Kenny Burrell Blues Licks

Kenny Burrell has long been identified as one the best guitarists in the jazz-blues genre. He uses blues vocabulary liberally even though he came up during the 'post bop' era. He is a great guitarist to learn from and transcribe because his vocabulary is really classic and easy to put into your own playing, plus he doesn't typically play e tremely fast tempos. !ost of these are ta"en from the landmar" album, Midnight Blue which should be in every jazz and blues guitarist's library.

Lick 1
#he first lic" here is played in the $%hitlins %on %arne& solo. #his is one you here KB playing often, one of his go to lic"s. 'n this case he is putting it on the ' chord before moving to the ( )actually b(' here* in bars +-,. #ry e perimenting with placing this lic" in other places. Harmonically, he's outlining the tonic chord's root and fifth by sliding into them.

Lick 2
#he ne t lic" we'll loo" at is a variation of lic" -, and put in the same place. #his time he uses a similar rhythm but uses the entire minor pentatonic scale,

Lick 3
#his lic" is just a classic minor pentatonic blues lic". He plays this during the .nd bar of the tonic chord, but it could easily be moved all around.

Lick 4
#he ne t lic" comes from KB's recording of $/ee Baby 0in't ' /ood to 1ou.& #his one and lic" 2 are closely related. #hey both use the 'blue note' b2 and have a static tonic on top. 3se a shape similar to the minor pentatonic bo shape. Here he slides into the third, using the blue note again.

Lick 5
KB plays this variation in the song, $K #wist.& 't is very similar to 4ic" 5, just using a slightly different rhythm.

Lick 6
#he ne t selection is an e tended piece of the $K #wist& solo. #his is the first phrase of the solo, going from the ' to the '( chord. #here are a few lic"s here to unpac" and add to your vocabulary, so don't be afraid to piece it out. #he first part of the lic" is a throwbac" to players li"e #iny /rimes and even a little Charlie Christian. #his would even sound at home in a country solo. He then follows an arpeggio up to the b6 of the %6 chord and plays the / pentatonic scale down, finishing the lic" all within the pentatonic scale.

Lick 7
Here we find some shorter lic"s. 7umber 6 is from the song $8aturday 7ight Blues,& when KB goes from the ( to the '( towards the end of the form. #he lic" is all chord tones, but the way he uses it is interesting.

Lick 8
#his lic" is from the same song and same place in the tune. He again uses the pentatonic scale, s"ipping from the 9 up to the Bb, then following it down )leaving out the :*. Be sure to listen to this one, the notation doesn't do it justice.

Lick 9
#he ne t four lic"s are all from the ;immy 8mith classic $Bac" at the %hic"en 8hac".& 4ic" , is a great one to put into your vocabulary. Be sure to bend the 0b in the second bar just a bit to give it something.

Lick 10
'n 4ic" -<, KB decides to play his best %huc" Berry impression= #he lic" may be a bit overused, but all guitarists need to "now this one.

Lick 11
4ic" -- is somewhat similar to lic" 6, in that it uses all chord tones in an interesting way. 0nother simple, but effective lic".

Lick 12
#he -.th lic" here is actually the melody of $Bac" at the %hic"en 8hac".& 0gain this lic" could be put into any style-jazz, country, roc", etc. #ry this in first position in the $: 8hape.&

Lick 13
#he last lic" we're loo"ing at here is the melody of the tune $8aturday 7ight Blues.& #his one can give you a ton of material to use in solos, but can also be a tune itself. #he turnaround melody )bars ,--<* are great, as is the 9b, chord going into the 2th bar. %lassic=

>lease leave a comment below about your favorite Kenny Burrell moments and lic"s. 0lso if you have any ?uestions about vocabulary and developing your own jazz vocabulary please be sure to get in touch. ' will be releasing an article soon on the topic of building your jazz vocabulary, but more than willing to tal" over email or twitter about it.