Sometimes simplicity is nice. This week’s song doesn’t have any complex chord changes, any odd meters, or strange phrasing. It’s just a little pop tune that feels good.
The title, “Still Going,” is a reference to the fact that this song is kicking off the second half of our year-long project. As we move into weeks 27-52, we’ve just finished the Portland Jazz Festival where we got to see some amazing Norwegian musicians that performed as headliners of the festival. The most apropos to the Duo Chronicles project was the saxophone/accordion duo of Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli. They played a beautiful set of melodic music intertwined with sound and texture-based improvisation. I know that in the second half of our project here I’d love to explore some ideas that they inspired.
Look for new explorations coming in the next few weeks.
Already in the bullpen ready to go is a through-composed song that I wrote based on some of the sounds I heard from the Christian Wallumrod ensemble — another Norwegian group made up of piano, harp, trumpet, cello, violin, and percussion.
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:
Piano
Three saxophone tracks
Organ (Nord Electro)
EWI (EWI4000s)
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!
In baseball, a pitcher uses a variety of different pitches to get batters to miss hitting the ball. With a curveball, the ball appears to be in one place and suddenly moves, possibly to the batter’s dismay.
The element of surprise can be effective in music too. Not necessarily random change, but in taking chances both rhythmically and harmonically. Sometimes the composition presents that itself. The main section for improvising in this week’s tune, “Curveball,” is an 8-bar section where the chords change each measure. Harmonically, they are more related to modes in my mind, both from the major and melodic minor scales. Harmonies are changing quickly here, although repeating in a pattern. The trick is create a line or texture that uses the notes in common between them. In this case, John and I start out trading a set number of bars then eventually it dissolves into more of a polyphonic texture.
To me this song is a little darker in mood, mainly due to the harmonic tension perhaps, somewhat ECM-ish for these shorter, grayer days.
The composition this week was originally arranged for solo piano -- that is every note written out as in most classical music. Rearranging it, and adapting to a lead sheet form went pretty smoothly and I’m happy with this recorded version. It is more open, breathes, and has a greater range of dynamics. Stylistically, the inspiration comes more from Brahms than Bebop. More theme and variations than free form improvising. Harmonically was trying to achieve a balance between consonance and dissonance. Even a Major 7th chord (usually consonant sound arranged in 3rds) can be rearranged so the interval structure creates more dissonant sound (minor 2nds, 5ths.) After all, intervals are the building blocks of chords. Maybe these are subtle harmonic changes but one that can quite effective I think.
I have named various compositions for months of the year. For me April represents the change that occurs from winter to spring. The change that is always constant.
Postmodern? is a tune written in the 32 bar AABA song form. The chord changes are loosely based on Charlie Parker’s, “Little Suede Shoes” (A section) and “Confirmation” (B section). A common approach in the bebop era was to write new melodies on existing chord changes of popular songs of the day. These new tunes were referred to as a contra-fact. One example of this is Parker’s “Donna Lee”, which uses the chord changes to “Back Home in Indiana”. To me, Parker and bebop are as important to jazz vernacular as JS Bach is to Western classical music. My students probably get tired of me talking about the Omnibook (transcriptions of Charlie Parker) and Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier or Inventions. Both innovators, their music remains fresh to this day and beyond. I tried to employ a more angular sound in the melody (use of 4ths for example) and harmony (melodic minor modes) over this tried-and-true song form.
I wrote Traveler back when I was in New York going to the Manhattan School of Music. When played with a full rhythm section, I usually try to go for a Kenny Garrett type of vibe with the piece; the last section of the form lends itself particularly well to that style.
When Clay and I play it as a duo, we take a little more of a subdued approach until the end when we start taking it out a bit more.
A side note: Clay’s piano was tuned just before this session and sounds amazing.
