Duke Ellington titled his autobiography "Music is My Mistress."  Well, if music is MY mistress than comedy is my girlfriend on the side when I get tired of my mistress.  (Wait...what?!?)  Anyway, I love a good laugh and Jimmy Fallon never fails to deliver.  I loved watching him on "Late Night" and now he is seriously killing it on the "The Tonight Show."  The Roots, "the best band in Late Night," add an incredible amount to the show, of course with their incredible musical flexibility and wittiness but also in their sporadic comedic performances.  I love the play between Jimmy and Roots' keyboardist James Poyser during the weekly "Thank You Notes" sketch.  I'm excited to teach to you all how to play Poyser's "Thank You Notes" piano music.  Check out the video tutorial below. 

 By the way if you haven't heard of James Poyser, check him out...NOW!  He's a fabulous pianist, keyboardist, & producer.  He has worked with many great R&B and hip hop artists like J Dilla, Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and Bilal and plays some REAL DEAL R&B and gospel keyboards.  

Happy Shedding!

Someone who is sitting-in on an upcoming gig asked if we could play Recorda Me by Joe Henderson.  Great, I responded, I love playing that tune -- it has fun chord changes to solo over and a funky latin rhythm.  Who could ask for more really?  It's no wonder it gets called so much at jam sessions.  

Others may not have been as happy to play Recorda Me on a gig as I am.  There are certain jazz snobs out there who don't like to play songs because "everybody plays them."  This is not my viewpoint.  On the contrary, these songs get called on gigs and at jam sessions for a reason -- they are great songs!  However, since everyone does play them, we have to make an extra effort to make sure we stand out when we do play them.  One great way to do that is to go to the original recording of the tune, and REALLY LEARN IT off the record.  Take Blue Bossa, another Joe Henderson classic -- it's often used as a beginner/intermediate level tune because it is straightforward to improvise over -- but how many of us seasoned jazz players have scoffed at the idea of playing it on a gig?  The thing is, that tune is killer!  (Killer by the way is a good thing in jazz lingo)  If you really check out the original Joe Henderson version and learn how he played the actual rhythm of the melody and how he soloed over it, you'd realize that Blue Bossa is no tune to scoff it, rather, it's a tune to STUDY!  

The same goes for Recorda Me, you might have played it a million times on gigs, but have you ever played the intro from the recording?  It's such a cool intro that not a lot of people play, probably because it's not written down in the Real Book.  Let's change that right now and learn the intro once and for all!  

Check out my transcription and video tutorial below.  There is a unison left-hand piano and bass line and some simple 3-note right hand chord voicings to go along with it.  Enjoy it and surprise everyone on your next gig when you play the real introduction to Recorda Me!

Happy Shedding!  

I know it's a lot to declare something your absolute "favorite" but I must say if someone asked me right now what my favorite chord voicing on the piano is, I wouldn't hesitate.  It's the minor 11 voicing I'm about to teach you.  Sure, ask me in a couple of years, I'll probably have moved on.  But ever since I heard this voicing I can't get enough!

For those who can't wait to hear and see the specific chord I'm talking about and learn how to play it, check out the video below.   For those who don't want a fish but want to be taught how to fish, let's talk some theory.  

At it's basics a minor 11 chord contains the notes of a minor 7 chord with some tensions added on.  So if we are thinking in terms of a major scale, the 4 notes of a plain old minor 7 chord are the root (1), b3, 5, b7.  For a Cminor7 chord that would be C, Eb, G, Bb.  That covers the plain parts of the chord, but things start to get spicy when we add what are called chord tensions, typically the 9, 11, and 13.  This chord uses the 9th and 11th and leaves out the 13th.  If we are still talking Cminor7 that would be a D and an F.   (Note:  Remember 9th, 11th and 13th are just a fancy way of saying the 2nd, 4th, 6th, but that's for another article)

So here are the notes that make up our minor 11 chord:  Root b3, 5, b7, 9, & 11, OR in C -- C, Eb, G, Bb, D, and F.

Notes are one thing, those are just the building blocks of the chord.  Where it really starts to get interesting is the voicings, that is, the arrangement or order in which we play those notes.  

In our left hand we play the Root, 5th, and 9th.  This makes two stacked perfect fifths, a nice open sound.  In the right hand, we play the b3, b7, and the 11.  Guess what?  Two more stacked perfect fifths.  But here's where it gets juicy, when we put our hands together we get an interval between the top note of the left hand and the bottom note of the right hand -- a super crunchy minor 2nd.  So we have a bunch of open sounding fifths and to contrast it we have the bite of the dissonant minor second.  Now that's my kinda voicing.  Check it out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.  

Happy Shedding!