Donna Lee...#$%&***#

[Mr.Hanky]

Damn!!

Finally sitting down with this one and it is brutal, doesn't help that my reading is on a 3rd grade level and this tune is in Ab.

Ah well, it is jigsaw puzzle time, one measure at a time.
My teacher reccomends one shot of scotch per measure, I may try this approach, not sure yet.

[K-man]

I was able to get up to about half tempo before I gave up on that one. Not guitar friendly.

[Leucadian]

...I'm not a very good reader either...but with these tunes...you need to memorize the head...cause the tempo's are so brisk. About 20 years ago, I bought the Charlie Parker Omnibook and learned all the heads I liked...I worked on Donna Lee every morning...while drinking coffee...:worried...for a couple of weeks...when you memorize all the notes, you can play it as a warm-up exercise...make sure you play in time with a metronome on 2 & 4 or a drum machine and then slowly work it up to speed. I can still play it from memory. BTW, there's a Buddy Rich recording you ought to hear with Jack Wilkins haulin' ass on Donna Lee. I always liked Relaxin' at the Camarillo myself.

[Mr.Hanky]

Yeah, I'm not in a rush, I memorized the first line tonight and started the second line. It is also a matter of placement on the neck, deciding on the fingering and sticking with it.

As my teacher says, it's one of those things you have to work at daily or it goes away, like working out, all those muscles fade without constant upkeep.

Have you heard Jaco do it?
Pretty kool!

[Leucadian]

Yeah, I'm not in a rush, I memorized the first line tonight and started the second line. It is also a matter of placement on the neck, deciding on the fingering and sticking with it.

As my teacher says, it's one of those things you have to work at daily or it goes away, like working out, all those muscles fade without constant upkeep.

Have you heard Jaco do it?
Pretty kool!

Yes...I like Jaco's version...and I used to scour the record stores looking for different recordings of the tune by as many artists as I could. Charlie Parker was such a fluid improviser...I wish I could have seen him play...talk about shreddin'.:RoCkIn

[jazzerken]

Jaco was the first one I heard do this tune and I was blown away by it. It took me forever to learn how to play it. I gave up a few times and kept coming back to it. Don't worry, you'll get there! Here's a video I did playing it with a (crappy) BIAB backing track about a year or so ago. Not blazing fast at 144!
http://homepage.mac.com/getken/guitar/iMovieTheater23.html

[Mr.Hanky]

That is real nice Ken, guitar sounds great too.

[Mr.Hanky]

There is a killer version here http://www.jazzpromo.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=91

Fr. Stan is a monster bass player!

[DrSax]

I've been working on Confirmation and Scrapple from the Apple for about a year now. It's not that I don't know the notes, but getting the feel, making it swing right, is what's taking time. Tough stuff, but man it does wonders for your playing.

[jbro]

Learn it starting on the B string. Then learn it starting on the E string an octave up. Then harmonize the head in 4ths, 5ths, then 6ths. Then come up with a few reharm arrangements. Now put it in 6/8 and move it to Eb. Got it? Good, now never play it again.

[shigihara]

Charlie Parker was such a fluid improviser...
I wish I could have seen him play...talk about shreddin'.:RoCkIn


Knock yourself out ! Here he is... enjoy:

http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/video/53031

[KLB]

Donna Lee can be fingered so many different ways. There is a lot going on with this challenging tune! I enjoy attempting it from time to time. There are usually sonic "rust spots" scattered throughout when I play it. Oh well ...

[Mr.Hanky]

Knock yourself out ! Here he is... enjoy:

http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/video/53031

Damn criminal how he slapped Coleman around in that video.

There is a new sheriff in town!

[dkaplowitz]

Funny you should bring this up, I just finished learning all the notes today. My teacher gave me a suggested fingering for the A section and I kinda' used my own for the B section. I think my fingerings are a little funky right now b/c of my lame reading skills, but once I have the notes better I plan to try to optimize the fingerings as much as I can. I have a decent arrangement of it for BiaB that helps me cuzz I can slow it down to like 70BPM and isolate problem areas. I plan to work it up to a reasonable tempo the next several weeks. I'm very psyched to learn it b/c the lines are helping me to think so differently from how I normally would (try) to think over all those changes. Very cool stuff. I will work out a few more Bird heads after this fo' sho'.

Actually I have a Brecker sax book and might wind up trying to take on Itsbynee Reel after this, but we'll see.

Good luck working it out. I think it'd be interesting for some of us to post our fingerings for the head and to discuss some of the choices we made...I'm up for it if youse are.

[hw2nw]

I just got this down on the alto sax...definitely a bitch of a lead to play fast but the changes are pretty easy to improvise over. Parker is the best!

[Cap'n Fingers]

Our own jzucker has a wicked vid of himself doing Donna Lee
on the Sheets Of Sound site:
http://www.sheetsofsound.net/videos/jaz/donnalee.wmv

Some day I tell myself...some day.

[glendrix]

Knock yourself out ! Here he is... enjoy:

http://www.dailymotion.com/alternativa/video/53031

Wow, that was an awesome clip! :D

Thanks for posting.