April 2020 – Page 3

Eric Reed | Flamenco Sketches

Though post-bop jazz and gospel flavors of his sound have developed over his many solo releases, pianist Eric Reed, a native of Philadelphia, got his first break working with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis’ band during the 1980s. Since then, he’s worked with Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Cyrus Chesnut, and many other greats.

Starting in C major, “Flamenco Sketches” (2002) cycles through several keys before returning back to C major at 2:05, repeating the cycle again at 3:54 and 5:30. From AllMusic.com’s review: “Reed takes full advantage of the modal basis, building lush chord structures, trills, and tremolo effects on top of each other for a heavy six and a half minutes.”

Bruce Springsteen | Born to Run

Bruce Springsteen’s smash hit “Born to Run” (1975) is another submission from our frequent contributor JB. Addressing the grandiosity of the album’s wall-of-sound approach, AllMusic.com’s review states: “To call (it) overblown is to miss the point; Springsteen‘s precise intention is to blow things up, both in the sense of expanding them to gargantuan size and of exploding them…an intentional masterpiece, it declared its own greatness with songs and a sound that lived up to Springsteen‘s promise, and though some thought it took itself too seriously, many found that exalting.” While the track only hit #23 on the Billboard Hot 100, it’s ranked #21 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is enshrined in the Rock Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

After establishing verses and choruses in E major, a chaotic multi-section bridge starts at 2:12, veering into several keys before touching back down into E major at 3:06 for a final verse, chorus, and an extended outro.

https://youtu.be/f3t9SfrfDZM

Jacob Collier | Hallelujah

I have posted Jacob Collier singing a different arrangement of this same song here before, but I came across this rendition today, filmed a few days ago, and it is so transcendent that I have to share it again. As Collier says before he begins, “It starts in C Major, but we’ll see where it ends up,” making it particularly fitting for this page.

Free Nationals | Apartment

AllMusic.com describes Free Nationals as “a smooth, funk-fluent R&B band” which has “recorded and performed extensively with Grammy-winning artist Anderson .Paak…The quartet became integral to (.Paak’s) progression on Malibu, a 2017 breakthrough nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Urban Contemporary Album.” In 2019, their debut self-titled album reached #3 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart. NME.com reports that the band “proudly wear(s) their influences on their sleeve – the band are long-term scholars of Stevie Wonder, Parliament-Funkadelic, Herbie Hancock and many more.”

Starting in B minor, “Apartment” features a syncopated intro which shifts into a settled C# minor groove at the first verse (0:28), then back to B minor at the chorus (0:52). The intro’s syncopated kicks and compound chords return to bracket verse 2/chorus 2 (1:39 and 2:56), leaving us hanging with an unexpected ending where the third verse should have been.