I began creating music transcriptions of piano recordings in 1977. Prior to this I had picked out songs by ear like The Beatles’ Lady Madonna and Martha My Dear, memorizing them as I went, and thus by-passing the process of attempting to notate what I was hearing. While studying at Berklee College of Music in 1976-1977 I took a class where we would sight-sing melodies, conducting 4/4 or 3/4 time while simultaneously singing the pitch, vowel (eg, fa so la), and duration of each note. This experience made it possible for me to at last truly "read time" in music manuscript.

• Wynton Kelly: “Freddie Freeloader”
  
  From the recording: Kind of Blue, by Miles Davis, 2 March 1959. LP: Columbia CL 1355, or CS 8163; CD: Columbia Legacy CK 64935, or Sony Mastersound (J) SRCS 9104.

  Key of B flat: PDF

  Key of B:

  I left Berklee after one year and moved to New Haven, Connecticut. While in New Haven I began transcribing segments of piano recordings I wanted to learn and play. One of the first was Wynton Kelly’s four-chorus solo on “Freddie Freeloader” from Miles Davis’ quintessential album, Kind of Blue.

  I have recently begun making electronic versions of some these transcriptions using Studio Vision and Finale. With “Freddie Freeloader” it turns out that while I transcribed the 1977 version in the key of B, the song is actually in B flat. In this score, I include image files for both pages of the original key of B transcription, as well as PDF for the transposed-to-B flat version.

  April 2007 note:
  While reading Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings by Peter Pettinger (Yale University Press, 1998), the liner notes from the 1992 MasterSound edition of Kind of Blue state:

  Columbia’s recording policy at that time was to run two tape machines simultaneously, a master and a safety. At the March 2 sessions, the master machine was running slow, so that when the tapes were played back at the correct speed, the music was slightly faster — sharper — than the April 6 session. Over the years, many musicians have noticed that the first side of Kind of Blue — “So What,” “Freddie Freeloader,” and “Blue in Green” — is about a quarter-tone sharp, and wondered what Miles could have had in mind. According to Teo Macero, the speed change was not intentional, and it is corrected here for the first time, using the safety tapes. (Amy Herot, liner note to Kind of Blue, MasterSound Edition, Columbia CK 64403, 1992)

  So now I understand why I thought the recording was in the key of B in 1977. Since the record pitch was between B flat and B, I somehow concluded it must have originally been recorded in the raised key.

  
  
  
• Mary Lou Williams: “Dirge Blues”
  
  From the recording: My Mama Pinned A Rose On Me, by Mary Lou Williams, New York City, 27 December 1977. LP: Pablo 2310819; CD: Pablo OJCCD-1108-2 (2310819).

  I had the extraordinary good fortune to study with Mary Lou Williams in 1979-1980. This is the opening of the 1978 recording from My Mama Pinned a Rose On Me. I notated it in 1979 according to Mary Lou Williams’ letter to me in 1979, responding to a letter I had written her asking how to write out the beginning of this song (her letter is included in its entirety in ratical.org/ratical/ratlife12.html).

  This next version of “Dirge Blues” presents an alternative representation to the above based on the 1964 recording included on the album, Mary Lou Williams Presents — Black Christ of the Andes. Here the triplets are written as eighth notes (instead of quarters) and the time is straight 4/4 (instead of alternating between 6/4 and 4/4).
  From the recording: Mary Lou Williams Presents (Black Christ of the Andes), October/November 1963. LP: Mary Records, M 101 (Released by Folkways Records as FJ 2843); CD: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, SFW CD 40816.
  
  
  
  
• Mary Lou Williams: “No Title Blues”
  
  From the recording: My Mama Pinned A Rose On Me, by Mary Lou Williams, New York City, 27 December 1977. LP: Pablo 2310819; CD: Pablo OJCCD-1108-2 (2310819).

