Tag: jazz

Sergio Mendes + Brasil ’66 | The Joker

“Musician Herb Alpert, co-founder of the highly successful A&M record label, was so keen on a newly signed act that he lent his name to the group’s debut LP; Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66,” (San Diego Troubador). “The album’s back cover featured straight forward liner notes by Alpert and the creative wordplay of Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor. Alpert’s hunch about the group would eventually exceed all expectations; for the remainder of the decade, the sound of Brasil ’66, a tempting mixture of bossa nova/samba and “Bacharachesque” arrangements, was seldom out of the spotlight. With consistent Top 40 hits, launched by the groundbreaking single,”Mas Que Nada,” Brasil ’66 was a fixture on AM radio, television variety shows, and concert stages around the globe.

… Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 joined the 2012 class of “Historically Significant Recordings.” His LP was in good company: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” Speech, the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street, and Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA were among the other recordings to enter the class. These selections found a permanent home in the Grammy Hall of Fame.”

After a start in a slightly de-tuned G minor, “The Joker” features a transitional section (1:10 – 1:25) which leads us up to A minor. The transition later repeats, but this time with no additional upward modulation. The live version has somewhat lower sound quality and doesn’t allow for embedding, but please check it out as well! Many thanks to our regular contributor Jamie A. for this submission.

Sarah Vaughan | Obsession

“Bop’s greatest diva, Sarah Vaughan was among jazz and popular music’s supreme vocalists,” (Qobuz). “She treated her voice as an instrument, improvising melodic and rhythmic embellishments, using her contralto range to make leaps and jumps, changing a song’s mood or direction by enunication and delivery, and altering her timbre … Vaughan’s recorded legacy stands with anyone in modern jazz history,” working with the likes of Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Budd Johnson, Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and many other jazz legends from the 1940s onward. “Nicknamed ‘Sassy’ and ‘The Divine One’, Vaughan won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine Grammy Awards. She was given an NEA Jazz Masters Award in 1989. Critic Scott Yanow wrote that she had ‘one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century,'” (New York Times).

“Militant jazz fans aren’t likely to cite Brazilian Romance as the place to start exploring the work of Sarah Vaughan. The album was made in 1987, near the end of the great jazz singer’s recording career … the songs aren’t the expected dinner-music standards, but more intricate post-bossa nova songs written by Milton Nascimento … Vaughan was, arguably, the foremost interpreter of Brazilian music in jazz history … Recorded three years before she died, it’s her equivalent of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings — full of contemporary spirit, propelled by a timeless voice.” (NPR). Featuring Hubert Laws on flute and George Duke on keyboards, “Obsession,” the eighth of the album’s ten tracks, was produced by Sergio Mendes.

The intro, in Bb minor, rapidly shifts to G minor for the first verse at 0:22. 0:54 brings a change in emphasis to G minor’s relative major of Bb. An instrumental interlude that mirrors the intro kicks in at 1:17. There’s an instrumental interlude with new material from 1:59 – 2:11, bringing us back more familiar territory — led throughout by Vaughan’s legendarily distinctive contralto.


Lester Young Trio | Body and Soul

“In the 1930s, Lester Young — known as the “President of Jazz” or simply “The Prez” — led a revolution on the tenor saxophone that influenced generations to follow,” (NPR). “He was Billie Holiday’s favorite accompanist, and his robust tenor playing influenced everybody from Charlie Parker to Sonny Rollins. Young was famous for his porkpie hat and his hipster language, but he’ll always be remembered for his remarkable solos.

Young said that even though he became famous with the Count Basie Orchestra, he didn’t like big bands. ‘I don’t like a whole lot of noise — trumpets and trombones … I’m looking for something soft. It’s got to be sweetness, man, you dig?'”

Young’s ideal soft sound was certainly central to this 1942 version of his composition “Body and Soul,” accompanied by an early-career Nat King Cole (billed as just “King Cole” on the recording) on piano and Red Callender on bass. The middle 8, first heard from 0:58 – 1:23, starts a half-step above the home key; its second half is a half-step below it. This is the third version of this jazz standard we’ve featured on MotD, perhaps because the key changes couldn’t be more innovative or distinctive!

Robert Glasper Experiment | Trust

“On Black Radio 2 (2013), the Robert Glasper Experiment attempts the near impossible: create a sequel that delivers fully on the promise of its groundbreaking, Grammy-winning predecessor,” (Qobuz). “Glasper’s group — bassist Derrick Hodge, Casey Benjamin on vocoder and synth, and drummer Mark Colenburg — again enlists a stellar cast of vocalists.

