Classic Take The A Train by Duke Ellington. Head arrangement and octave solo arranged by Mark Stefani at Vision Music.

Take The A Train

Dedicated to my dad who turns 80 years old on December 11th, 2020 and who is the person who originally inspired me to pick up the guitar some 40+ years ago.

John Coltrane's "Mister P.C" is a swing blues in a minor key (Cm).
Rubato intro "borrowed" from my coach Mark Stefani. Check out his stuff at Vision Music (visionmusic.com).

First two head's played single line. Last two heads played in octaves.
Solo includes blues and jazz phrases borrowed from the likes of Kenny Burrell, George Benson, John Coltrane, and others through the transcription work of Mark Stefani.

This is still a work in progress and I will likely upload new takes as I refine them.

Mister P.C.

The head (melody) first two and last two choruses  of "Take No Prisoners" were composed by Mark Stefani at visionmusic.com.

It's a minor swing blues similar in nature to "Mister P.C." (John Coltrane). The changes are basically the same, the head for this tune are primarily bluesy, keyboard orientated double-stops.

Thank you Mark for sharing this with me.

I have utilized the same opening rubato intro and solo that I used for Mister P.C. at a slightly higher tempo of 150 bpm (140 bpm for Mister P.C.).

Take No Prisoners

"Listen Here" was written/recorded by saxophonist Eddie Harris and is a classic rhythm & blues standard. Head (melody), bass arrangement and backing track provided by Mark Stefani of Vision Music. Just two chords - C7 & F7. Solo is still a work in progress.

Listen Here

Vamp solo over Am7 chord changes (Am7-G-Fmaj7-G). Timing still needs some work.

Palouse Groovin'

Music by Lou Donaldson, arrangement and backing track by Mark Stefani of Vision Music. Solo still needs some work on the timing.

Midnight Creeper

"Coming Home Baby" is a G minor blues with a simple melody. Arrangement and backing track provided by Mark Stefani of Vision Music. The solo is a work on progress and still needs some work.

Coming Home Baby

"Gentle Rain" is a classic Latin composition by Luiz Bonfa, who also wrote "Manha de Carnival" and "Samba de Orfeu". Arrangement by Mark Stefani of Vision Music. Still played a little slow and not smooth enough yet but, it's still better than my last version.

Gentle Rain

"How Deep Is Your Love" from the motion picture Saturday Night Fever was written by Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, and Robin Gibb - The Bee Gees.

This arrangement of the classic Bee Gees tune is one I put together with the help of my guitar coach Mark Stefani of Vision Music. This particular arrangement is played rubato (not in time) and down a minor third from the original key of Eb, so this version is played in the key of C. It's still a work in progress for sure. I will add a version that is played in time as soon as I figure how to do that.

How Deep Is Your Love

Laura is the theme song from the 1944 movie of the same name and is composed by pianist David Raksin. This arrangement for solo guitar is written by Mark Stefani of Vision Music. He can play it much more smoothly than I an this point. I will upload new versions to SoundCloud as I keep refining my timing and smoothness. This version includes a short intro courtesy of Mark Stefani.

Laura

Started playing guitar at age 13.  My interests in music include blues and jazz (and combining the two during a performance), and old standards from the great American songbook.

Don MacArthur