Jazz Drum Solo Transcriptions

Elvin Jones

• drum solo on "Bye Bye Blackbird" ( pdf / Lilypond src ) from The Great Jazz Trio recording "Autumn Leaves" (Amazon)
  
• drum playing on "Shiny Stockings" ( pdf / Lilypond src ) from Elvin Jones recording "Heavy Sounds" (Amazon), 1968
  

• Steave Korn Jazz Drummer
  A great informative, educational site. You can find drum solo transcriptions of Paul Motian, Tony Williams, Billy Higgins, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, and Adam Nussbaum at Learn page. Also eesays named "few written pieces about drumming and music" at the bottom of this page are must-read for every drummers, in my opinion.



• The Hip Rythm Digest
  There are two drum solo transcriptions of Elvin Jones and Bill Stewart at Solos page. And you can buy several jazz/jazz fusion drummer's solo transcriptions under The Store page (I've not tried yet, though).

• Beyond Bop Drumming, John Riley
  A great book. Must-have. I belatedly realized how Elvin Jones played drums by seeing the transcription of his solo on Monks Dream, from Larry Young's album Unity.



• The Art of Bop Drumming, John Riley
  A first part of "Beyond Bop Drumming". A must-have for all jazz drummers, not only for beginners.



• Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer: Coordinating Independence as Applied to Jazz and Be-Bop with CD (Audio), Jim Chapin
  A genius' work. Must-have. Every charts are logical as well as musical, and you can learn how to play the drums melodically from this eternal classic.

• GNU LilyPond
  Notation software are usually not cheap, and cheap notation software often can't handle a drums tab. So here's LilyPond, a free, hi-quality notation software. I'm afraid I don't think this one suits everyone because it requires some computer skill, but I don't want to mean that it's only for computer geeks. If you think you can try it, it's worth to do.



• S.E.E.R.A Works
  I'm using free (limited) version of "nave player" to transcribe solos. You can slow down a tempo as much as half of original's whereas keeping the pitch the same. I can't imagine transcribing Elvin's solo without this kind of software. Many thanks to the author!