Yardbird Suite - Solo Bass Rendition
This is a solo bass rendition of Yardbird Suite by the famous jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker! This is one of seven tunes from my upcoming solo album.
This is one of my top 3 hardest solo bass arrangements. I find bebop arrangements to be quite challenging, because there are usually only two playthroughs of the head in straight-ahead jazz, so you have to fill all of the space in between with crazy solos! That is exceptionally difficult when you're trying to recreate the sound of a jazz trio on one instrument - you can't repeat the same licks too many times, and each hand has to voice lead in a natural way and sound improvised. Plus, when the hands are moving completely independently of one another, it can be darn near impossible to coordinate them!
This take was a little more raw than some of the others on my solo album, as we were recording in a coffee shop without headphones (my bad, hahaha), and so I couldn't hear myself, and we didn't have many takes. What you're hearing is comped together from only a few takes.
Recorded at Milano Coffee Roasters in Vancouver.
Videographer/recording engineer: David Spidel/Spi-Fi
Mixer/producer/recording engineer: Ben Kaplan
Mastering engineer: Brock MacFarlane
Composed by Charlie Parker
Arranged by Colin Sankey