Transcription Test Post

Testing - Freddie Hubbard’s trumpet solo on “Caravan” from the 1963 album “The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard.”

We’re working on “Caravan” with the jazz ensemble and one of the big challenges is what to play over so many consecutive bars of C7 (or C7(b9), or however you want to think of it). I transcribed Freddie Hubbard’s solo because he takes so many interesting approaches to this challenge.

One approach - the C mixolydian scale. In measures 5-9, Hubbard is playing almost exclusively from the C mixolydian scale, with one added passing tone.

Another approach, and one that always comes immediately to my mind when I see a dominant flat nine chord is the diminished scale. In measures 10-11, Hubbard outlines the C half-whole diminished scale.

It is a little difficult to characterize Hubbard’s next unique approach - in measures 17-22 Hubbard uses Bb, C, Db, Eb, Ab - this could be from the F natural minor scale, or from the C altered scale. Either way, it’s an interesting sound!

One of the other challenges with Caravan (besides the tempo) is how to approach improvising over a tonic minor chord. Again, there are lots of different options (melodic minor, harmonic minor, pentatonics, borrowing chords) and Hubbard uses several of them.

A method Hubbard uses frequently is borrowing from the V7 chord. In the case of F minor, this is C7, which Hubbard often played as C7(b9), outlining an E diminished 7th chord. He deftly employs this tactic in measure 14, measure 30, measure 62, and so on. He often employs this substitution during the 2nd bar of a 4-bar section of F minor, and it works nicely as a sort of coming home to tonic in the first bar of F minor, venturing away in bar 2, and coming back home again to tonic in bar 3 or 4.

Bar 78 could be analyzed in a few different ways (it wouldn’t be theory if there was a definitive right answer, right?). You could see it as a use of F melodic minor (the E natural being the giveaway). Or the E natural could be a passing tone as part of an enclosure of the F on beat 3. Dealer’s choice.

Measures 93-95 also are open to interpretation. One could view this as Hubbard using an F harmonic minor scale, or it could be seen as briefly borrowing from C7(b9) in beats 3 and 4 of measure 94.