I love Medeski Martin and Wood. I last saw the band in Lawrence during December of 2007. John Scofield joined them to promote the album “Out Louder,” which dropped in September of 2006 on Indirecto Records. This album is among the best of its decade. Medeski Martin and Wood has been my favorite band since my early days of college. The band has a heavy funk groove. I love the sound of John Medeski’s vintage keyboards; Chris Wood’s hard dropping bass, and Billy Martin’s masterful Latin beats. When combined with the immaculate guitar of John Scofield, their music is phenomenal.

I chose to transcribe John Scofield’s solo on Cachaca for a number of reasons. The primary reason is that the solo sounds awesome and I wanted to know how to play it. The second reason is that the musical complexity of the solo is probably the most challenging feat I have accomplished as a jazz musician to date. These seventy nine bars use a lot of offbeat sixteenth note patterns, quarter note triplet triplets (I will explain that later), and odd sixteenth note rests to create a pocket of tension. There is not much melodic release in the solo. It’s a trip of hard thrashing licks, rhythm displacement, and mastery of scalar patterns. For those of you who do not think that John Scofield is among the top living guitar players, you’re wrong. Learn this solo and you will change your mind.

I ran in to quite a few challenges in this transcription. The most challenging factor for me is that I play the saxophone, not the guitar. This creates problems with range. The saxophone has a comfortable range of 2 ½ octaves, but the guitar can extend to about 5 octaves. The lower notes were the most difficult so I had to raise them during my grunt work. When I plugged hand written work in to Sibelius (a music writing program), I edited the octave issues so the solo could be learned in its true range. Some other challenges included distinguishing sixteenth note triplets from regular sixteenth notes where the accents are placed the first and fourth notes of the series.

One thing I am proud of is that I did not cheat. By not cheating, I mean that I did not use a program that slows the solo down. That would make some of the longer sixteenth note patterns easier to write down. Instead of using a program like that, I analyzed the solo beat by beat. Sometimes I found that it was easier to work backwards during long passages of sixteenth notes, that way if I was to get lost in the middle, I could work from another angle and connect the lick together. Before I edited the solo with Sibelius, the transcription was between 85% and 90% accurate.

Performance notes about the transcription:

In measure 14, the sixteenth notes on beat 1 are ghost notes so use a slight whisper on those notes. The rest of the measure can be played at a mezzo forte volume. Measure 21 is the first time Scofield uses quarter note triplets divided in two beats. On each quarter note triplet, place eighth note triplets making 9 even triplets on the last two beats. Watch out for the sixteenth note triplet subdivisions on measure 29, practice them slow because they are tricky. The most bizarre lick of the solo happens between measures 50-52. This is a series of 11 quarter note triplets with subdivisions of eighth note triplets, similar to those in measure 21. This section will not feel like it lines up with 4/4 time, but do your best to feel the even pulse of quarter note triplets. The rest of the rhythms and notes should fall in to place.

When I refer to a measure, I am speaking of the measures numbered in this transcription download, not measures of the actual tune on the album. I recommend buying a copy of “Out Louder” because the recording is awesome! To truly understand this transcription you must listen to Scofield’s solo on the album. I would like to thank Jeff Benjamin for helping me edit this transcription in Sibelius because I am not a composer and he is much faster with the program than I. If anybody plays an instrument other than guitar and would like a copy of the solo in a different key, please e mail me alex@nectarnotes.com. Good luck learning the solo!

Published Wednesday, 10th February 2010 - Written by Alex Tate