Just Jazz Guitar Magazine and demonstrates Jim's sparse accompaniment style as well as Art's melodic soloing.

I completed this transcription as a final project for a class during my undergraduate studies at USC. It details Ben's chord voicings and solo. Ben's performance on this track is a great example of the strength of his "real-time" arranging in the modern jazz small group setting and helps to explain his prolific sideman recording credits.

This is a really great composition from NY saxophonist Bill McHenry. The tune starts off with a beautiful bass/saxophone counterpoint section, then the band drums and guitar enter and play the second half of the tune in AAB form. At the end of the solos happen over a modal vamp at the very end of the composition. This tune has a great folk-like quality.

I transcribed this arrangement of the standard "You and the Night and the Music" in order to play the song with Bill's last drummer, Joe La Barbera, during my time at CalArts. The arrangement features some great rhythmic hits that bookend the statement of the melody and a nice counter-line on the bridge. The original recording featured jazz legends Jim Hall and Freddie Hubbard in a quintet setting and represents a nice change of pace compared to Bill's extensive catalog of piano trio albums.

Best known as the bassist for the The Bad Plus, Reid Anderson has released several great albums as a leader on the Fresh Sound New Talent label. "The Enthusiast" is the lead-off track to Anderson's third album and displays his unique approach to harmony, orchestration and form. The A sections feature Anderson's ability to organically utilize 7th chords and ii-V-I progressions in a non-traditional jazz setting. Also note the B section's melodic, downright catchy whole-tone riff and the six beat rhythm cycle in the harmonic progression on the C section.

This is my transcription of Joe Henderson's chord changes to "Night and Day." While Joe does not change the entire tune, his well placed II-Vs help update Cole Porter's original harmonic sequence.