Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless plays oboe on this arrangement of the Christian hymn “We Gather Together,” originally written in 1597 and often associated with Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The track is the first cut on the 1998 Windham Hill collection Thanksgiving. It begins in G, and modulates up to A at 2:18.
Tag: acoustic
Paul Winter + Friends | Dawnwalker
After a start as a jazz musician, saxophonist Paul Winter founded the Paul Winter Consort, “one of the earliest exponents of world music, combining elements from various African, Asian, and South American cultures with jazz,” (AllMusic). “… Winter became increasingly involved with environmental issues. He participated in activities with the Greenpeace organization, and worked towards a successful integration of music and nature … Since 1980, Winter has headed a non-profit group dedicated to increasing public awareness of music’s relationship to spiritual and environmental health. He continues to perform in support of his organization, frequently in settings conducive to the production of (and interaction with) ambient sound, such as the Grand Canyon, or New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine … With help from some of the finest Irish musicians extant, Paul Winter presents Celtic Solstice (1999), his sonic love letter to the Celtic musical tradition …”
“Davy Spillane, one of Ireland’s premier players of uilleann pipes (also called Irish pipes) and low whistles, bringing a modern sensibility to musical instruments that have their roots in traditions that are hundreds of years old,” (Encyclopedia.com). “After playing with the groundbreaking Irish folk-rock band Moving Hearts, Spillane went on to a successful career as a soloist and accompanist with pop stars such as Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, and Van Morrison. He has also composed and played music for film and stage productions, including the hit musical Riverdance. An accomplished pipemaker as well as a musician, Spillane constructed all of the instruments he plays, and makes them to order for musicians around the world.” In 2000, Spillane helped Winter win a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album for Celtic Solstice.
Starting in E minor and led by Spillane’s haunting uilleann pipe melody, the piece reaches a common-tone modulation to A major at 2:25 with a switch to Winter’s soprano saxophone. We then move through various keys of the moment before returning to the initial melody, key, and keening uilleann pipe lead at 4:14. A final drone in D major ends the piece at 6:23. The rich pipe organ of New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine stunningly underpins the stark melodic timbres and spacious phrasing.
Peter Mayer | John’s Garden
“Mountains and motorcycles; pigs, pubs, and planets; insight, hope and humor — such are the ingredients one finds in the songs of Peter Mayer,” (VolumeMusic). “Earthy and intimate, Mayer’s songs invite the listener to consider the deeper aspects of life. The standard lyrical dish of love lost and found is not on his menu; rather, it consists of an eclectic blend of thoughtful songs about the collective human journey. His welcoming voice and inventive guitar work along with his honest delivery provide the perfect vehicle for his down-home wisdom. Million Year Mind (2001) … offers an eclectic blend of thoughtful songs about the collective human journey.”
“John’s Garden” begins in F# minor, shifts to F# major for the chorus at 0:46, then reverts back into F# minor for the intro to the next verse. From 2:31 – 2:54, the bridge’s harmonic polarity flips over to A major before returning back to original key. As the tune unfolds, we learn that a different species entirely — not Farmer John — drives the narrative.
Boyce Avenue | I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Boyce Avenue, an American cover band based in Sarasota, FL, is comprised of three brothers — Alejandro, Fabian, and Daniel Manzano. The group formed in 2004, has released three studio albums, an boasts 16.4 million YouTube subscribers, making them the most viewed independent band in the world.
Their cover of Whitney Houston’s classic hit features Jennel Garcia on vocals. It begins in Gb and modulates up a half step to G at 2:12.
Georgia Stitt (feat. Jessica Vosk) | Maybe It’s Me
“Maybe It’s Me” is featured on American composer Georgia Stitt’s 2020 album A Quiet Revolution. Stitt, who put together the album during the pandemic, said in an interview with Forbes that “to me these songs highlight some very real, very contemporary characters who are fighting for relevance, meaning, and connection in a world that seems to value those things less and less.”
This track, which opens the album, is performed by musical theatre actress Jessica Vosk. It begins in A and modulates up to Bb for the final chorus at 2:24.
Molly Tuttle | She’ll Change
“One of the most compelling new voices in the roots music world, Molly Tuttle is a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter with a lifelong love of bluegrass, a genre the Northern California-bred artist first discovered thanks to her father (a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist) and grandfather (a banjo player whose Illinois farm she visited often throughout her childhood). On her new album Crooked Tree (2022), Tuttle joyfully explores that rich history with bluegrass, bringing her imagination to tales of free spirits and outlaws, weed farmers and cowgirls resulting in a record that is both forward-thinking and steeped in bluegrass heritage,” (MollyTuttleMusic.com)
The Nashville-based Tuttle, a Berklee alumna, began attending bluegrass jams at age eleven. ” … She was the first woman ever named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well as her voice—an instrument that shifts from warmly understated to fiercely soulful with equal parts precision and abandon, occasionally treating the listener to some high-spirited yodeling … On the album-opening ‘She’ll Change,’ for instance, her vocals take on a breakneck momentum as she pays homage to the type of woman who fully owns her unabashed complexity.”
“[Molly Tuttle] sings with the gentle authority of Gillian Welch, yet plays astoundingly fleet flat-picking guitar like Chet Atkins on superdrive.”