Instead of relying on covers, this set is almost entirely comprised of originals. There is an organic feel as well: there are no programmed loops on the record; everything was played live … Black Radio 2 is much more subtle than its predecessor. While it’s true that it possesses fewer standout performances, it’s wholly consistent, and on some level, it’s braver for relying on original material to carry it. It requires more listening to appreciate fully. Taken as a whole, however, it serves and fulfills the role of a sequel: the album deepens the band’s music-making aesthetic, and further establishes their sound not only as a signature, but even, perhaps, as its own genre.”

Co-written by Glasper and the track’s vocalist, Marsha Ambrosius, “Trust” starts in Eb minor; the chorus shifts into F dorian at 1:08, cycling through an incongruous but compelling G/A chord at the end of each phrase (first heard at 1:12). The short loop occurs a total of four times before the next verse begins at 1:36, reverting to the original key. The two key areas alternate from there.

Brian McKnight (feat. Take 6) | Bless This House

“Bless This House,” originally published in 1927 and written by Helen Taylor and May Brahe, is the final track on American singer Brian McKnight’s 2008 album I’ll Be Home For Christmas, his second holiday record. The track also features the a cappella group Take 6, known for their synthesis of jazz and spiritual themes.

The tune begins in Bb and shifts up to B at 1:48. A subtle transition to C major occurs around 3:29.

Adam Hawley (feat. Julian Vaughn) | God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Guitarist Adam Hawley released his first holiday album, What Christmas Means To Me, this past October. On this track, the second on the record, he features Kansas City-based bassist Julian Vaughn.

The track begins in E minor and shifts abruptly up to F minor at 2:25.

Stephanie J. Block | Manhattan in December

“Manhattan in December” is featured on Merry Christmas, Darling, Tony-winning actress Stephanie J. Block’s debut holiday album released earlier this year. The record also features tracks with Block’s husband and daughter.

The jazzy number starts out in F and shifts up a half step to Gb at 3:08.

Count Basie | Moten Swing

“In the ‘20s and ‘30s Kansas City was a hotbed of jazz, and pianist/bandleader Bennie Moten was at the heart of it,” (JazzStandards.com). “The recordings with his Kansas City Orchestra from 1923 to 1935 document the evolution of his style as he moved from ragtime to jazz in the mid-to late ‘20s, establishing what came to be known as the ‘Kansas City style.’ He began raiding another established K.C. band, Walter Page’s Blue Devils. By the end of the decade Count Basie, Jimmy Rushing, Hot Lips Page, Eddie Durham and Ben Webster had left the Blue Devils to join Moten. When Moten died suddenly in 1935, Basie took over leadership and the group eventually developed into the Count Basie Orchestra.

In A New History of Jazz, Alyn Shipton describes the development of Moten’s style. ‘Whereas his first discs show a rhythmic stiffness and a debt to ragtime, despite a reliance on the harmonic structure of the blues, he went on to define the loose, blues-influenced style, with a four-bar pulse, which became the predominant local jazz genre, and underpinned the work of later Kansas City bands like those of Count Basie and Jay McShann.’”

Many covers of 1932’s “Moten Swing” exist, but the standard is strongly associated with Basie. After a opening section in Ab major where the piano hearkens back to the light touch that was Basie’s unmistakeable trademark, 1:38 brings an explosive, syncopated modulation to C major. At 1:53, we’ve returned to Ab major for the final A section.

Michael Buble | Orange Colored Sky

Written by Milton Delugg and Willie Stein in 1950, “Orange Colored Sky” has been covered by Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Lady Gaga, Doris Day and others. Michael Bible included the song as a bonus track on his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible.

The track begins in Bb with a slow intro before moving into double time. There is a subtle key change up to C at 2:42.

Clifford Brown | Joy Spring

Clifford Brown was a “shortlived but massively influential hard-bop trumpeter – whose gleaming sound … remains clear in the work of Wynton Marsalis, Guy Barker and many others,” (The Guardian). “Brown was polished without sounding glib, his phrasing was immaculately shaped and packed with fresh ideas, and he sounded relaxed at any tempo.” Brown died in a car accident in 1956 at the age of only 25; he was “a genius whose impact on jazz could have been immense.”

It’s not surprising, then, that one of the most enduring standard ballads is “I Remember Clifford,” written as a memorial to Brown by tenor saxophonist Benny Golson (video below). The tune has been notably covered by dozens of artists, including Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Brown was a founding member), Donald Byrd, Ray Charles, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, and Arturo Sandoval.

The uptempo “Joy Spring,” written in 1954, borrows its title from Brown’s pet name for his wife, Emma Larue Anderson. After the intro, the buoyant melody begins at 0:11 in F major, moving up to Gb major for a re-statement. The B section of the AABA form starts in G major at 0:34 before pivoting all over the place; the final A section is in F major at 0:46.