Tag: 2000s

Christian Jacob | Little Eyes

Jazz Times calls pianist/composer/arranger Christian Jacob “a post-bop modernist touched by the souls of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett.” Jacob’s website outlines his multi-faceted resume: “Multi-Grammy nominated pianist and arranger Christian Jacob first gained widespread exposure as music director for Maynard Ferguson and later as leader of the Christian Jacob Trio and co-leader of the Tierney Sutton Band. Christian is also the musical director for both Broadway legend Betty Buckley and American icon Jack Jones.”

A French native, Jacob “fell in love with classical music at age 4 and discovered jazz at age 9.” After winning top honors at the Paris Conservatory, Jacob continued his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Jacob went on to teach at Berklee, tour with Maynard Ferguson, and win an accolade from The Japan Times as one of the best-selling foreign jazz pianists in the Japanese market. He is a multi-time Grammy nominee for his work with vocalist Tierney Sutton, drummer Ray Brinker, and bassists Trey Henry and Kevin Axt.

As an arranger, Jacob received a Grammy nomination as an arranger with The Phil Norman Tentet; his arrangements have been performed by John Scofield, Billy Cobham, Charlie Haden, Phil Woods, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, Gary Burton, the Swiss Youth Jazz Orchestra, and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. In 2016, he composed the score for director Clint Eastwood’s film Sully; the next year, Eastwood again hired Jacob to score The 15:17 to Paris.

Jacob’s composition “Little Eyes” was recorded in a live 2007 trio performance in Japan. Jacob recounts the performance: “In 2007 I was invited to tour and record in Japan. I always loved Japanese audiences, and to make this recording special, I chose four Japanese melodies that every Japanese person would recognize, and arranged them for trio. They were the highlight of the tour … I was happy to bring my two longtime partners: Trey Henry on bass and Ray Brinker on drums.” The tune begins simply and peacefully in G major. But after a restless transition through several keys of the moment (1:30 – 1:49), we land in G minor. The cycle begins again at 2:05.

Hezekiah Walker + the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir | Calling My Name

AllMusic details that “gospel singer, composer, and choir leader Hezekiah Walker, known as ‘the hip-hop pastor,’ has brought a lot of young people to gospel and choir music, and has shown that he has no problem using modern vernacular and recording techniques to expand his fan and worship base. A New York native, Walker grew up in the Fort Greene housing projects of Brooklyn. He formed his first gospel group, the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir, when he was in his twenties and serving as a Pentecostal minister.”

Walker has produced and led many top ten Billboard gospel recordings, including Grammy-winning live gospel recordings; he was inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016. Rev. Walker now leads the Kingdom Church in New York and Pennsylvania.

Featuring soloist Timiney Figueroa-Caton, the Love Fellowship Crusade Choir’s live 2008 version of “Calling My Name” was originally released in 1994. Written by the prolific Jules Bartholomew, the track begins in Db major but shifts to Bb major at 4:31. Many thanks to our recurrent contributor JB for submitting this tune!

Carrie Underwood | Inside Your Heaven

“Inside Your Heaven” was written for the final two contestants, Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood in the 2005 season of American Idol, to be released as the first single for each of them. Underwood went on to win, but each singer released a version of the track in June 2005; both were in the top 2 slots of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The arrangement Underwood recorded for her first album, Some Hearts (2005), eliminated the modulation that was included when she performed the song on the show, which we are featuring here. Key change at 4:00.

(The video below also includes Underwood being announced as the winner the beginning. Song starts at 2:02)

Monticello (from “Edges”)

“Monticello” is from the song cycle Edges, written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land) while they were undergraduates at the University of Michigan in 2005. Coming-of-age and self-discovering themes figure prominently in many of the songs. Regularly produced at colleges throughout the United States, the cycle has also been performed in Australia, South Africa, France, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Key change at 3:36.

Mariah Carey | I Want To Know What Love Is

Named one of the 500 greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone, “I Want to Know What Love Is” is British-American rock band Foreigner‘s most successful hit to date.

“I always worked late at night, when everybody left and the phone stopped ringing,” Mick Jones, who wrote the song, recalls. “’I Want to Know What Love Is’ came up at three in the morning sometime in 1984. I don’t know where it came from. I consider it a gift that was sent through me. I think there was something bigger than me behind it. I’d say it was probably written entirely by a higher force.”

The tune has been covered by many notable artists, including Tina Arena, Wynonna Judd, and Mariah Carey, who is featured here. “I think she’s actually retained the integrity of the song,” Jones said of Carey’s rendition. “You know, the arrangement is very similar to the original. They haven’t tampered with the song too much. She’s captured a certain emotional thing, a feeling.”

The track was featured on Carey’s 2009 album Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, and the music video was filmed in Yankee Stadium with a gospel choir. A rare (but common for Carey) downward modulation from Gb to F occurs at 2:58.

