“Oops” is featured on the British girl group’s acclaimed fourth studio album Glory Days, released in 2016. The record spent five consecutive weeks at #1 on the UK Albums chart and is the most streamed girl group album on Spotify.
In their review, AllMusic saidGlory Days “finds the group delivering a set of hooky, smartly crafted songs that balance swaggering, ’60s-style R&B with stylish, electronic-tinged dance-pop,.” London’s Evening Standard added “the foursome have carved out a pop niche for themselves, so the really rather good You Gotta Not and Oops have a finger-clicking Fifties feel and there’s a hint of edge to the delightfully fierce Power.”
This track features American singer Charlie Puth, and modulates up from D to Eb right near the end at 2:45.
” … having played many of Jaco’s compositions while the bass player was part of Weather Report, (Weather Report bandleader Joe Zawinul) held the opinion that ‘Three Views of a Secret’ was Jaco’s best composition,” (JazzInEurope). “1981 was a critical year in Jaco Pastorius’ career. Musically he was held by many as the most innovative bass player in modern jazz. Five years have passed since he joined Weather Report, replacing Alphonso Johnson while the band was recording the album Black Market. During those five years, the band released its most successful albums and became well known beyond jazz audiences, performing at major festivals and large concert halls all over the world. The band’s appeal can be attributed to Zawnul’s compositions which became more melodic and structured (‘Birdland,’ ‘A Remark You Made’), but Pastorius played a major role in driving the band towards new audiences. His live performance showmanship, the incorporation of Hendrix licks like ‘Third Stone from the Sun,’ the feet work (enhanced by talc powder spread over the floor prior to the show), the rapid signature 16th-note runs and the wild harmonics, all found the adoration of younger folks, many of them introduced to jazz because of him.
… Pastorius was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but in 1981, his behavior was simply considered eccentric and unstable. Amazingly, through that period he was able to write and produce Word of Mouth, his major achievement as a bandleader, composer, and arranger … ‘Three Views of a Secret’ is a great piece of music, moving between calm and dramatic orchestral passages and truly utilizing the full impact of a combined orchestra and jazz big band …”
The studio version is a classic, but the 1985 live version, featuring Pastorius’ obvious joy and rapt attention in his able accompaniment of Thielemans, by then a musical elder statesman, is also required listening and is our focus here; both are included below. Shifting from E major to C# major at 1:38, the bouyant jazz waltz sneaks back into E at 2:22.
Lauded as “arguably the most important and ground-breaking electric bassist in history” by New Directions in Modern Guitar, Jaco died 35 years ago this month — at the age of only 35. His influence on the contemporary jazz and electric bass worlds continues to reverberate strongly.
“‘I Am What I Am’, (Jerry Herman’s) signature anthem from La Cage aux Folles, is a song to be scaled whenever drink has been taken and identity totters: by a spangled diva in the spotlight, a club kid staking a claim, a bridesmaid clinging desperately to dignity,” (The Guardian).
“La Cage is a Feydeau farce with show tunes, pitting a cabaret queen against the moral majority, with a book by Harvey Fierstein (who later lent his gravel-pit register to the song on Broadway). When drag queen Albin is disinvited from his own son’s wedding, he refuses to shuffle out of the picture. One draft speech included the line, ‘I am what I am and there’s nothing I can do.’ Herman’s synapses rippled. ‘Hold everything,’ he exclaimed. ‘I want to take those five words, if you will give them to me … I can write you a first-act closer that will be a killer because I feel that emotion in me.’ The next morning, he gathered everyone in his 61st Street studio and sang through the mounting choruses. ‘The reaction was cataclysmic.’ … Away from the show, ‘I Am’ has been a lip-synch love bomb, of course it has … it provided the (2019) Pride theme for Belfast club Harland and Poof … It naturally slotted into Shirley Bassey’s repertoire – though the diva hardly struggles for self-belief – and attained disco fervour with Gloria Gaynor.”
Released in 1984, Gaynor’s version reached #82 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. After a poised rubato intro, the tune kicks into its groove gear at 0:37. After a long instrumental break, there’s a whole-step key change at 3:26 — and then another unexpected upward half-step skip at 3:48. The groove isn’t quite 100% disco, but its 1984 release date was certainly past the heyday of the disco craze. Nonetheless, this track was a club-driven hit.
“Separate Ways” is featured on American country singer Rick Trevino’s 2011 studio album Whole Town Blue. The track was initially released as a single in 2007, but when it failed to reach the Top 40 the album release was delayed. Trevino, who is of Mexican descent, has made it a practice to release both Spanish and English versions of many of his songs, one of the first mainstream artists to do so.
The song begins in E and shifts without warning or preparation up to F for the second verse at 1:47.
“The Capitols, an R&B doo-wop trio originally known as the Three Caps, was formed in Detroit in 1962,” (BlackPast.org). “… The group primarily recorded dance-themed songs in the Detroit area.” After struggling for several years, “in 1966 they released the top ten hit, ‘Cool Jerk.’ The song composed by Don Storball and recorded at Golden World Studios in Detroit with the legendary Motown house band, The Funk Brothers, became their biggest hit. It was the lead single from their first album, Dance the Cool Jerk, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard R&B and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
During their limited career, the Capitols released 6 albums and 19 singles … The group finished the decade in 1969 with the single ‘Soul Brother, Soul Sister’ that peaked at no. 42 on the Billboard R&B chart.” Very little additional information about this track is available online, but the trio’s signature sound is as clear here as it was on the smash hit single ‘Cool Jerk.”
