Transcription: April In Paris

Composer: Vernon Duke
Transcription starts at 2'36"; ends at 2'56"
From the album: April In Paris
Leader of the session: Count Basie
Recorded: July 26, 1955; New York City
CD: Verve 314 521 402-2

It was while listening to these eleven measures that I began to question the "conventional wisdom" that Freddie Green always employed three note rhythm chord voicings. In bar 2, Freddie clearly sounds an Ab note on the 4th string. In an effort to find a "conventional" three note chord for bar 2, I tried adding other notes of a Db6 chord below the Ab and above the Ab. Nothing worked. No matter what three note chord voicing I tried, I could not match what I heard on the CD. Could it be that Freddie was sounding only the Ab note and muting all the other strings as he strummed? As unconventional as this seemed at the time, I surmised it must be true as nothing else matched. Try it yourself.

For instructions on how to play "one note" and "two note" Freddie Green chords, see my article written for Down Beat entitled: Distilling Big Band Guitar: The Essence of Freddie Green. (This transcription is also included in the Down Beat article).

Michael Pettersen
September 2001

Addendum

Important: The chord diagrams illustrate probable fingering forms used by Freddie Green based on extensive research conducted by the primary contributors to this web site. As there is no video record of this recording session, Freddie's exact fingerings will never be known.

An "x" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, but the string is not fully pushed down to make contact with the fret.
A "black dot" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, and the string is pushed down to make contact with the fret.
A "white dot" indicates that a finger is placed on the string, and the string is pushed down to make contact with the fret. A white dot also indicates that the note is added to the chord form on the previous beat. Adding an upper note on beat 2 or 4 is a typical Freddie Green technique.
If there is no "x", "black dot", or "white dot", the string is fully damped by a finger of the left hand.

Michael Pettersen
October 2003