  One of my favorite works from My Mamma Pinned a Rose on Me, I transcribed this while studying with Mary Lou. Her left-hand chord patterns taught me a great deal about substitution and comping that has significantly influenced and extended my own style. This song is a work in progress. The second portion in B-flat is complete but I have yet to generate the finished pdf representation.

  
  
  
  
• Mary Lou Williams: “J.B.’s Waltz”
  
  From the recording: My Mama Pinned A Rose On Me, by Mary Lou Williams, New York City, 27 December 1977. LP: Pablo 2310819; CD: Pablo OJCCD-1108-2 (2310819).

  Another work from My Mamma Pinned a Rose on Me, I love how the waltz feel combines the feel of both three and two with motif of dotted quarter notes predominating throughout the song in the left hand. And I am pleased to finally, as of August 2007, present the complete transcription of this work which I had originally done by hand in 1980.

  
  
  
  
• Mary Lou Williams: “Blues For Peter”
  
  From the recording: My Mama Pinned A Rose On Me, by Mary Lou Williams, New York City, 27 December 1977. LP: Pablo 2310819; CD: Pablo OJCCD-1108-2 (2310819).

  The head of this song is also from My Mamma Pinned a Rose On Me. I love its swinging, funky waltz feel.

  
  
  
  
• Mary Lou Williams: “Baby Man”
  From the recording: Free Spirits, by Mary Lou Williams, 8 July 1975. LP: Inner City Records, IC 2043; CD: SteepleChase Productions, SCCD-31043 (Klampenborg, Denmark).

  John Stubblefield wrote this song and Mary Lou included it on her 1975 Free Spirits album. Mary Lou’s pensive and expressive treatment of the melody in the opening bars is filled with beauty and grace.

  
  
  
  
• Thelonious Monk:  “‘Round Midnight” (with chords)
                                   “‘Round Midnight” (without chords)
  
  From the recording: "Thelonious Monk, piano". Hollywood, California, 19 November 1968. LP: Greatest Hits, Columbia CS 9775; CD: Thelonious Monk — The Composer, Columbia CK44292.

  This was one of the first jazz piano recordings I heard when I began listening to jazz piano in the mid seventies. I finally transcribed it in the late eighties. It is one of the most harmonically rich works I’ve ever put to paper. I include a copy with chords included as well as one without. I give the chord-less copy to students to analyze for their own study. I’d like to thank Adam Larrabee, who helped me with the chord analysis on pages one, two and four.

  April 2007: I am pleased to at last begin to include a sound file here and there (see also “Stolen Moments” and “Cry Baby Cry” in Advanced Piano Scores and “You Can’t Do That” in Intermediate Piano Scores). This midi file for ‘Round Midnight is a two-track (right hand/left hand) rendition of the above transcription that provides a crude representation of the original. Please seek out Monk’s version to hear the real thing.

  
  
  
  
• Meade Lux Lewis: “Special #1”

  I especially love this 12-bar chorus of Meade Lux Lewis’ song with its funky triplets feel bassline and the rich arpeggiated 9th chords rolled out in the right hand.

  
  
  
  
• Oliver Nelson: “Six and Four”
  Recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey; March 1, 1961. LP: Images, Prestige P-24060; CD: Straight Ahead, Oliver Nelson with Eric Dolphy, Prestige, New Jazz OJCCD-099-2 (NJ-8255).

  I've always loved this 6/4 tune with its wonderful bass line and melodic figure that diverges into double note harmony per measure. A midi file is included to demonstrate a piano arrangement I made of the original duet of Oliver Nelon and Eric Dolphy.

  
  
  
  
• Mary Lou Williams: “Syl-o-gism”
  From the recording: Zoning, by Mary Lou Williams, 17 January 1974. CD: Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40811, 1995.

  Syl-o-gism (not included on the 1974 record) was first released on the 1995 CD. Its 16-bar idea is imbued with Mary Lou‘s unique sense of rhythmic, bluesy feel. A midi file presents a three-track representation (piano right/left hand and bass). As always, please seek out the CD recording to hear the real thing.