After a short break in the groove, the tune shifts up a whole step at 1:26.
“Only Us” is from the Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen, which had its closing performance on Broadway this past weekend. The tune is performed here by Ben Levi Ross (who played Evan, Connor, and Jared on Broadway) and Taylor Trensch (who played Evan) in a new arrangement by music director Alex Lacamoire. Beginning in B, a modulation up to Db leads into the second verse at 2:06. That is followed by an unorthodox pivot up a perfect 5th to Ab for the final chorus at 2:48, where it remains until the end.
“The Adagietto is undoubtedly the single best-known piece of Mahler’s music,” (MahlerFoundation.org). “Its popularity skyrocketed primarily as a result of its use as background music for Visconti’s film Death in Venice. There was some controversy, however, about what Mahler intended the adagietto to communicate. Villa Mengelberg, an intimate friend and colleague of Mahler and an early champion of his music, claimed that Alma Mahler had confided to him that Gustav sent a manuscript of the finished work to her as a love letter when they were courting. Certainly, the romantic nature of the music can support this contention … like an orchestral song without words … Mahler’s work orchestration is spare, employing only strings and harp to enhance the music’s lyricism and give it a serenade-like quality … “
The Mahler Foundation continues: “Inner harmonies are subtle and harmonic progressions are frequent for such a short movement … Mahler uses overlapping sustained tones in transition passages … The stream-like atmosphere begins with vague harmonies that lend a sense of weightlessness, and end with a long suspension of sustained chords that very slowly progressed to closure, creating a feeling of endless time.” It’s difficult to overstate the prominence of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony (1902) within the composer’s overall body of work. It’s “sometimes compared with Beethoven’s own of that number,” (The Guardian).
In addition to several transient key-of-the-moment passages, the overall key of F major shifts to C major at 7:47 before reverting at 8:13 to F for the movement’s dramatic ending.
Brazilian vocalist Milton Nascimento “remembered how as a boy he had been obsessed with female singers and grew despondent when his voice began to break,” (The Guardian). “Only after hearing a Ray Charles recording of ‘Stella By Starlight’ age 13 did he grasp the beauty of the male voice. ‘He cured me that day,’ he said.” After many decades and 40+ albums, “News of Nascimento’s (Spring 2022) retirement has sparked an outpouring of nostalgia, a box office rush, and celebration of his astonishing vocal cords and vision. ‘[His voice] is strong at the same time that it’s delicate and fragile. It is precious … something that can convey such conflicting ideas at the same time. It’s unique,’ said Maria Rita, shedding tears as she described her affection for a man who took her under his wing after her mother’s premature death. ‘It feels like it’s from the soul … from a place that is familiar, but we don’t know yet – and I think that’s what my mom meant when she said that if God had a voice [it would be Milton’s].'”
” … Nascimento enjoys a vast global audience,” (AllMusic). “In addition to a resonant reedy tenor, he possesses an otherworldly falsetto that has led many to describe his music in spiritual terms. His self-titled 1967 debut established his meld of MPB, Brazilian folk forms, Tropicalia, rock, and samba” He went on to win several Grammy awards and recently completed a farewell tour at age 80.”
Released in 1976 as his material first became available in the United States, “Raça” (which translates to “race”) features a short melodic theme which alternates between two keys and cycles through many different strata of groove. The key shifts from C major and A major at 0:57, then back at 2:12.
“You To Me Are Everything” was released as a single in 1976 by the British soul group The Real Thing. In an interview last month with the Guardian, Ken Gold, who produced and co-wrote the song, recalled that he and Mick Denne came up with the chorus quickly and wrote the whole song in less than an hour. “We were in the studio – the Roundhouse in London – the very next week,” Gold said, discussing the subsequent recording session. “Chris [the lead singer] wanted to take the melody in his own direction. He said he was trying to put some soul into it. But sitting up there in the control room, it just wasn’t working for me and I remember getting very nervous because he was starting to get a little combative. I said: “Honestly, Chris, I’d just like to hear you sing the melody exactly as it was written.” And that’s what we did. If you can write a melody that gets into someone’s head after just one play, then you have something people can sing.”
This track was the group’s only #1 hit, sitting atop the UK Singles chart for three weeks. The tune begins in C and shifts up to D at 2:41.
The late Egyptian recording artist Amer Mounib “excelled at playing the Oud (a stringed musical instrument) through extensive learning sessions with the dean of Helwan University’s Faculty of Music, Atef Abdel Hamid,” (Egypt Today). “He further excelled at playing the piano and created a small band, performing covers of songs by the late singer Abdel Halim Hafez in major hotels around the country.”
During his career, the late artist accomplished 12 albums and enjoyed an acting career which spanned several popular films. Mounib passed away from cancer in November 2011 at the age of only 48.
Mounib’s release “Allah Alaik,” (God Bless You) shifts up a half step at 2:42. Many thanks to regular contributor Ziyad for this submission!
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