Mulgrew Miller Transcription

RIP Mulgrew. What a loss: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/arts/music/mulgrew-miller-jazz-pianist-dies-at-57.html

Here are three choruses of a Mulgrew Miller piano solo on “If I Should Lose You,” from the album Getting To Know You.

Full PDF: Mulgrew-IfIShouldLoseYou

He frequently takes the lines “out” by playing off the melodic minor scale of the raised 5th, e.g., F# melodic minor (b3, 6, #7) when in Bb Maj, only to descend back in the original tonality. He does this in measure 12, 38-39 and 53-54. Note this is essentially playing off the V7 since the melodic minor a half-step up from the V7 is a common scale choice. The line at 58-59 is really nice too — he plays a C7 altered scale (#5, b7, b9, #9) over a G min. This happens again at 75-76 Also common to any Mulgrew solo is the bebop phrase heard at 41 and 51.

I’ll try to finish this solo at some point because there’s more good stuff in the choruses that follow.

Enjoy.

NOTE: if you find this transcription useful, feel free to post a comment!