My Little Suede Shoes
The jazz tune, "My Little Suede Shoes" was composed by Charlie Parker, who is perhaps the greatest alto saxophonist who ever lived. We'll definitely check out Charlie Parker, however as we first learn this particular tune, we're going to focus on a recording by legendary saxophonist, Sonny Stitt.
Sonny Stitt, was one of the greatest jazz alto players, but he is also one of the greatest jazz tenor and baritone players of all time. He's one of my very favorite saxophone players.
1) LISTEN to this recording - This performance of "My Little Suede Shoes" begins with 4 measures of rest with the melody entering at the pick ups to m. 5:
2) Have a LOOK and a LISTEN to this étude that I wrote based on Sonny Stitt's solo - I took his solo and watered it down for us to work on:
3) PUT ON YOUR HEADPHONES and PRACTICE the above étude along with the recording of me playing and also practice along with Sonny Stitt playing.
Did you know that you can SLOW DOWN YouTube playback?
Yes, it's an awesome feature:
• go to the video link on YouTube
• go to Settings
• go to Playback Speed
• select 0.75 (just above Normal)
4) Practice along with this backing track -
For the count off, there is one lone click, then the following clicks are beats 1-2-3-4.
The pickups to the head comes on the & of beat 3. So you need to come in after the 3rd click.