Tim Fitzgerald Music

For his concert on the BBC-TV show "Jazz 625," Wes played "West Coast Blues" as both an intro and an outro for the show!

His intro starts with a swinging and clever figure we first heard at the end of his studio recording of the tune. Then he changes up the melody from the studio version with a triplet run at the end of the head 👌

The entire concert is only about 35 minutes long but it's historic and worth watching over and over again! Check it out on YouTube! Linked in the comments 🙌

Soloing on the vamp Donny Hathaway wrote for his version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On"

What a joy it is to play with Tom Vaitsas and Dana Hall! join us tomorrow and help us keep this Wednesday residency going into the summer Le Piano Chicago!! See you there!

Diving deeper into the great Woody Shaw's improvisations on "On Green Dolphin Street!"

Woody Shaw's tone, feeling, and harmonic choices throughout this solo 🔥

In this section, he chooses to play Fma7 and E7 as opposed to F7 and Ema7. A subtle difference, but it catches the ear differently! He also anticipates the E7 by one beat, again creating something to engage the ear. AND the way he moves from a straight scale to a fourth approach on the E7 😍 Are you listening to Woody Shaw? If not, I'd recommend it!

Get cozy with us midweek to kick off Valentines right 🌹🎶

Tables are still available for a fun and cozy night of feel-good jazz and community tomorrow! Tickets are linked below in the comments 🙌

"He was a great, great human being. So that’s why when you see that tape, those things we did, that’s why the music probably sounds so good because everybody was on the same page trying to do the right thing, and it comes through the music. There was a respect for each other." - Harold Mabern

I had the privilege to sit down with Harold Mabern, Wes' piano player in this clip, to talk about his personal experience touring with Wes, and so much more. Check out my book for the full convo, linked in the comments 🙌

Dan Trudell, Dana Hall and I return to Le Piano Chicago tomorrow! We're staying warm and having a blast 🔥 We look forward to sharing this space with you!

Enter the code "WEDSCOMMUNITY" at checkout for $5 tickets! Linked in the comments 🙌

Checking out the brilliant and too often underrated Woody Shaw! I love how he mixes fourths and bop language in his lines, always with a great feel and full tone.

If you like the sound of this line 🙌

👉Play it over and over to get it under your fingers and in your ears.
👉Then see where you can apply it.

Here, Woody Shaw is improvising over "On Green Dolphin St." which has the bII chord built in to the form. But where else could you use this line as tritone substitution?

What a time it's been at Le Piano Chicago! Feel good straight-ahead jazz, this week featuring Dan Trudell on organ and Dana Hall on drums.

If you haven't been able to come out the last couple weeks, it's a great time to join us! Enter the code "WEDSCOMMUNITY" at checkout for $5 tickets! Tickets linked in the comments below 🙌

Heard the great Clifford Brown play this line and was inspired to put it on guitar!

It's from his live recording of "I'll Remember April" with Dinah Washingon.

I love how he leans into the #5 on the D7. You could also look at that part of the line as F #7 to Bmi7 (as opposed to D7 #5 to Gma7).

Remember, if you love a line and want to interalize it 👇

👉 First just play the line to get it under your fingers
👉 Then dig in and check out what's happening rhtymically and harmonically
👉 And finally, look for other places to play the line and start playing variations to make it your own!

However you choose to think about it, dive in and see how it feels on your hands and ears!

Tim Fitzgerald Trio featuring Dana Hall and Tom Vaitsas are at Le Piano Chicago tomorrow night!

Enter the code "WEDSCOMMUNITY" at checkout for $5 tickets!

I got stuck so I turned to the greats!

There's often that one place in a tune that always trips you up. One spot that's been tripping me up lately is the diminshed chord sequence on the last eight bars of "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To."

One strategy I like to employ when stuck is to look to the greats and take inspiration from their lines. In this case, I checked out Wynton Kelly's blowing on "Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section" to help me navigate this particular diminished sequence.

I love how Wynton's line lies on the guitar!! Try this one out!