Category: Elise

k.d. lang | Miss Chatelaine

“lang was an androgyne from rural Canada who considered herself to be the reincarnation of Patsy Cline, convinced she was born to be a country star,” (Pitchfork). “Even in outlaw terms, she was a long shot in conservative Nashville, a city nonetheless seduced by her punky verve and saucy rambunctiousness, a hay-bale alternative to the genre’s burgeoning cosmopolitanism. She was accepted, to a degree—her vegetarianism and PETA allegiance notwithstanding—but lang knew that acceptance was creative death. By the early ’90s, she felt that she had exploited country’s full creative potential. Now was time to develop her own romantic language.” Her 1992 release, Ingénue, was the embodiment of that effort.

“Miss Chatelaine” was the album’s second single (after the #38 US/#8 Canadian hit “Constant Craving,” for which lang is generally best known). The track “earned its high camp credentials even before lang accompanied it with a video where she wore the high-bouffanted, ballgown-clad drag of femininity, the lesbian Liberace … ‘Miss Chatelaine’ is a towering millefeuille of accordion, frisky percussion and strings, a succession of audible exclamation points—a song with so many ornate moving parts that it’s easier to imagine its blueprint as a cuckoo clock than a black and white musical staff.”

“Miss Chatelaine” is built in E major overall, its relatively languid harmonic rhythm taking a back seat to the rangy melody, lang’s crystalline vocal, and her distinctive phrasing. A new dance partner, an instrumental bridge which jumps up a minor third to G major, cordially cuts in between 1:59 and 2:20, but then the tune reverts to its original key.

Diana Ross | Theme from “Mahogany” (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)

“(Diana) Ross had always been something of an actress — a voice capable of conveying the entirely fictional emotional weight of the circumstances that the songs described,” (Stereogum). “She was beautiful and driven and precise and galactically famous, and it was only natural that she should become a movie star, too.” Ross had acted before, starring as jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues. But her Motown boss and romantic partner, Berry Gordy, was a first-time director for 1975’s Mahogany.

“Mahogany bombed. It got terrible reviews and did bad business. Gordy never directed another movie. Ross only took one more big-screen role, in the 1978 musical The Wiz. These days, Mahogany has its defenders, but it’s mostly just remembered for its camp value. The movie did, however, spawn one unqualified success: The soft and elegant theme song,” co-written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin, “became Ross’ third solo #1 … a slight song, but it’s a pretty one … It’s a song that practically drowns in its own drama, filling up the mix with sighing strings and wailing backup singers and fluttering acoustic guitars and pianos. Musically, the song has nothing to do with the effervescent pop-soul of Motown’s ’60s past. It’s closer to down-the-middle Los Angeles pop, and at its biggest crescendo, it sounds a bit like the work of Gerry Goffin’s old collaborator Phil Spector.”

Modulations between C minor and C major are front and center in this track, nearly from start to finish. The first shift to C major (0:44) is accentuated by the addition of percussion to the instrumentation, while the first transition back to C minor (1:10) is ushered in with an odd-metered measure. At 2:32, a long, string-saturated instrumental outro cycles through multiple keys as multiple instruments take the lead on the now-familiar theme.

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Our thanks once again to the late Chris Larkosh, an energetic and consistent supporter of MotD. This submission is one of several he sent in over the years, even though we’re only now getting around to featuring it.

Aaron Copland | Fanfare for the Common Man

“Copland’s fanfare is in the strong open-fourth and -fifth harmonies that cause it to sound open,” (LeoQuirk.com). “Also allowing it to sound open are the unisons in each instrument group, and the slower rhythms; for a fanfare, it is uncommonly slow, and is marked ‘Very deliberately.’ Copland alters rhythms and harmonies to great effect in this piece.  He could have easily repeated the same theme in the same way each time, but the piece is much more compelling thanks to his changes. This piece is also effective because it doesn’t have frills or flourishes. It is powerful in its simplicity, and ‘simplicity’ does not equal ‘boring.'”

Debuting in 1943, “The Fanfare has ecome a kind of national anthem for so-called ‘common’ men and women — like public radio listener Lynne Gilbert, who spoke with NPR from Bristol, Maine. ‘In spite of the current political landscape,” she says, ‘I guess I still believe that there is an American dream of peace and prosperity for everyone. Music that soars and inspires like this piece does bring hope for the future. It’s powerful, it’s direct and it’s really just American.'”

The piece is written in Bb major overall, but its majestic, stable bearing shifts at 2:47. From that point on (amounting to the final 20% or so of the piece), we continue to hear familiar intervals and phrasing. But the tonality has gone off in an entirely new direction, at times featuring E-natural and C# notes.

Margie Joseph | Show Me

” … Margie Joseph’s legacy has been nearly buried by the inaccessibility of her music,” (PopMatters). “For far too many years, finding her music has been the wont of voracious crate-diggers. Only the most dedicated listener would pony up for pricey import re-issues or seek out the few rare compilations that currently exist.

