instrumental – Page 12

Jeff Beck | You Know, We Know

In its review of Jeff Beck’s Flash, Rolling Stone ranks it as “one of Beck’s best ever, a record of awesome guitar prowess and startling commercial daring. It is also irrefutable proof that his kind of flash never goes out of fashion.”

Trading on the huge cachet he’d built up during the 1960s and 1970s with garden variety music fans and tech-obsessed guitarists alike, Beck rested on his laurels a bit in the 80s: 1985’s Flash was his first release in five years. His work with The Yardbirds in the late 60s was legendary, but “while he was as innovative as Jimmy Page, as tasteful as Eric Clapton, and nearly as visionary as Jimi Hendrix,” explains AllMusic, “Jeff Beck never achieved the same commercial success as any of those contemporaries, primarily because of the haphazard way he approached his career. After Rod Stewart left the Jeff Beck Group in 1971, Beck never worked with a charismatic lead singer who could have helped sell his music to a wide audience. Furthermore, he was simply too idiosyncratic, moving from heavy metal to jazz fusion within a blink of an eye … releasing only one album during the course of the ’90s. All the while, Beck retained the respect of fellow guitarists, who found his reclusiveness all the more alluring.”

“You Know, We Know,” the closing track of Flash, is based on a simple hook. After an intro in C major, the hook is first stated at 0:33, along with a rasping unprepared modulation to C# minor. Another jarring key change to D minor drops at 4:35. The mid-80s production fingerprint of Chic’s Nile Rogers, catching perhaps the most synth-centric sound of the entire decade, couldn’t be clearer on this track. Robert Christgau’s snarky review gave the album a B grade, opining that Beck “turns in the best LP of his pathologically spotty career by countenancing Rodgers’ production on five tracks. So what do we have here? We have half a good Nile Rodgers album, more or less.”

Ludwig van Beethoven | String Quartet Op. 18 No. 4, Movement 1 (Dover Quartet)

Kai Christensen of Earsense.org describes the context for Beethoven’s String Quartet, Opus 18 #4: “Beethoven worked painstakingly for two years to produce his first string quartets, Op. 18, published in 1801 in the fashion of the time as a set of six. Pre-dating them are the complete string quartets of both Haydn and Mozart, Haydn having written his last two complete quartets in the same years, finishing in 1799. Just as later composers were daunted by the supreme achievements of Beethoven before them, so Beethoven was acutely aware of the rich legacy of quartet literature already preceding him.”

CarnegieHall.com, in its Short Guide to Beethoven’s string quartets, provides an overview:

“String quartet: A composition for solo string instruments, usually two violins, viola, and cello; it is widely regarded as the supreme form of chamber music. (Grove Music Online). That’s the textbook definition. Beethoven inherited the string-quartet tradition from his predecessors and shaped it into something unsurpassed in virtuosity, invention, and expressiveness. The definition could well read, ‘Beethoven’s quartets are widely regarded as the supreme form of chamber music.’ He wrote 16 string quartets, and they reveal his evolution as a composer and a man. It’s all there: earthy wit (yes, Beethoven could crack a joke), volatile temper (his fury was state of the art), and personal sorrow (he had plenty to weep about).”

One of several modulations in this movement alone, there is an emphatic shift from Eb major (complete with a plagal cadence at 2:11) to G minor at 2:19. This energetic yet precise performance is by The Dover Quartet, which The Chicago Tribune reviewed as possessing “expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, deep musical feeling and a palpable commitment to communication …”

Franz Joseph Haydn | String Quartet in F major, Op. 50 #5, 3rd movement

From James MacKay’s paper “Another Look at Chromatic Third-Related Key Relationships in Late Haydn: Parallel Keys and Remote Modulation in Selected String Quartet Minuets” in the journal HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America 8.2 (Fall 2018): ” … third-related shifts in Haydn’s instrumental music occur earlier than 1790, especially in his string quartet Minuet-Trio movements, often built around a parallel major-parallel minor pairing of keys and their relatives. For instance, in Haydn’s String Quartet in F major, Op.50 no. 5 (Der Traum), third movement, Haydn effects a chromatic third modulation in two stages: touching briefly upon the parallel key (f minor) in the trio, then moving immediately to its relative major, A-flat (i.e. flat III of F major).”

Haydn, who lived from 1732-1809, wrote this string quartet (one of his six “Prussian” quartets dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia) in 1787. A nephew of Frederick the Great, Frederick William was one of the most notable patrons of music in eighteenth-century Germany and also an avid amateur cellist, according to the classical record label Hyperion.

This performance is by the Festetics Quartet, known for performing on period instruments. The third movement of this complete four-movement video begins at the 11:43 mark. At 13:20, the shift to Ab major is complete (note: the tuning in this performance is a far cry from A440!)

Modern Jazz Quartet | Over the Rainbow

” … it seems improbable that a group which came together as the rhythm section for one of the hottest players in Bebop’s genesis era, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, could morph into a standalone group that was the epitome of grace, elegance and cool dignity,” AllAboutJazz.com concludes. “But that’s exactly what happened when Gillespie recruited pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Kenny Clarke, giving the quartet an opportunity to shine as a discrete unit when it came time, during his sextet’s exhausting sets, to give the horns a break, calling, ‘OK, band off!’

The pairing of Lewis and Jackson proved an ideal tension, demonstrating how different musical interests can, indeed, come together to create something altogether new, the pianist’s interest in classical music dovetailing perfectly with the more overtly jazz-centric and grounded vibraphonist … A duo version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ (1956) focuses on Lewis and Jackson’s adept skill at reshaping music from external sources with Modern Jazz Quartet‘s classically informed modus operandi.”

