Tag: jazz

KNOWER feat. WDR Big Band | Gotta Be Another Way

KNOWER, an enigmatic American duo with a sound somewhere between funk, pop, and electronica, is long on action and a bit short in the written bio department. Instead, its online presence features short posts of a few sentences, plenty of videos, and download links. Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter Louis Cole and vocalist and songwriter Genevieve Artadi met while studying jazz in Los Angeles. When they’re not collaborating, they often feature each other on solo projects. The duo has collaborated with Youtube titans Pomplamoose, performed with jazz/rock drummer Nate Wood and jazz/funk standard bearers Snarky Puppy, and opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Knower was presented by legendary producer Quincy Jones as part of a LA-based concert series, whose program attempted to pin down the band’s sound as “an indescribable mix of virtuosic musicianship and pop sensibilities.”

“Gotta Be Another Way,” originally released by Knower in 2011, was arranged for big band for this 2019 performance with the WDR Big Band, whose story AllMusic summarizes: “A top European jazz group, Germany’s WDR Big Band is a sophisticated ensemble, featuring an evolving line-up of some of the country’s best musicians. A function of the German public broadcasting institution Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln based in Cologne, the WDR Big Band are musical ambassadors charged with promoting jazz and culture at home and around the world … featuring such guest artists as Ron Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo Sandoval, and others.”

The tune’s original version blossoms out into a lushly orchestrated big band collaboration. But despite the added textures from the expanded orchestration, the frenetic groove remains at the center of both renditions. Starting in B minor underneath Artadi’s opening rap, there’s a change of key mid-phrase between 0:55 and 0:57 as Artadi begins the sung melody. After that, it’s more or less a question of returning to the B minor section or just holding onto your hat for the rest.

Buckshot Lefonque | Phoenix

Saxophonist, composer, and former Tonight Show with Jay Leno bandleader Branford Marsalis has long been a proponent of musical egalitarianism. Born into one of the most prominent families of jazz artists in the US, he’s kept a foot in that style while also performing R&B, classical, rock, and more. From Marsalis’ website: ” … there will be those who insist on sorting even the most adventurous music into neat and compact categories. Fortunately, Branford Marsalis will always be around to shove his square pegs into their round little pigeonholes.” Marsalis has collaborated with Sting, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Hornsby, his brothers Wynton and Delfeayo and his father Ellis, Dizzy Gillespie, Bela Fleck, and dozens of others; won a Grammy in 1993 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group for his album I Heard You Twice the First Time; and released a trio album, Bloomington (1993), which was hailed as a landmark in contemporary jazz.

Using a name which served as a pseudonym for jazz saxophone great Cannonball Adderly when he was moonlighting on pop and R&B records in the 50s, Buckshot LeFonque “blends rock, hip-hop, jazz, reggae, and African elements. In summing up his thoughts on what has been one of the most musically diverse projects he has yet undertaken, Marsalis says, ‘We took some interesting left turns… which is what I expected.’ The members come from widely diverging backgrounds yet find common ground … ‘You might get on the tour bus one day and hear Italian opera; the next day you’re hearing hip-hop.’ Singer Frank McComb agrees. ‘Everybody gets to stretch out in his own way. Everybody is an artist in this band and not just a backer. We’re all loose, free and easy.'”

McComb, a solo artist in his own right, covers the vocals on “Phoenix,” a slow ballad from the band’s second album, Music Evolution (1997). The track ramps up its energy gradually — at first. With a seemingly devastating breakup in the rear view mirror, the protagonist unflinchingly revisits the pain, then gathers strength to move on. The transition in point of view is matched by a brightening of the tonality: starting in F# minor, a huge shift to to F# major declares itself at 4:46, leading to an ending on an unresolved yet hopeful IV/V.

Hubert Giraud | Sous le Ciel de Paris (Joao Palma, accordion)

Expatica.com notes that the French composer and lyricist Hubert Giraud, whose works were recorded by vocalists from Edith Piaf to Tom Jones, “started out as a musician playing with the likes of Django Reinhardt’s jazz group the Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s and on Ray Ventura’s big-band tour of South America.” He also wrote the theme for the 1951 film Sous le Ciel de Paris (Under the Sky of Paris); the song was later recorded by Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco, and more. Giraud died in 2016 at the age of 95.

The tune was beautifully showcased at the 66th CMA Trophée Mondial accordion competition, held in Portimao, Portugal in 2016. The competition welcomed contestants from more than 20 countries; Joao Palma achieved only ninth place in his junior division, giving some idea of the level of artistry represented at the competition. Palma, a Portuguese national, went on to win the World Accordion Cup, a competition protected by UNESCO’s International Music Council, in 2018.

