Tim Fitzgerald Music

A sometimes overlooked and important concept is beginning and ending your lines on different beats!

Here's a Barry Harris exercise I've found helpful that he designed to help you get comfortable starting on different beats within the measure 👌

Always a blast to play with my friend Abigail Riccards and always a thrill to play a full week at Chicago's historic Jazz Showcase

Here's a clip of some blowing on "I Can't Give You Anything But Love"

The Band:

Vocals: Abigail Riccards
Drums: Linard Stroud
Piano: Tom Vaitsas
Bass: Clark Sommers

The great Wynton Kelly! His creative flowing ideas and perfect swing feel made him a natural collaborator with the one and only Wes Montgomery!

Here's a short minor ii-V-i idea of his on "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" Classic blues-based bop language 👌

I love Wes' slick voice leading through the ii-V-I's on the bridge of his tune "Jingles!" Here, he connects the 9th of the ii chord to the #5 of the V chord and resolves to the 9th of of the I chord. Beautiful!

Soloing in a duo setting can be musically challenging, but I love when Michele Thomas plays percussion. So fun to dig in against the rhythm of the cabasa 😍

🎥 @ Leslie Pokoik
🔊 Henriksen Amplifiers

Another beautiful line from the one and only McCoy Tyner playing, this time over the tricky B section of Joe Henderson's "Inner Urge."

Like many of my heroes in this great music, McCoy creates a seemingly endless flow of ideas while always digging in with a deep feel.

Studying his lines is an effective way to internalize this language and honor McCoy by finding our own voice!

Great times with my dear friend Chuck Webb in Millennium Park for the International Jazz Day celebration!

📸 Raymond Mays

I love diving in to McCoy Tyner's lines! Beautiful harmonic choices with a driving feel 🔥

Here is one of his lines from Joe Henderson's iconic "Inner Urge." McCoy is playing over an Dbma7 #11. You might find it interesting that this language also fits well over Eb7 (we'll talk about that later!).

Also, note McCoy's signature angular language starting on beat 3 of bar two 😍

How fun is it to solo over this progression 😍

Donny Hathaway wrote this vamp for his version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On."

The chord progression: |: Ami7 x8 | B13 x3 |Bmi9 E9 Bbmi9 Eb9 :|