Mark Whitfield's Solo on Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are (Transcription)

Hey guys!

Coming at you today with another transcription and short FREE lesson! This time we are looking at Mark Whitfield’s solo on Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are by Thelonious Monk. This is a great solo for looking at speed runs and playing a bit “out” while still being tasteful and melodic! Some of the concepts we are going to look over are, his use of “altered blues,” his speed runs/bebop licks, and some “out” licks/shapes that he uses on the guitar.

First off is what I called “altered blues.” This is simply taking a blues like and altering the quality of it. For example, taking a Bb7 blues like and making it a Bb7b5 blues lick! Just make all the 5th’s into flat 5th’s! Mark uses this right at the start of his solo. He takes a common blues guitar like but adds that b5 to the mix. This makes it interesting as well as innovative! Here are some examples:

The next concept he uses are his classic speed runs/bebop lines. He uses one main bebop idea through out this solo (I will show it in the example). He then will take this idea and expand upon it, adding a starting phrase to it as well as and ending phrase. Here is the lick and some of the evolutions of it:

The last concept that I would like to talk about is Mark’s use of playing “out.” As a guitar player he plays shapes that resolve to a chord tone. Some of the notes in the shape might not be technically correct, but because of the tension and release it doesn’t matter! Below are a few examples of some out concepts he uses:

I really enjoy transcription this one! This week I am actually on tour with Mark through MSU Jazz Orchestra 1. I thought it would be a good time to get one of his many amazing solos under my fingers! I hope you can expand upon these concepts that I have laid out and use them in your own improvisation.

Thanks,

Nathan Borton