Chet's Embellishments
Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2018 4:55 pm
I think one of the things that made Chet great was his embellishments. By embellishments, I mean he had an astonishing armamentarium of runs, arpeggios, and you name it. And they all had Chet's unique touch stamped all over them. They were pure, uniquely and original Chet. In a way, the Superlick was an embellishment. I mean when you think about it, he knew the fingerboard so well...he knew chord progressions, melody and harmony so well, that he could insert the perfect embellishment in any tune he was playing. I don't know if he had pre-thought it out ahead of time, or if he just knew off the top of his head what would fit and was automatically able to translate it to his fingers in real time, but whatever it was, it worked.
I know for a fact that his head was SO in tune with musical concepts that when Loudermilk first showed him "Windy and Warm," he anticipated the ending before John even got there.
But has anyone ever categorized the Embelishments that he used REGULARLY? I mean the ones where if you listen to a lot of Chet's records, you often say "Hey! I heard him play THAT certain lick in a different tune."
It would be nice if a bunch of Chet's most used embellishments were in one handy book.
I know for a fact that his head was SO in tune with musical concepts that when Loudermilk first showed him "Windy and Warm," he anticipated the ending before John even got there.
But has anyone ever categorized the Embelishments that he used REGULARLY? I mean the ones where if you listen to a lot of Chet's records, you often say "Hey! I heard him play THAT certain lick in a different tune."
It would be nice if a bunch of Chet's most used embellishments were in one handy book.