— American Songwriter Magazine
“She’ll Change” is built in B major for the first two verses and choruses, but at 1:31 a multi-section bridge arrives: the first features vocals and stays more or less grounded, but the second instrumental section shifts to C# major (1:45), remaining there for the balance of the tune.
Trijntje Oosterhuis | What the World Needs Now
Vocalist Trijntje Oosterhuis has been part of the Dutch pop scene since the 1990s. After touring with saxophonist Candy Dulfer, she formed the band “Total Touch” with her brother Tjeerd, releasing two successful albums in the late 90s. She went on to embark on a solo career.
She has released two albums of Burt Bacharach songs, The Look of Love (2006) and Who’ll Speak for Love (2007), with Bacharach performing on some of the tracks.
The selection here, “What the World Needs Now,” another Bacharach/David song, was a hit for Jackie DeShannon in 1965 (Billboard #7). The video is taken from a 2008 DVD release, Ken Je Mij (Do You Know Me), a series of duets with Uruguayan guitarist Leonardo Amuedo.
There’s a dramatic whole-step modulation at 2:40.
Jay Ungar + Aly Bain | The Lovers’ Waltz
“Aly Bain was born on May 15 1946 in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland,” (WorldMusicCentral). “Lerwick is a small, enchanting town on the Shetland Islands. Aly began learning fiddle at the age of eleven. Tom Anderson, his teacher, is acknowledged as one of the true masters of Shetland music. Aly developed a highly dramatic style of playing, matching his great tone and technical ability with genuine emotion. Alert to the musical potential of the dynamic interaction between Irish and Scottish traditions, he helped establish the Boys of the Lough. The group is now recognized as one of the best in the tradition.”
Fiddler Jay Ungar was “a Bronx kid” while pianist Molly Mason “grew up in Washington State,” (JayAndMolly.com). “He was raised on pop music of the 1940s and ’50s. She had a fondness for traditional fiddle music and ’30s and ’40s popular tunes. He hung out in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and roamed North Carolina and Tennessee in search of traditional players. She played clubs and colleges on the West Coast and took a liking to the jazzy sound of the Swing Era. Since joining forces—both artistically and romantically (the two would marry in 1991)—Jay Ungar and Molly Mason have become one of the most celebrated duos on the American acoustic music scene.” Ungar is probably best known for co-writing “Ashokan Farewell” with Mason — a tune which was featured in the Ken Burns series The Civil War and certainly feels like it was written a century or more before its 1982 debut.
Ungar, Bain, and Mason collaborate here on “The Lovers’ Waltz,” also written by Ungar and Mason. Starting in G major, the tune alternates between solo and duo fiddle lines and a solo by an uncredited guitarist as the key shifts up to D major at 1:47.
Josh Turner and Martina DaSilva | Águas de Março
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful, Mae West is reputed to have said. Accordingly, this post marks the third appearance of “Águas de Março” on Modulation of the Day. The earlier versions were by Susannah McCorkle and the version by the song’s composer Antonio Carlos Jobim with singer Elis Regina This version is indeed wonderful.
Guitarist Josh Turner’s YouTube channel features his collaborations with many other musicians, often singer Carson McKee, singer Allison Young, and singer Reina del Cid and her regular guitar accompanist, Toni Lindgren. Your correspondent was fortunate to see Reina del Cid’s show in San Francisco a few years ago, where Josh’s group with McKee, The Other Favorites, was the warmup act.
Here, Josh is paired with singer Martina DaSilva, who is American but speaks fluent Portuguese (her father is Brazilian). Their version tracks the Jobim/Regina version pretty closely, except the whistled middle section is replaced by a muted trombone solo, performed by DaSilva’s husband Josh Holcomb. The song is in B-flat. The trombone solo features fewer out-of-key notes than the whistled solo from Jobim and Elis, but enough to get the point across. Yes, that’s a quote of Walter Wanderley’s “Summer Samba”!
Jim Croce | Time in a Bottle
Jim Croce was “a songwriter with a knack for both upbeat, catchy singles and empathetic, melancholy ballads” … (AllMusic). “Croce appealed to fans as a common man, and it was not a gimmick — he was a father and husband who went through a series of blue-collar jobs. And whether he used dry wit, gentle emotions, or sorrow, Croce sang with a rare form of honesty and power. Few artists have ever been able to pull off such down-to-earth storytelling as convincingly as he did.”
“Jim Croce wrote this reflective song the night that he found out his wife, Ingrid, was pregnant,” (Songfacts) … “She recalls a mix of terror and delight in Jim’s reaction when she told him the news. The child was a boy named Adrian, who grew up to become the singer-songwriter A.J. Croce … ‘Time In A Bottle’ hit #1 in America 14 weeks after Croce was killed in a plane crash. Croce started touring after he completed his last album, I Got A Name. On September 30, 1973 a plane carrying Croce and five others crashed upon takeoff as he was leaving one college venue to another 70 miles away … The single entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 1, 1973 and finally reached #1 for the week ending December 29, a little over three months after he died.”
The verses are in D minor, but the choruses (heard first between 0:56 – 1:17) shift to D major. Quite unusually, the title is mentioned only at the beginning of the first verse, rather than during the chorus.
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