"I Don't Know" - Trombone Shorty

“I Don’t Know” (PDF) from the Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews & Orleans Avenue album, Orleans & Claiborne.

Here's another minor ii-V7 jam with a Major bridge section, with an emphasis on chromaticism.  Over the ii-V7's, Shorty tends to stay within the C minor pentatonic scale.  Although, in bars 5 and 6 of the solo, he uses passing tones to play a latin lick (descending down, 1-M7-b7) and a blues lick (b5).  In the bridge, Shorty messes around with the C minor bebop scale to emphasize the chord tones.  By using the chromatic passing tones, he bridges the gaps between chord tones, and he's able to form more linear ideas.

After this transcription, I'll only have one more tune from this album to upload.  You can expect a handful of Fred Wesley solos to follow.  From there, I may tackle some of the trombone solos from Backatown, and there seems to be some demand for more Youngblood Brass Band charts.  I do believe this will be enough to keep me busy through the end of the year.

As summer winds down, let's review some of the highlights from the summer tour season. Here's a shorty of Shorty playing with "Dynamite":

Recommended Reading: Creative Jazz Improvisation by Scott D. Reeves.  Published by Prentice Hall.