For me, Thundercat is jazz. I fell in love with his music immediately, and felt that so many of the feelings and ideas that I was only starting to imagine were already happening in his songs, coming from a tradition I was still actively learning and admiring. Figures like Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa and Jaco Pastorius can easily lead one to Thundercat as they are all great instrumentalists and also great songwriters. Thundercat (AKA Stephen Bruner) grew up in a family of musicians, and quickly began playing professionally with such big names as Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, Flying Lotus and Kendrick Lamar. His solo career, however, did not happen overnight, but only after a long personal process and much encouragement from his heroes and mentors was he able to strike out as Thundercat. Here is a track from his debut album, The Golden Age of Apocalypse:

What I love about this track is how the music seems to follow the lyrics in a very close kind of accompaniment, making it easy to follow the song’s story and the intimate, dreamy feeling of wandering around in a daze. The way the bass plays both lines and arpeggiated chords, the sparse backbeat, the use of space between phrases and lyrics like “maybe we can find a way // everyday is like a dream to me” make this song a cool place to hang out and a fun platform for the keyboard, saxophone and bass solo that round the track out.

This transcription is somewhat experimental, as I am using two keyboards to play what is originally played on a six string electric bass. I had fun adapting and picking up different notes to go on different keyboards and registers, trying to imitate sounds that come from the bass guitar like harmonic overtones, and seeing how simple two and three note chords can be very effective. I came across some very nice renditions of this song, both a bass cover and a jazz quartet arrangement. I hope the sheet music will help more people play this tune and learn from it - please let me know if it was useful to you!