Heaven's Big Band

OK, before I go any further, I got this idea just daydreaming one day. I thought, "If Heaven had a big band and I could pick the lineup, who would I pick?" Let's put aside the debate over whether Heaven exists and what the entrance criteria is; that's a debate for another blog post.

Sticking only with the instrumentation of a big band, I thought this would be paradise's band. Probably some of your favorite names are left off, but which would you change and why? And by the way, saying someone should be in because "they're awesome" is not a good enough reason. Persuade with intelligent dialogue why I made a mistake choosing one player over another.

Here it is, Heaven's Big Band:

Saxes
1st alto – Charlie Parker
2nd alto – Cannonball Adderley
1st tenor – Coleman Hawkins
2nd Tenor – Sonny Stitt
Bari – Ronnie Cuber

Trombones
1st – Conrad Herwig
2nd – Tom Garling
3rd – ?

Trumpets
1st – Arturo Sandoval
2nd – Dizzy Gillespie
3rd – Lee Morgan
4th – Maynard Ferguson

Rhythm
Piano – Thelonius Monk
Bass – Charles Mingus
Drums – Buddy Rich
Guitar – Freddie Green

Trombones was the only trouble section. Where are all the great jazz trombonists? Who should play in this cosmic all-star band?

I'm still compiling Hell's big band. That's gonna be made of the names you can't stand. Don't worry, Kenny G will be riding 1st tenor. More to come on that one later.

See ya.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog! This is where all the magic happens. OK, maybe I'm setting myself up as a little overly important, but this is where the majority of updates will come from.

I wanted this to be a place to share ideas for licks and such, so I figured I'd start right away with the first post.

Both of these licks are based on the basic ii-V-I progression and for space and time sake, I only included the lick in the key of C. The first lick I devised from setting the 3rd of the chords as the goal note on beat one and then worked my way around toward the next goal note.

The second uses the descending arpeggio for the majority of the lick but I threw in a tri-tone substitution over the V chord.

I got the idea from an article in Jazz Improv Magazine V7N2. Greg Fishman wrote about hearing chord tones in contours, specifically 3rds. He provided a number of examples and it gave me the inspiration to devise some of my own. Thanks for a great article!

My next step with these licks is to be able to play them with the starting note being other chord tones as well as finding alternate rhythms. I tried to be as original as possible, so what do you think?