Tag: jazz

The Platters | Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

“One of the leading R&B vocal groups of the ’50s, The Platters were the first black group to be accepted as a major chart act,” reports Oldies.com. “For a short time, were the most successful vocal group in the world. The Platters were formed in Los Angeles in 1953. ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,’ which was an international number 1 hit single in 1958-59, highlighted their smooth delivery and arguably remains the group’s best-loved release…They were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990.”

The tune was written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the ill-fated 1933 musical Roberta. Playbill reports that the Depression-era production was hamstrung from the start: “The biggest problem was the director, one Jerome Kern. That’s right, Kern — with no directing experience — directed the thing himself; Gordon, recovering from a flop musical which culminated in a nervous breakdown with a suicide attempt, gave in to Kern’s desire in order to get the rights. The show, which opened in Philadelphia — under the title Gowns by Roberta — was so poor that Gordon went ahead and fired Kern as director, although the latter remained on hand to work on the score. But a happy time was not had by anyone.”

Fortunately, the show yielded a wonderfully enduring tune. Starting in Eb major, the track modulates to the bridge, largely in B major (or more properly, Cb major), at 1:17. At 1:50, we return to Eb major. A leap of a major third: truly unusual!

Celso Fonseca | Sem Resposta

Time Out Sao Paolo defines Música Popular Brasileira (Popular Brazilian Music or MPB), as “a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music in Brazil that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as Samba … and other Brazilian regional music, combining them with foreign influences, such as jazz and rock … The term is often also used to describe any kind of music with Brazilian origins and ‘voice and guitar style’ that arose in the late 1960s.”

Celso Fonseca, a Brazilian composer, producer, guitarist and singer, has been active within MPB since the 1980s. Starting as an accompanist, composer, and producer, he added solo artist to his resume in the 1990s. The BBC praises Fonseca: “although (he) has played a significant part in producing much of what is good in contemporary Brazilian music, he is hardly a household name abroad.”

“Sem Resposta” (1999), which roughly translates to “No Response,” features an intro (through 0:20) in D major; a verse in D minor (heard for the first time 0:20); and a chorus in D major (0:40). The pattern continues from there.

Michael Buble | Cry Me A River

Canadian singer Michael Buble recorded the standard “Cry Me A River” for his 2009 album Crazy Love, which was certified five times Platinum and awarded the Best Traditional Pop Vocal album Grammy Award. The BBC used Buble’s dramatic cover of the tune for its advertising of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Key change at 2:57.

Diana Krall | But Beautiful

Canadian jazz vocalist Diana Krall makes her MotD debut today with the jazz standard “But Beautiful,” the first track on her fifteenth studio album, This Dream of You, which was released last Friday. Krall, a three-time Grammy winner and one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz chart. Her unique, smoky vocal style and understated arrangements have led to 15 million albums sold worldwide. There’s a key change at 2:17, with a return to the original key at 3:22.

Sarah Vaughan | Prelude to a Kiss

Sarah Vaughan’s 1954 version of Duke Ellington’s 1938 jazz standard ballad “Prelude to a Kiss,” including lyrics by Irving Gordon and Irving Mills, marks a long-overdue MotD debut for the vocalist widely known as the “Divine One.” Biography.com details that Vaughan “was invited to perform at the White House and Carnegie Hall, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1989, and was selected to join the Jazz Hall of Fame in 1990.” From WBUR’s retrospective of Vaughan’s life: “Where more idiosyncratic jazz artists like Billie Holliday excelled at interpretation, Miss Vaughan was a contralto who gloried in displaying the distinctive instrumental qualities of a voice that had a comfortable three-octave range.”

JazzStandards.com reports: “Written in an A1-A2-B-A2 form, the melody in the first and third measures of each A section sidles down the scale five halftones in a chromatic decline while the fifth measure starts out with a note repeated four times. The overall effect is a general flattening of the melody, drawing the ear to Ellington’s rich supporting harmonies. Starting in C major, there’s a modulation to E major during the ‘B’ section.

The chromatic nature of ‘Prelude to a Kiss’ produces a plaintive sound, a sad serenade that Gordon and Mills reflect in their lyrics. It’s the bridge, however, that brings true emotional release, almost to the point of seeming celebratory. Its corresponding lyrics express Ellington’s dramatic change in mood, relating the transformation of a pitiful love song into a Schubert symphony.”

