MUSIC STUDIO

Steal solos from your favorite artists!

Bag's Groove - Jerry Garcia

Here is Jerry's solo on "Bag's Groove", a playful blues. Jerry phrases with a nice use of space, lots of slurs (hammers and pulls) and slides and a cool mood throughout. Have fun!

Bag's Groove - David Grisman

Here are 4 choruses of David Grisman's solo on "Bag's Groove" (take 5), the 2nd track on the Acoustic Disc Jerry Garcia & David Grisman "So What". The Modern Jazz Quartet vibrophonist Milt Jackson composed this blues piece, a favorite vehicle for jazz improvisors.

For you mandolinists who have played bluegrass, you'll find this piece a fine introduction to jazz. The mando-friendly key of G and the blues form is familiar to all who have played such pieces as Bill Monroe's "Bluegrass Twist" or Flatt and Scruggs' "Foggy Mountain Special." Elements that may be new to bluegrass players are the 'turnarounds', or extended chords that appear in bars 8 (E7), 9 (A7) and the final 'turnaround' G7 E7/A7 D7. Surely Milt Jackson was thinking of "Salty Dog" when he wrote those chords...just kidding, these are common extensions of basic harmony used in jazz progressions.

The so-called gap between bluegrass and jazz is truly bridged by the blues, and I think you'll enjoy working on this solo, which beautifully illustrates how an improvised solo can be "compositional" in developing ideas. David's time feeling, the subtleties of which really defy notation, should be listened to (and felt) from the recording.