Adrian Holovaty
@adrian · Guitar · Amsterdam
Gypsy-jazz guitarist and Soundslice developer. I post musical ideas and lick transcriptions here.
Roy is a great player I’m just now discovering. The lick in the second half of this phrase is nice and guitarry. :) From the 1961 album “The Most Exciting Guitar.” The tune is “Lost Weekend.” More…
I love the phrasing, harmonies and swing here. I‘ve transcribed both guitars because I wanted to figure out the precise harmonies that define this kind of sound/feel. “No, not six guitar, just two!”… More…
The Washington Post had a nice story yesterday about the 1868 novelty tune “Impeachment Polka” — written during the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/16/impeachment-polka-how-composer-1868-sought-capitalize-americas-political-obsession/… More…
Here’s a new lesson Cecil Alexander posted to his YouTube channel: “In this video I show 2 concepts that I'm trying to integrate into my playing: Symmetrical Scales and playing voicings in a linear manner.… More…
So beautifully dissonant I can barely stand it. From a 1951 recording. More…
Here’s a nice exercise Adrien taught at Djangofest Northwest 2018. Thanks to Paul Sommer for posting the YouTube video. More…
I recently discovered Venezuelan guitarist Juan Vidaurre and fell in love with this performance of Stardust. The musicianship is simply incredible. It has it all: beautiful chord voicings, crazy guitar… More…
From the 1945 recording by Harry James and His Orchestra with Kitty Kallen. It’s simple circle-of-fifths stuff but works as a nice melodic intro. More…
I recently got turned onto Lucian Gray, a really tasteful player in Toronto. Here’s two choruses he played over a B flat blues. More…
Love the phrasing and the sassy harmonics at the end! More…
I saw this in person at the Django Sur Lennon festival in Ireland on Sept. 28 and was grinning ear-to-ear during this fantastic scat/violin solo. I love Tcha’s phrasing and especially the call-and-response… More…
I love the contrast between the nice and simple motif at the start and the nasty lick at the end. From their album “Some Place New.” More…
I’m always looking for new ideas over this particular chord progression; here’s a nice one from Angelo. From Samois 2011. More…
From Samois 2010. This was played over the B section of “Dinette.” More…
From “What Kind of Friend” (1947). The two things I love here are the syncopated motif and the Ab minor substitution (which I've marked in the notation).… More…
Simple but effective stuff from The Count! This comes from the tune “Bluebeard Blues,” from the radio broadcast of Jazz Club USA episode 16 on April 15, 1951.… More…
This is either Billy Strayhorn or Duke Ellington — I don’t know their styles well enough to be able to distinguish. It comes from a “C Jam Blues” piano duet they did, which was broadcast on the radio program… More…
I’ve been following Isto on YouTube for more than 10 years — he’s got a lovely voice, great taste in repertoire, quirky sense of humor and an excellent fingerstyle guitar technique. He just posted this… More…
So good! Here I’ve attempted to do a guitar reduction of this fantastic shout chorus by the Modern Art Orchestra. It comes from the album “Tribute To Stephane And Django” by Roby Lakatos and Bireli Lagrene… More…
Order your magic fingers to fly — and defy the power of gravity — with this nice G major lick by Adrien Moignard.… More…
Here’s a nice little meandering thing by Barney Kessel from a live performance with The Great Guitars in 1982. More…
A straightforward but nice 1-6-2-5 intro from the tune “A Fine Romance,” from the 1961 album “Weaver of Dreams.” More…
From the tune “Hootchie Koo” from Kenny Burrell’s 1961 album “Weaver of Dreams.” The album mostly consists of Kenny’s singing, but it has some good guitar playing too. More…
I learned this one at Django In June a few weeks ago. At first glance, it seems like a finger dexterity exercise, because it’s not very melodic and it involves moving certain fingers while keeping other… More…
Here’s something Romane taught us at Django In June 2019 last week — a blues accompaniment while keeping the same note in each voicing. Really nice. Note that I didn’t notate the various rhythmic hits/feel. More…