In this version, the simplicity of the instrumentation truly shows off the complexity of the harmony while centering Vaughan’s vocal. The pivotal B section begins at 1:20.

Jamie Cullum | Anyway

One of my favorite singer-songwriters, Jamie Cullum, makes his MotD debut today with “Anyway,” included on his 2013 album Momentum. Shortly after the album’s release, Cullum elaborated on the inspiration behind it and how he chose its name in an interview with the German magazine Nothing But Hope and Passion:

“Well, it seems like a good title for the album for a lot of reasons. One is that this album was entirely made with a sense of momentum. My life’s changed in a lot of ways since the last few records, you know, I’m a father now, I have multiple responsibilities, far beyond just looking after myself, and so this album was made in pockets of time, rather than the luxury of all the time in the world. So I just kind of hurled myself into it, and the whole thing happened without a great deal of thought, which sounds careless, but I’ve come to realize that thought is the enemy of creativity in a lot of ways.

The other thing, the album is really about that crossover period where you’re really still a young man, but also you’ve got one foot in this incredibly grown-up, adult world where you’re the leader of your pack, and the album really is about that kind of balance of your childish fantasies with these grand and quite epic responsibilities. I think it’s momentum that carries you through that, really, so that’s how I came up with the title.

The tune is primarily in Eb minor, briefly modulating to G major at 2:59 before returning to Eb minor at 3:16.

Milton Nascimento | O Que Será? (À Flor da Pele)

An eons-overdue MotD debut today for Milton Nascimento, about whom AllMusic.com writes: “(A) Brazilian singer/songwriter whose soaring voice and plaintive songs have inspired and influenced musicians of all kinds. Nascimento may have his roots in Brazil, but his songs have touched audiences all over the world…he caught a break when the pop singer Elis Regina recorded one of his songs, ‘Canção do Sal,’ in 1966. Regina got him a showcase on a popular Brazilian TV program; after performing at Brazil’s International Song Festival the following year, his career was launched … His 1999 album Crooner won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Pop Album at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2000.

Whatever he writes and sings about, be it the planet, ways of living, and loving and dying, his music has always carried an eternally optimistic spirit. Elis Regina has said of Nascimento: ‘If God sang, he would do it with Milton’s voice.’”

In 1976’s “O que Sera (a Flor de Pele),” a vocal duet with fellow Brazilian musician Chico Buarque, we float above the complex, fast-moving harmonies so often found in Brazilian music. We encounter modulations at 1:52, 2:49 (for the duration of an instrumental interlude), and 3:18.

Ella Fitzgerald | What’s New

JazzStandards.com reports that “What’s New,” a classic standard, was written by Bob Haggart with lyrics by Johnny Burke. “In an era when cute and romantic had given way to urbane, Burke devised a clever gimmick to tell a love story: casual conversational lyrics telling only one side of the conversation. The result was ‘What’s New?’ … introduced by Bob Crosby and His Orchestra with vocalist Teddy Grace in 1939, (it reached) number ten on the pop charts.

“Recognized worldwide as “The First Lady of Song,” AllMusic reports, “Ella Fitzgerald is arguably the finest female jazz vocalist of all time. Blessed with a highly resonant voice, wide range, and near-perfect elocution, Fitzgerald also possessed a deft sense of swing, and with her brilliant scat technique, could hold her own against any of her instrumental contemporaries. Over her 50-year career, she earned 13 Grammy Awards, sold over 40 million albums, and picked up numerous accolades including a National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A hugely important cultural figure, Fitzgerald made an immeasurable impact on the development of jazz and popular music, and remains a touchstone for fans and artists decades after her passing.”

The bridge, normally a ‘B section,’ is simply the same tune and chord progression with some slight melodic alteration in the last two measures (an A1/A1/A2/A1 form). The A2 section modulates up a perfect fourth. Ella’s version here starts in F major and jumps up to Bb major (0:54 – 1:21).

Fred Hersch | And So It Goes

“And So It Goes” first appeared on Billy Joel’s 1989 studio album Storm Front. The tune has since been covered by countless artists, ranging from former Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams to American bagpiper Jori Chisholm on his debut album Bagpipe Revolution. Here, jazz pianist Fred Hersch performs his rendition, which was featured on his solo 2017 album Open Book. Beginning in C major, Hersch hints at Eb Major around the 4:00 mark, and then settles in Ab at 4:51 and stays there through the end.