I saw this two years ago thinking "wow, that's pretty nice" and then, the internet rabbit hole took me away from it. Somehow I managed to come back and I've been watching this ever so often in the last couple of weeks. What an absolutely incredible solo! My first impression was waaay too superficial for the full scope of genius on display here. Thanks so much for the transcription!
We can analize and break down and measure and transcribe and try to reverse engineer. But is all comes back to one thing -- he was a genius. No one phrases like this.
Just found your transcriptions. Thank you so much. I grew up trying to learn Benny Goodman solos with a cassette recorder* and now I'm learning the tenor I can get the track, the sheet music, the transcription AND slow it down to an acheivable speed. Remarkable. (*I suppose a clarinet would have been handy too). Thank you thank you. Geoff in France
Amazing work! Yes, yes, please keep sharing your art craft and anything Louis Armstrong related.... St. James Infirmary and Dinah are other great tunes of him. Do you have any of these transcriptions available for download anywhere? Thank you!
Something about the timing seems off in the first half off this? I may be hearing it wrong, but it doesn't sound like the transcription lines up with the rhythmic framework the guitar is playing. Thoughts?
Perhaps it's the samba rhythm in the guitar? If you listen to the two lowest strings in the guitar you can hear the downbeats, whereas the treble strings are generally syncopating. It might make it sound as if the beats are flipped? Not sure! :D
Both the composer Hoagy Carmichael and the interpreter, Louis Armstrong were genius. Nothing in music was the same after they played, composed, and moved our hearts and our sentiments. Thank you for this lovely upload.
From the first time I heard this (ca. 1957) I loved the way Lester punched out those 6ths (C)varying each one slightly. So simple yet so massively effective. Very neat transcriptions.
The more I see of transcribed solos, particularly those of Lester's, the more I realize it's not what you play but how you play it that is important: the timing, the little nuances of pitch and inflection etc. As the song says: "It Ain't What You Do It's the Way That You Do It."
