Life is really weird. Here I am trying to transcribe all 4 voices, and some of the piano accompaniment from the amazing Oliver Nelson tune Hoe-Down, realizing it is the second time I'm falling in love with this song.

It all started in our sight reading class two weeks ago. A friend of mine was showing me some augmented arpeggio exercise (it's basically descending the arpeggio in a straight forward 8th note sequence approaching each starting note from the upper chromatic neighbour), and our teacher said it sounded like this Oliver Nelson tune called Hoe-Down that he had on his iPod. I just loved how the song started with a basic blues idea and turned into a modern beauty. I went back home that day and listened to the whole The Blues And The Abstract Truth album and remembered something. Back in 2000, the day of our first sight reading class at London Music School, Ed Speight brought an arrangement of Stolen Moments (first track of the album) for 6 guitars. I remember we failed miserably as no one knew how to read music. The same day I got a copy of the Abstract Truth cd from the library and copied it to a cassette and really loved the second song (Hoe-Down) without knowing the name because I hadn't written the names of the songs. Of course, I left the cassette back in London and forgot about the whole album and now I'm rediscovering the song.

Although I thought my connection to music is ultimately weaker than it was back in the early 2000's, I have the impression that I now hear more "creatively". Some things must have settled in despite the fact that I didn't practice at all for years.

Here is the song. I love the trumpet and tenor solo. I think I'm going to arrange this to play with a guitar quartet.

Merry Christmas and happy new year,
Baris