January 21, 2026
About the Author: Reuben
Transcription is an essential element of developing improvisational language in jazz.
Throughout the history of jazz, emulating the sounds of artists you admire has been the fastest way of developing the sound you wish for, and in the 21st century this has become easier than ever.
There are now countless albums on streaming services, thousands of bootleg recordings hidden on the web, and hundreds of concert videos of every artist on sites such as YouTube.
Because of this, you can take any artist you like and transcribe their work on the spot without having to buy their music or attend their gigs.
A popular vehicle for developing language is the ‘Rhythm Changes’.
This is the chord sequence of George Gershwin’s classic ‘I Got Rhythm’, which subsequently has become a staple of Bebop jazz, and presents improvisers with a clear opportunity to test their abilities on a fast-moving sequence.
Here are some of the solos that I have found essential to transcribe over the ‘Rhythm Changes’.
Brad Mehldau: Anthropology (1993) – When I Fall in Love
Brad Mehldau is arguably the greatest jazz pianist of the 21st century.
His style has taken improvisation to a level previously unheard of, straddling numerous genres in a career that continues to reach new ground.
In the 1990’s, Mehldau was much less of a genre-chameleon, and instead was a ferocious bop pianist, taking the quaver-based language of bebop to the max.
His recording of Anthropology is an exhausting and exhaustive performance of Charlie Parker’s tune.
It begins with an angular and disjointed exploration of elements of the tune, played as a melody with both hands.
This builds up speed over the first 4 choruses, before launching into full tilt (with the assistance of the rhythm section).
As the solo progresses, it goes from quite diatonic language, to very dissonant language, incorporating entire sections of tritone substitutions.
This solo is ferociously quick, clocking in at an eye-watering 315bpm.
This makes it a very good workout for up-tempo technique, including in the left hand.
The entire album ‘When I Fall in Love’ is a fascinating look at the early career of a jazz behemoth, and worth studying by every jazz pianist.
Bud Powell: Anthropology (1962)
Bud Powell was one of the most important musicians in the development of bebop.
Known as the ‘Charlie Parker of the piano’, his style incorporated much of the quaver-based bop language which Parker was famous for, and utilised a left hand technique that helped drive the music forward, and distinguished it from earlier stride-based comping language.
This video is of an older Powell, recorded in a smokey basement in Copenhagen.
Powell was a very consistent player throughout his career, and so the late date of this recording is no issue, and what you see here is a classic Bud Powell improvisation.
What makes this more useful than most recordings, is that you can see his hands, which allows you to take notes on his technique, and how the interplay between his hands works in full.
This recording will give you tons of ‘old school’ bop language, and a strong lesson in bop phrasing and comping.
Keith Jarrett – Oleo (1993) – Video available on YouTube
For those of you wanting a step away from bop language, Keith Jarrett is always a good person to turn to.
His style is far more motivic than the previous examples (even more than Mehldau), incorporating more elements of folk, gospel and blues than pure bop language, and experimenting much more with spontaneity than pre-determined phrasing.
Listen out for the various motifs used, and the numerous references both to the original tune and other tunes in the bebop zeitgeist.
There is something for every jazz pianist to learn from the music of Keith Jarrett, even if he is not everyone’s preference for easy listening!
The recordings of his Standards Trio will stand forever as staples of trio improvisation and arrangement.
Chick Corea – Rhythm-A-Ning (1991)
Chick Corea was one of the most important players to evolve piano improvisation into the modern era.
His combination of vamped harmonic figures and 4-note quaver groupings paved the way for much of what you see in the 90’s and beyond, and this concert recording is a brilliant example of this.
You will find good value in studying his use of vamping and dissonance in this video, not just in the piano solo, but also over the drum solo.
Look also for the intense interplay between the piano and the rest of the band, as this is largely what makes the solos in the video so dynamic.
This performance is also not overindulgent, and so presents less of an overall challenge than other solos might.
Oscar Peterson – Lester Leaps In (1956) – Oscar Peterson Plays Count Basie
This is one for those of you looking to see old-school bebop taken to the max.
Any recording by Oscar Peterson will be a serious technical undertaking, so this will be mostly useful to those looking to work on their up-tempo chops.
This solo has sections of heavy generalisation (playing lines describing Bb major over the entire A section in parts, instead of following all the chord changes within).
It also has plenty of dense linework following the changes fully, and this gives the overall solo good shaping at high speed.
This kind of recording will not necessarily give you much in the way of fresh language to use, but is an ideal exercise for your technique, and what Peterson lacks in modernisation he makes up for in pure musical accessibility, if your fingers can keep up!
Rhythm Changes will always be an essential vehicle for developing improvisational language, and with the help of these solos you will be able to acquire a large amount of useful ideas for your own use.
Combining transcription with written solo exercises will be your fast track to your own heavily evolved language.
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