(Producer) Arif Mardin treated Joseph like a soul queen on her eponymous debut for Atlantic in 1973, earning her inevitable comparisons to label mate Aretha Franklin.” Al Green liked one of Joseph’s tunes so much that he asked her to tour with him; she also received praise from Paul McCartney. Of her collaboration with Mardin, Joseph said “’I would just hear these melodies. Arif was so patient. He’d sit there and listen to me sing a line of a song out of the blue, and he’d create something out of it.’ … The signature Margie Joseph sound … strength and sensitivity intertwined in one powerhouse set of pipes.” Joseph also went on to work with Lamont Dozier and Narada Michael Walden.

Starting in C major, the off-kilter intro/verse 1 junction of 1968’s “Show Me” features an odd meter just before the lead vocal’s entrance, warning us from the get-go not to get too comfortable. 1:26 brings an upward half-step shift, followed by another leading into the fading outro at 2:07. This horn-driven knockout punch weighs in at only just over 2.5 minutes, but is nothing short of a lyrical mic drop throughout.

Steps Ahead | Self Portrait

“Steps Ahead is an American jazz fusion group (which) arose out of spontaneous sessions at Seventh Avenue South, a jazz club in New York City owned by saxophonist Michael Brecker and trumpeter brother Randy Brecker,” (AllAboutJazz). Fully deserving of the term “supergroup,” the band’s “shifting roster has included vibraphonist Mike Mainieri, saxophonists Michael Brecker, Bob Berg, Bendik Hofseth, Bill Evans, Ernie Watts, and Donny McCaslin; pianists Don Grolnick, Eliane Elias, Warren Bernhardt and Rachel Z; guitarists Mike Stern, Chuck Loeb, and Steve Khan; bassists Eddie Gomez, Darryl Jones, Tony Levin, Victor Bailey, Richard Bona, and Marc Johnson; and drummers Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Steve Smith, and Dennis Chambers. Steps Ahead was active during the 1970s and 1980s, intermittently during the 1990s, and reunited for concerts in the mid-2000s.”

“Released in 1984, Modern Times … was a radical departure from their self-titled debut,” (JazzMusicArchives). “Unlike the first album’s mostly acoustic textures, Modern Times is a high-tech, futuristic, jazz-of-tomorrow fusion masterpiece … Strong compositions, impassioned performances, and early DDD production are married to otherworldly yet urban atmospheres to create one of the best albums any of these distinguished players has ever appeared on. “Self Portrait” (is a) classic Mainieri composition: long-lined unforgettable melodies, loud/soft contrasts, quirky bridges, outstanding solos over synth splashes, and sudden endings.”

Starting in D major, this 1986 live version of “Self Portrait” shifts into D minor between 1:14 – 1:39 before returning to the original key; the two keys continue to alternate throughout the tune. This particular gathering of the band, perhaps its quintessential lineup, featured Michael Brecker on tenor sax; Mike Mainieri, vibes; Darryl Jones, bass; Mike Stern, guitar; and Steve Smith, drums.

for Mark

Bill Chase | Bochawa (feat. United States Marine Band)

“The U.S. Marine Band’s mission is to perform for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the Marine Corps,” (Marine Band website). “Founded in 1798 by an Act of Congress, the Marine Band is America’s oldest continuously active professional musical organization. President John Adams invited the Marine Band to make its White House debut on New Year’s Day, 1801, in the then-unfinished Executive Mansion. In March of that year, the band performed for Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration and it is believed that it has performed for every presidential inaugural since. In Jefferson, the band found its most visionary advocate. An accomplished musician himself, Jefferson recognized the unique relationship between the band and the Chief Executive and he is credited with giving the Marine Band its title, ‘The President’s Own.’”

“‘Bochawa’ was written by Bill Chase (1935–74); this version was arranged by Jackie Coleman,” (from the video description). “Chase was a trumpet player who graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Herb Pomeroy and Armando Ghitalla. After graduation, Chase soon found himself working with Maynard Ferguson, where he remained for about a year before moving on to the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Chase finally settled into the lead trumpet chair in Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd. After leaving Herman’s band in August 1967, he moved to Las Vegas where he worked as a freelance musician and arranger. Around this time, The Beatles burst onto the scene, and his interest turned towards rock. As the 1970s began, Chase wanted to create his dream band comprised of four trumpets, four rhythm instruments, and one vocalist. Chase gained national attention after his group earned a Grammy nomination in 1971 for Best New Artist. ‘Bochawa’ comes from Chase’s third and final album, Pure Music.“

Splitting up into various smaller ensembles to perform for various events is a constant process for the Marine Band, including the jazz quintet heard here. Featuring the trumpet in the original spirit of Chase’s composition, the funk/rock track modulates up a whole step at 4:47.

New Kids on the Block | Please Don’t Go Girl

“This is the song that put New Kids on the Block on the map and got their career started in a big way,” (Songfacts). “This song was fronted by Joey McIntyre, who was the youngest member of the band. Ten years later, the song was covered by Aaron Carter, who was 11 years old at the time.

