I was looking for a note-for-note transcription of All Blues, from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue album, and I was fortunate enough to find the great work by Juanjo Molina on his jazz trumpet transcription site. Juanjo’s transcription takes us from the start of the track, through the heads and up to the end of Miles’ solo.
But I wanted the coda too, which was subtly different to the beginning. So I transcribed that part myself. Of course, that was infinitely easier to do than the task Juanjo undertook!
To get the whole piece you’ll need to download Juanjo’s transcription and then this one to pick up the ending as Miles Davis played it on the original recording.
The Corrs performed a wonderful live version of R.E.M.’s hit song, contrasting the original and featuring violin.
This transcription breaks the rules a little because it’s not for trumpet. Instead, I wrote this one out for my amazingly talented friend Ynping Mak to perform on violin. Unfortunately, she was unable to record it before Bandhub went offline, so the link below is to the original performance by The Corrs.
At the direction of Atlantic records, trumpet legend Don Ellis recorded a Star Wars-themed album to capitalize on the 1977 Star Wars craze that was sweeping the galaxy. He hastily arranged and recorded jazz-influenced versions of the Star Wars Main Theme and Princess Leia’s Theme, as well as several original compositions that were rebadged with galactic-sounding names. These were thrown together in the studio with his orchestra less than a week before embarking on a tour to the Montreux Jazz Festival.
The Montreux tour and its supporting live album were triumphant and hugely successful, while the Star Wars album garnered little or no recognition from jazz enthusiasts. But that didn’t stop Dad buying me the LP in 1978, and it certainly didn’t stop me playing the album for years afterward.
I recently rediscovered the Don Ellis Star Wars album while digitizing my LP collection, and latched onto Princess Leia’s Theme. To my ears, the arrangement is a fresh-sounding take on a truly beautiful orchestral piece. It was wonderful to be able to transcribe and record this arrangement of the tune, in tribute to the great talents of John Williams, Don Ellis, and Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, all at once.
Below you’ll find my transcribed score and charts for trumpets, trombones, French horns, alto sax, clarinets, violins, cello, and chords for guitar/keys/bass. I’ve separately provided my transcription of Don Ellis’ improvised flugelhorn solo. My sincere thanks to my friends Ynping Mak for assistance in transcribing the trickiest of the violin lines, Yoichi Kishi for identifying the chords, and Luciano Baêta for his great video production. And, of course, everyone who recorded this piece with me.
Sadly I never had the opportunity to play this chart after transcribing it. Here’s hoping you are more fortunate because it looks like a lot of fun to play.
Sting’s original studio recording of this song features some soothing lines played on Northumbrian Smallpipes. I did not know such an instrument existed. It certainly sounds beautiful on the recording.
In the absence of knowing anyone who has this instrument, I was asked to play those recorded lines on muted trumpet. And now you can too!
I’ve played a number of arrangements of this song. Usually, those arrangements score the trumpet part to play the iconic string section chorus from the original studio recording. This time, though, I’m letting trumpets be trumpets. This chart aligns with Gloria Gaynor’s “live” performance found on YouTube.
Unfortunately, our recording wasn’t finished before Bandhub shut-up shop. So I’m afraid I can’t give you a demo of me playing this.
Gary Badger's Trumpet Transcriptions 