Monk's piano part on Miles Davis' Bag's Groove
Charles Chen is currently working on classic piano comping; you may have already seen his collaborations on Bud Powell's and Fats Waller's (amazing job!). He contacted me to work on the tunes Monk recorded as a member of Miles Davis' band.
Bag's Groove is a standard blues in F. Although Monk doesn't play it, I've also transcribed the theme. I used the classic blues harmony, but Monk rarely use this standard progression and adds a lot of M7 and 6 chords, I've tried to go along with him as soon as he starts to play. I hope it's not confusing!
Monk's voicings are truly unique!
On the first take, Monk's solo is a perfect example of how he approches the blues: working on riffs, with lots of space…
On the second take, his solo swings a lot more, and features a lot of great bebop lines! Little by little, he leaves more space, while playing on riffs.
PDF, 11 pages + 8 pages
