When we started Duo Chronicles, it was summer.  It was hot out, and going to the park to be able to record a tune outside was an attractive idea to escape the studio where we were recording without the AC on to keep the noise levels down.

As I write this, we’re a third of the way done with the year-long project, and Portland is getting its first snow of the season outside.  I don’t think we’ll be recording outside again for a while.

This is a tune I wrote in November, specifically for the project.  I actually had a different idea about the direction that the tune would take, but once I brought it to Clay, we started experimenting and ended up with the feel you’ll hear in our recorded version.  Instead of Clay playing big voicings using five to ten notes at a time, he’s splitting up the voices and playing the notes individually as eighth notes.  This gives it kind of a complex sound, even though the chord changes are relatively simple.  Thus the title I decided on: “The Code”

— John Nastos

This week, we’re bringing you two songs instead of just one.  Also, instead of doing original material, we chose to do arrangements of traditional holiday songs.  With the way that we approached them, I think they still sound like Duo Chronicles -- not a total departure from our usual sound into the some-old way that these songs are normally played.

My arrangement of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” (video above) has the typical form of the old carol, but departs harmonically into dense chords.  The melody is kept pretty true to the original, though.  In the video, you’ll see footage from Portland, Oregon’s own Peacock Lane.  If you’re not from around here, I’ll explain:  Peacock Lane is a stretch of about four blocks in Southeast Portland where all of the houses get decked out in holiday decorations through the month of December.  People flock to the street to drive or walk through and admire the festivities each night, causing what I’m sure is a nightmare for the residents of the lane.  Clay and I were remarking as we drove past last week that it must be tough on the realtors on that street when they’re about to close the deal on a house and they have to explain that there’s just one more thing to mention -- they probably won’t be able to drive up to their house or get any quiet time in the evenings for 1/12th of each year.

Clay’s arrangement of Silent Night is in a similar vein -- the basic form of the tune, but with new chords.  That is, until the end when we start trading.  This video has footage from the Heathman Hotel’s holiday decorations.

Happy holidays from Duo Chronicles.

I have a tendency to wax poetic when I talk about music. I don’t know, I can’t help it. Sure I like talking about technique and craft, but sound, how does one describe sound? How does it make you feel? Everyone feels something different. My default word is “vibe.” I think if something is true, if there is truth in there, it has a vibe. Kind of like the cliche, if it feels right, it is right, which also makes sense to me. I think this week’s song (and arrangement based on Ode To Joy, from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony) is going for that.

The melody to Ode to Joy is set to a poem by the German poet Friedrich Schiller. While the melody is simple (a beginning band can play it), it is also powerful and resounding. Kind of analogous to an architect building a skyscraper, Beethoven took musical motifs and built musical skyscrapers out of them. One aspect of Beethoven the composer that I like is that, he made lots of revisions and changes in the compositional/arranging process. Really struggled, whereas someone like Mozart, his music has that kind of flows from the pen vibe. Every note is right in place. Of course some of this might have had to do with Beethoven being in the Romantic era and Mozart in the Classical era. Stylistic differences.

Gospel music can be infectious. The sound is uplifting. So it seemed natural to me to combine the gospel tinge with the melody to Ode to Joy. I don’t really like musical genre descriptions, but here you go, gospel-jazz tinged Beethoven.

This week’s Duo Chronicles video is a departure from what we’ve done before. Instead of doing a live recording of the tune, we chose to record a basic track of just piano and saxophone, and then layer more parts on top of it.  The whole process took quite a while, but we ended up with:

1. Piano
2. Three saxophone tracks
3. Organ (Nord Electro)
4. EWI (EWI4000s)
5. Percussion

We had video of all of the tracks, so the video production is a bit more…involved than it has been.

Regarding the title, I think every composer writes something called Truth at some point in their career.  The great thing about that title, is it means something different and personal for everyone.  For me, Truth in music means not playing something super intellectual because I can, or playing something that fits in the “jazz tradition” (whatever that means) because that’s what I’m supposed to do.  It means writing and playing music that is true to myself.  Sometimes that means a simple tune like this.

Note:

If you’re reading this during the week that it comes out, please come to our December 14th show at Jimmy Mak’s!  8-11 PM, no cover.  It will feature Duo Chronicles, the Upper Left Trio, and combinations of members from both groups.

This week, we take a stab at a tune of mine called “New Turns.”  Actually, we take a couple of stabs at it.  But, instead of posting just one take of the tune like we normally do, we decided to post a regular take and the alternate take.

We keep the melody and form of the tune the same through both takes, but our solos and the trading at the end take pretty different directions.  Each take has its own advantages, but tell us what you think!