Hot House- Al Haig Piano Comping Transcription

CORRECTIONS: the first chord contains a Db, not a D natural. The C chord in measure 7 should occur one eighth note earlier than written. The G octave in measure 30 should be omitted.

My best attempt at transcribing Al Haig's comping on the first melody of Hot House from the 1945 recording made by Charlie Parker with Dizzy Gillespie. I did this for a friend who teaches jazz courses at a music school, and he only asked for the first 32 measures. He wanted to use this tune to introduce bebop comping ideas to the piano players.
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this transcription, so please let me know of any corrections.
Al Haig uses several ideas that are characteristic of the early bebop style. These include using the root in most or all chords, half-diminished chords containing no extensions, drop-3 voicings, left-hand shells from the stride and swing era, passing chord motion from the swing era, chords containing only guide tones on top of a root, chords with doubled guide tones, adding multiple tensions to dominant chords, and minor 7th chords used only as a way to create movement (they aren’t used as a stable chord; for instance, the Fm7 in measure 11 resolves to a more stable FmM7 in the early bebop setting and creates chromatic movement in the individual chord voices).

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[vova]

You're doing an important job 🙏, comping is essential part of jazz piano yet there is precious few transcription of piano comp. Al Haig, of course, was master accompanist and Stan Getz called him "best in business". 👏👏

[charliecharlotte]

I literally talked to a friend about how good this track is, the head, the solo lines, and particularly the comping on the head, and then wham, this shows up in my recommended, thank you very much!

[yeahjazz]

CORRECTIONS: the first chord contains a Db, not a D natural. The C chord in measure 7 should occur one eighth note earlier than written.

[jacktomchang]

I just bought "Charlie Parker the Complete Scores" and was very disappointed that the Comping of Al Haig was not included. I think there would be a Huge Market for a Supplemental Volume that had all Al's comping behind Miles and Charlie Parker. You can tell by the chord changes in the Score that Al played differently behind Miles as compared to Bird. I, for One, would definitely be interested in buying any of these Comping Transcripts from you. You can't really Know Why they Played what they did without knowing what the Pianist was doing. Cheers, Jack

[fresamouse]

first C is on the and of 4 on bar 6 tho. looks good. well done.