Thanks to contributor Clara Jung for this submission!

Hans Zimmer | Homeland (from “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron”)

German composer Hans Zimmer has scored more than 150 films since 1980, including The Lion King, the Pirates of the Carribean series, and The Dark Knight trilogy. Widely considered to be one of the most best in his field, Zimmer has been recognized with four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes and an Academy Award. In 2002, he collaborated with Canadian singer/songwriter Bryan Adams on the music for the DreamWorks picture Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. “Homeland,” the main title theme, helps establish the American West ethos of the score and features the trademark orchestral swells Zimmer is known for. The cue begins in C major and shifts to Eb at 2:45.

Boys Like Girls | Love Drunk

“A shimmering, textured guitar line gives way immediately to huge gang vocals,” reports the Alternative Press in its review of Boys Like Girls‘ 2009 release Love Drunk. The Boston-based band’s ” … slick production values, airtight harmonies, charging disco-rock beats and crowd sing-along prompts (a trick they resort to throughout) prove the band are capable of condensing the recognizable signifiers of recent modern-rock history into sugary pop adrenaline … if (the) overall enthusiasm and high-energy pop doesn’t win over even the snarkiest of reviewers after a few listens, then they probably don’t have a heart. Everyone else will love it anyway. Pop-rock like this is popular for a reason.”

Unfolding like a CliffsNotes version of a contemporary pop songwriting textbook, the tune delivers a whole-step modulation at 2:38.

Alice Coltrane | Walk With Me

Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda was a versatile musician and composer. An adept harpist, pianist, organist and vocalist, she had an extraordinary career spanning many genres and six decades. According to the biography on her official website, “Her interest in music blossomed in early childhood. By the age of nine, she played organ during services at Mount Olive Baptist Church.” She collaborated with the likes of Carlos Santana, Charlie Haden, and John Coltrane, the last of whom she married in 1965.

After her husband’s death in 1967, she embarked on a solo musical career, which merged with her quest for spiritual enlightenment. Her religious exploration took her to India, whose musical influences manifest in much of her work. Her albums display her virtuosity, and a mastery of a wide array of musical genres. Coltrane’s biography on AllMusic – authored by Chris Kelsey – remarks that her first seven albums “wove together the strains of her musical thinking: modal jazz, gospel hymns, blues, Hindi devotional music, and 20th century classical sonorities.”

From the late 70s to the early 2000s, Alice Coltrane stepped back from music, focusing instead on the creation and operation of the Vedantic Center outside of Los Angeles, though her biography states that she continued to play music regularly for services at the Center. She died in 2007 after returning to the recording studio for her final album in 2004. That album, entitled Translinear Light, features the tune “Walk With Me.” Coltrane displays her talent for arrangement as she weaves the melody of a gospel hymn (“I Want Jesus to Walk With Me”) throughout. The piece begins with some brief noodling around Bb minor before the hymn’s theme emerges at 0:30. She then explores the primary melody, pausing momentarily to meditate on a few motifs and ideas. The first modulation occurs at 2:14, launching into a joyful bridge, firmly rooted in the relative major. Coltrane’s soaring improvisations move effortlessly between gospel and jazz, evoking feelings of praise and spiritual elation. She brings it back home to Bb minor with a modulation beginning at 4:55, after which she weaves the original melody around meditative contemplation once again, through to the piece’s end.

Jonas Brothers | Fly with Me

“Fly with Me” is featured on the Jonas Brothers‘ 2009 album Lines, Vines, and Trying Times, their last record before a three-year hiatus. The track served as the closing credits music for 2009 film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and appeared briefly on the Billboard Hot 100 chart upon its release.

The song begins in C and modulates to D major at 2:51, where it remains until the end.

Coldplay | Trouble

From Pitchfork’s review of Coldplay‘s debut album Parachutes (2000): “… Coldplay’s secret deadly weapon is vocalist Chris Martin. With the ability to mimic a Brit-accented Dave Matthews one minute, Jeff Buckley revived from the dead the next, and sometimes even a young Peter Gabriel, Martin’s heartfelt delivery seems to be what’s winning the hearts, wallets and alternative radio request lines of Americans young and old.”

Parachutes produced four singles, the most prominent being “Yellow,” and enjoyed popularity in the UK and US. Billboard reports that the third single was “Trouble,” which reached number 10 in the UK charts. It was released more than a year later in the US, reaching #28 on the US Alternative Songs chart. Martin has claimed that the single had saved them from being a “one-hit wonder” band, notes MTV. The band incorrectly guessed that the single wouldn’t perform well in the United States.

After starting in G major, the tune progresses through a hook-centric instrumental intro, a verse, an interlude which mirrors the intro, and another verse before shifting to A major for the chorus at 1:31; the key then reverts to G major at 1:57. The choruses grow in intensity, fueled by a compelling chord progression that seesaws between I major and a distinctive v minor.