I was saddened to hear that John Abercrombie, another influential jazz guitarist in the post-bop & fusion vein, passed away last week (8/22/17). I say “another” because in under a year we’ve also lost Allan Holdsworth and Larry Coryell. 🙁

I’ve followed Abercrombie ‘s career closely ever since he released his classic recording “Timeless” back in the mid 70’s. I also had the good fortune to meet and chat with him on several occasions. By the way, in the photo that’s “yours truly” on the far right with Ralph Towner on the left and John in the middle, in Boston during the early 80’s.

Like many guitarists of his generation, Abercrombie was influenced by the late Jim Hall. Notwithstanding, he developed his own very distinct voice on the instrument. Abercrombie’s solos like Hall’s are rich in motif development, both rhythmically and melodically speaking. This poses certain difficulties when trying to decide on a phrase to extract from their solos to include in your vocabulary. It is due to the fact that unlike the “through composed” solos of most bebop players (eg. Wes, Joe Pass, George Benson, etc.), the thematic continuity in a “motif developed” solo is broken upon slicing a fragment out of its overall context. As a result when this new phrase is forced into a new harmonic context, it will seldom sound melodically convincing.Therefore, in such instances if we want to learn from this type of improvisation, we are better off transcribing and playing an entire chorus of the solo.

In keeping with the principle mentioned, I have transcribed John Abercrombie’s entire last chorus on “Four on Six” , a counterfact of “Summertime” written by Wes Montgomery. It was originally played on a soprano guitar and recorded with John Scofield on a CD entitled “Solar” ( early 80’s). In the lesson I demonstrate how Abercrombie developed a rhythmic motif through a series of II-Vs in bringing the solo to its climax.

Feel free to download the Lesson PDF below so you can follow along with the video. Have fun!

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Your Comments are greatly appreciated! Feel free to post any questions you may have or any insight you would like to share regarding this lesson.