After a piano-led intro in C major, Jackson’s vibes are the focus at 0:15 as the tune shifts to Eb major. At 1:03, we seem to retroactively discover that we’ve stumbled into Db major, but at 1:32, we’ve returned to Eb major for the balance of the tune. There’s plenty of evidence here of the ensemble’s understated yet pioneering sound: “For those operating under the misconception that the African-American jazz tradition was monolithically linked to the blues …” AllAboutJazz continues, “As far back as the 1930s, clarinetist Sidney Bechet was liberally quoting from Italian operas in his solos, but it was perhaps less obvious, less visible, than when John Lewis began looking at ways to bring the intimacy of classical chamber music to a jazz context. In direct contrast to bebop’s fire and unbridled energy, MJQ was one of the earliest examples of cool jazz.”

for Travis

Graham Rorie | Babiche

“Orcadian fiddle and mandolin player Graham Rorie is an award-winning folk musician based in Glasgow,” his site reports. “A finalist in the 2021 BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year and graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Traditional Music Degree, Graham has been making a name for himself as a performer, composer, session musician and producer.”

The bio continues: “While still in the early stages of his career, Graham has gained a wealth of performance experience appearing at festivals including Glasgow’s Celtic Connections, Celtic Colours (Canada), Festival Interceltique de Lorient (France) and Celtica Valle D’Aosta (Italy).” The piece “Babiche” is part of “a new suite of music composed by Rorie to tell the story of Orcadians who traveled to Northern Canada between 1600 and 1900 to work for The Hudson’s Bay Company. Orcadians, according to the history website Orkneyjar, are “the indigenous inhabitants of the Orkney islands of Scotland. Historically, they are descended from the Picts, Norse, and Scots.”

Starting in E major, a middle section in an inversion-heavy C# major (2:14) returns triumphantly to the main melody and original key at 2:54. Many thanks to our champion contributor JB for submitting this tune!

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.

Salomon Jadassohn | Elegie, Op. 108

According to the Grove Dictionary of Music, “Salomon Jadassohn was born to a Jewish family living in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. This was a generation after the emancipation of the Jews in Central European German-speaking lands and during a time of relative tolerance.” Jadassohn attended Leipzig Conservatory in 1848, just a few years after it had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn. Jadassohn studied privately with pianist and composer Franz Liszt.

MusicWeb International reports that Jadassohn “later taught at the (Leipzig) Conservatory; his list of pupils reads like a Who’s Who of notable composers including Grieg, Delius and Busoni … As a composer he was prolific, having four symphonies, two piano concertos and a substantial assemblage of chamber works to his name.”

“Elegie,” a movement from the “Serenade for Flute and Piano,” Op. 108 (1890), straddles the line between G minor and Bb major throughout, then transitions to G major between 1:28 and 1:48.

Herb Alpert + The Tijuana Brass | Theme from “Casino Royale”

AllMusic reports on the theme from Casino Royale: “Burt Bacharach appropriately comes up with a rambunctious soundtrack for the 1967 James Bond spoof, Casino Royale. Things get underway with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass‘ performance of the fast-paced main title, which features the usual Bacharach mix of pop phrasing and complex arrangements.”

Jazz.FM adds more detail about the impact of Bacharach’s iconic sound. Dusty Springfield’s “The Look of Love” was also a cornerstone of the soundtrack: “The story goes something like this: Driving home from ice hockey practice, (comedian) Mike Myers flipped on the radio and heard ‘The Look of Love’ … When it was finished, the comedian said to himself, ‘Where have all the swingers gone?’ He also must have realized that the movie it was from, Casino Royale, was a jape of the James Bond series. Then and there he conceived the Austin Powers character. Enamored by the song’s composer, Myers cast Bacharach in each of his three Austin Powers films — not as a character, but as a performer playing his own music to set the scene.”

A boisterous half-step modulation announces itself at 1:14. Many thanks to the late Chris Larkosh, a faithful supporter of MotD over the years, for this submission!

Franz Schubert | Piano Trio 2 in E-flat Major, movement 4

Though probably best known for his lieder, Austrian composer Franz Schubert also wrote symphonies, wonderfully intricate miniatures for solo piano, two masses, and more. Classic FM details Schubert’s popularity: “…musical soirees known as Schubertiads became all the rage, during which Schubert might sing some of his own songs while accompanying himself at the piano.”

However, his public’s fondness for the music translated into neither rapidly growing fame nor consistent financial compensation during the composer’s lifetime. Schubert heard only some of his later works in performance, reports Classic FM: “With little money and nothing much more than his ‘groupies’ to support him, Schubert began to produce a seemingly endless stream of masterpieces that for the most part were left to prosperity to discover, including the two great song cycles, the Eighth (‘Unfinished’) and Ninth (‘Great’) Symphonies, the Octet for Wind, the last three string quartets, the two piano trios, the String Quintet, the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy and the last six sonatas for solo piano.” The exact cause of death is not known, but many historians have suggested mercury poisoning. Duncan, Edmondstoune’s Schubert (1905) suggests that the last musical work Schubert requested to hear was Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131. Violinist Karl Holz, Beethoven’s secretary, commented: “The King of Harmony has sent the King of Song a friendly bidding to the crossing.”

The Piano Trio 2 in E-flat Major was written in 1827, when Schubert was only 30. It was to be the last year of his life. The Trio begins with a more positive mood, but its fourth movement is far more complex, perhaps following the trajectory of its creator’s health. Starting in Eb major, there’s a shift at 1:15 to C minor, then a passage through a Bb major section. 2:46 starts with a bang and continues through a tour of myriad keys. 4:00 brings a profound jump to B minor, an extraordinary step indeed in comparison with the home key; from there, the piece continues onward through similarly varied and unpredictable territory.

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.