Starting in E minor, the waltz progresses to E major at 1:03, reverting back to the original key at 1:49. Utilizing rubato as more of a rule than an occasional flourish, Palma throws in a last-minute whole-step modulation at 2:20 — quickly leading to an unexpected ending.

Many thanks to our frequent contributor JB for this submission!

Frank Sinatra | All The Way

Written in 1957 by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, “All The Way” was made famous by Frank Sinatra, both as a single and in the film The Joker Is Wild, for which it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The tune was later covered by Bing Crosby, Same Cooke, Brenda Lee, Etta James, and Billie Holiday among others. Key change at 2:15.

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.

Donald Fagen | The Nightfly

“Donald Fagen‘s solo debut established him as a more grounded, autobiographical writer away from Steely Dan. It also launched a trilogy of albums that wouldn’t conclude for decades,” notes Ultimate Classic Rock. “The Nightfly, released on Oct. 1, 1982, uses an overnight stint by a DJ at the fictional WJAZ to transport listeners back to a moment in time from Fagen’s youth at the turn of the ’60s. ‘I used to live 50 miles outside New York City in one of those rows of prefab houses. It was a bland environment. One of my only escapes was late-night radio shows that were broadcast from Manhattan – jazz and rhythm and blues. To me, the DJs were romantic and colorful figures and the whole hipster culture of black lifestyles seemed much more vital to a kid living in the suburbs, as I was.’

Fagen was searching ‘for some alternatives to the style of life in the 50s – the political climate, the sexual repression, the fact that the technological advances of the period didn’t seem to have a guiding humanistic philosophy behind them. A lot of kids were looking for alternatives, and it’s amazing how many of us found them in jazz, in other kinds of black music, in science fiction and in the sort of hip ideas and attitudes we could pick up on the light-night radio talk shows from New York City. More and more of us started looking, until the whole thing sort of exploded and you had the 60’s.'”

The album’s jazz pedigree might have a more obvious presence on its other tracks, based solely on instrumentation or arranging (for instance, the close-harmony vocals on the ballad “Maxine,” where Fagen’s multi-tracked vocals behave like an exquisitely phrased big band saxophone section.) But the adventurous harmonies and storytelling on “The Nightfly” make it an appropriate fulcrum for this album, somehow constructing an updated niche for the treasured audio iconography of jazz. Among other impressive chart positions worldwide, the album was certified platinum in both the US and the UK.

After starting in G major, the track shifts into a high-strung bridge (beginning at 3:20 in B major, but featuring multiple short excursions just about everywhere else), then returns to G major at 4:10.

Chick Corea + Gary Burton | Crystal Silence

Longtime collaborators Chick Corea and Gary Burton, pianist and vibraphonist respectively, released their jazz duo album Crystal Silence in 1972. (A follow-up album, New Crystal Silence, was released in 2008.) Allmusic called the record “a sublime indication of what two master improvisers can do given quality raw material… Improvised music is rarely this coherent and melodic.”

Corea, a titanic pianist in the history of jazz music, is known for helping introduce the jazz fusion genre as a member of Miles Davis’s band in the 1960s. A 60-time Grammy nominated performer and 23-time winner, the 79 year old Corea passed away on February 11, 2021 from a rare form of cancer.

While this performance by Corea and Burton doesn’t directly modulate, the interplay and improvisation between the two push at the boundaries of the A minor tonality throughout, reflecting the innovative spirit Corea championed throughout his career.

Claude Bolling | Baroque and Blue

“Baroque and Blue” is the first movement of composer Claude Bolling‘s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, written in 1973. A piano prodigy, Bolling began playing jazz professionally at age 14 and scored over 100 films. The piece was also a breakthrough for the legendary classical flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. This suite was the first of a series of “crossover” compositions that synthesize Baroque and swing era jazz elements, and spent well over a year on the Billboard Top 40 chart. Bolling passed away at age 90 last December.

The movement follows a large scale ABA form — beginning in G major, modulating to the parallel minor at 1:54, and returning to G at 4:36.

Bill Charlap | It’s Love

“It’s Love” is from the 1953 Broadway musical Wonderful Town, featuring a score by Leonard Bernstein and lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The tune, a popular call for jazz combos, is included on jazz pianist Bill Charlap‘s 2003 album Somewhere: The Music of Leonard Bernstein. Charlap is joined on the record by bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. The track starts in D, and following a drum solo, modulates to Gb at 4:46.

Al Jarreau | We’re In This Love Together

The first of three singles released from the 1981 album Breakin’ Away, “We’re In This Love Together” is one of Al Jarreau‘s most successful tunes. It reached the #15 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and the #6 and #1 spots on the Adult Contemporary charts in the US and Canada respectively. Key change at 2:04.