Brian Blade - Streams Of Consciousness Solo Transcription

Well, after months of work, here is a transcription of one of my absolute favorite drummers, Brian Blade! This is from Streams of Consciousness by the Joshua Redman Quintet at the 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival. With no disrespect to the other great masters of percussion, I don’t think I have ever heard a drum solo so perfectly constructed, so incredibly musical, and so technical, yet also very clean and precise. This masterpiece should be up there with the other great improvised solos of history like Miles Davis on So What, or Cory Henry on Lingus. I originally transcribed this in college (with many errors) because I was playing the tune on my recital, but I recently wanted to relearn it and transfer it to a notation software. At first glance, this might seem like an open solo, but I realized not only does Mr. Blade not lose track of the 7, he also keeps the form! Now, this is seriously an impressive feat. First of all, 7 is already difficult for us mere mortals, but then the 8th note phrasing of 5,5,4 takes it to a whole new level. Instead of strictly following the bizarre grouping, he is able to free himself from that and tell an incredibly emotional and expressive story all while keeping the 12 bar form. It’s truly mind-blowing and inspirational! This solo should be studied for years to come, so if anyone wants the pdf, shoot me an email at justinvorp@yahoo.com.


TL;DR Brian Blade is God