Aebersolds: Why They Are Still Great Teaching Tools

The best way to really learn jazz improvisation is to get a gig with a great jazz group that goes on the road or plays every night in a club. Ha! I am well aware that this is not 1955, so those sort of opportunities are rare at best. There is touring still, but it has been getting dry as the decades progress. Even within my limited career, I remember tours in the late 90's that went between 9 and 11 weeks. That's a lot of playing! Nowadays, a weekend stint is a blessing, and 10 days seems like a really long tour. (Talk to older cats about going on the road for months and years at a time! I think the only people that do that currently are pop stars and maybe Chris Botti.)

So there isn't a lot of touring, and for some students, there are few or maybe no local gigs to give them a chance for bandstand experience. And I admit, while the bandstand is a great place to learn, you also need to have a concept together before you get on the bandstand. So how can a young player work out their ideas without a steady gig or even a decent rhythm section at their disposal?

Jamey Aebersold

I am constantly encouraging my students to practice with the Jamey Aebersold recordings. (And trust me, I am not a paid spokesman!) For those of you not familiar, Jamey Aebersold is a saxophonist, pianist, and highly successful jazz educator. From Indiana originally, and now a professor at the University of Louisville, Aebersold introduced his Play-A-Long recordings in the late 60's. The Aebersolds, as they are affectionately known, are essentially Music Minus One recordings, which is much like the Karaoke concept: you hear the backing track and then you provide the melody.

However, the Aebersolds are specifically designed for jazz and to help you learn how to improvise. The first few in the series of 126 recordings are focused on the basics: chords and scales, ii V I progressions, and blues forms. Eventually there are recordings that feature the repertoire of one jazz great, such as Charlie Parker, or Miles Davis, or Cannonball Adderly. There are accompanying books of course, and the charts of each song are clearly written, and also transposed for Bb, Eb, and Bass Clef instruments. Furthermore, the solo forms are clearly delineated, and for each chord, there is an appropriate scale written. It's essentially handing you the keys to the gate of jazz improvisation on a silver platter!

The great Ben Riley

The best thing to me about the Aebersolds, beside the clarity of the presentation, is that there are some really legendary cats in the rhythm sections of these recordings. The idea that you can play along with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, and Ben Riley while sitting in your practice room is fairly amazing, Now, are you actually playing with them? Are they actually playing with you? No. However, it might be the closest that I'll ever get to playing with those cats. ( Barron and Carter were colleagues of mine when I taught at Juilliard, and I STILL never got to play with them!)

I believe that having the experience of playing in time with a recorded rhythm section is a form of training. One-it trains you to play in time in a more stimulating way then if you only played with a metronome. Two- it reinforces the form of these tunes. Three- it trains you to play and listen simultaneously. All of these things are essential for playing real jazz, and these things-time,form,and listening, are so often missing from young jazz players.

Sheets of Sound.....

I still recommend the old fashioned ways of transcribing solos and playing along with your favorite recordings. However, this can be very time consuming, and I know some players who had transcribed many solos but couldn't really "put it in their own words", so to speak. It makes sense that you would use a combination of techniques to learn good jazz playing. I personally did a lot of listening before I had ever heard of the Aebersolds. And I did try to play along with recordings, however laughable that must have sounded at the time. ( I think I was in 8th or 9th grade trying to play my trumpet along with John Coltrane on "Summertime" from My Favorite Things. Trane was playing "sheets of sound". I was playing "sheets of toilet tissue.")

Randy Brecker

I hope some of my students will read this and maybe, um, take the hint? I still play trumpet along with Aebersolds in my office when I have time between students. And recently, I asked Randy Brecker how he maintained his technical accuracy on trumpet. Brecker told me he plays along with Aebersolds every day. I contend that it's a fun way to practice: not the only thing to practice, but combined with listening and other things, it's a great help in developing a concept. Hopefully, you will then get a chance to try out your stuff on a real bandstand!

Link to Jamey Aebersold site