Joe Cohn’s guitar solo on Thelonious Monk’s "Ask Me Now" from the 1999 release Two Funky People (Double Time) is a great display of Cohn’s melodic, harmonic and rhythmic virtuosity and vocabulary.  In it, Cohn uses a wide melodic palette of chromatic lines, arpeggios and angular lines all executed with rhythmic flexibility.  Cohn plays one chorus over this AABA form.  I have notated the 32-bar form as 64 measures to help facilitate easy reading of the many difficult rhythmic phrases within the solo.
     In measures 1-5, Cohn starts the solo with an arpeggiated motive that clearly outlines the changes containing angular intervallic skips of fourths, fifths and sevenths.  In bars 7-15, Cohn demonstrates his exceptional time concept, interspersing eighth notes, triplets and 16th notes without compromising his strong swing concept and rich, bubbly guitar tone.  Cohn develops the phrase starting with scale-wise lines into angular, intervallic diminished lines, continuing with a bebop 16th note line, and ending with extended arpeggios that rhythmically and harmonically cross the bar line in a pattern of triplets and 165th notes.  In measures 18-23, Cohn continues with more triplet arpeggio lines reminiscent of John Coltrane’s late early period.
    The phrase from bars 26-36 combines step-wise and arpeggiated lines interspersed with some lyrical octaves.  Once again Cohn’s rhythmic flexibility and strong swing feel allow him to execute this rhythmically intricate line.  In measures 36-41, another long phrase of 16th notes is played.  This bebop-style phrase contains chromatic approaches and scale-wise lines, as well as arpeggiated lines.
     In measures 42-47, Cohn again exploits his rhythmic command, playing a phrase that starts with eighth notes that build into triplets and 16th notes.  Once again, the rapid passages are as harmonically sophisticated as the lines that are not as rhythmically dense.  N bars 49-54, Cohn brings the solo to its climax with another blistering phrase of 16th notes.  The line starts out with extended arpeggio lines over Gm7 and continues with step-wise and chromatic lines over F#m7 that outline the upper extensions of the chord.  The 16th note line continues as Cohn masterfully uses chromatic enclosures as approaches to chord tones and extensions.  This results in an intricate line containing motifs that harmonically and 5rhythmically cross the bar line.
     Cohn plays a phrase in bars 54-62 that contains eighth-note and triplet figures that continue to outline the upper extensions of the chords in a melodic, lyrical fashion.  Cohn ends the solo in measures 61-66 with a line consisting of scale-wise and arpeggiated lines that again emphasize the chord tones of the changes.  DB

Guitarist and educator Timothy Cummiskey is a member of the Jazz Studies faculty at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  His trio CD, Alone Together, is available at his website, www.tc7string.com.