(The track) was written and produced by New Kids guru Maurice Starr, who not only controlled their business affairs, but also their music. Most of the ballads Starr wrote for the boy band find them singing directly to the girl, professing their love. Starr used a similar formula in his work with New Edition” a few years earlier. Both groups were Boston-based.

When Hangin’ Tough, NKOTB’s second album “came out in 1988 … the video for the single ‘Please Don’t Go Girl’ was released to BET and Starr focused on Black radio stations, where he had connections from his days with New Edition,” (Biography.com). “But then a Florida pop radio station started playing ‘Please Don’t Go Girl.’ The requests poured in, and plans for promoting the album shifted. New Kids on the Block had found the young girls who would make up their devoted fan base. After a tough beginning, they were on their way to stratospheric success.”

Along with New Edition, NKOTB and its hits like “Please Don’t Go Girl” set the template for subsequent boy bands NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, and many others. The track features a textbook half-step key change at 2:44 as the bridge transitions into the chorus.

Climax | Precious and Few

Vocalist Sonny Geraci, a Cleveland native, didn’t become a household name in his own right, but he was at the helm of two very different but prominent pop hits with two different bands. “’Time Won’t Let Me,’ (The Outsiders), a frenetic dancefloor rocker … incorporated popular soul music elements and was consistent with the garage-band trend of the mid-’60s, (BestClassicBands). ‘Mersey meets Motown,’ was how Geraci once described it.”

Geraci “resurfaced in 1972 fronting the Los Angeles-based Climax … their ballad ‘Precious and Few’ became one of the biggest hits of that year, but they were only able to follow it with one more chart single, “Life and Breath,” which topped out at #52. Their first and only album, simply titled Climax, fizzled at #177 and the group disbanded in 1975.”

The power ballad pulls out all of the stops, featuring layers of orchestral instrumentation and extra backing vocals in addition to the sound of the band itself. Starting in A major, the track makes a stop in Bb major at 1:30, then drops a hearty rubato into the mix during the transition to B major at 1:59.

Marvin Gaye + Tammi Terrell | Your Precious Love

“Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye melded their melodious performative perfection for ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ like a pair of songbirds delivering a twittering Sunday service,” (FarOut). “The cover of the classic Ashford & Simpson track launched them as the soul-extolling duo about to give loving joy to a generation.”

Tragically, Terrell was diagnosed with a brain tumor when she was only in her early 20s, but kept performing for a time, releasing ‘Your Precious Love’ with Gaye in 1967. In 1970, “at the tender age of 24, Terrell passed away. At her eulogy, Gaye delivered one final performance of ‘You’re All I Need to Get By’. He later would comment: ‘I had such emotional experiences with Tammi and her subsequent death that I don’t imagine I’ll ever work with a girl again.'” Gaye went through a mourning period for Terrell during which he stopped performing altogether. However, he couldn’t have channeled his grief any more productively: his 1971 solo release, the legendary What’s Goin’ On, is touted by Rolling Stone as its #1 album of all time.

“Your Precious Love,” once again written by Ashford and Simpson, reached #5 on Billboard Pop Singles chart and #2 on the R&B Singles chart. Members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra added dimension to the usual band instrumentation. After a start in Bb major, the short choruses lift into Db major first heard from 0:43 – 0:58) before reverting to the original key.

Manhattan Transfer | On a Little Street in Singapore

“Celebrating their 50th Anniversary, The Manhattan Transfer continues to set the standard as one of the world’s greatest and most innovative vocal bands,” (ManhattanTransfer.net). “Winners of ten Grammy Awards, with millions of records sold worldwide … Defying categorization, The Manhattan Transfer became the first vocal group to win Grammy Awards in the pop and jazz categories in one year, 1981: Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for ‘Boy From New York City’ (a cover of the 1964 song by The Ad Libs), and Best Jazz Performance by a Duo or Group for ‘Until I Met You (Corner Pocket).'”

Janis Siegel, the quartet’s alto, “emphasizes the group’s unmatched ability to excel performing a wide variety of music. ‘We didn’t say we were a pop group. We didn’t say we were a jazz group. We’re a vocal group.'” The quartet are now members of the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

“On a Little Street in Singapore,” originally released by Frank Sinatra and the Harry James Orchestra in 1939, takes on a cinematic quality in the Manhattan Transfer’s 1978 cover. The quartet is backed by WDR Funkhausorchester, an ensemble affiliated with the German big band powerhouse WDR Big Band. Featuring plenty of small harmonic sidesteps before the main vocal’s entrance at 1:30, the tune settles into C major. Between 2:54 and 3:15, an instrumental break modulates up a half-step to Db major in time for the next verse — but the textures are sufficiently ornate to hide the seams, obscuring the exact moment of the shift.

(press play — the video does work, even though it doesn’t look like it will!)