“I Can See Clearly Now” was written and recorded by American singer Johnny Nash in 1972, and was a number-one hit in the US, the UK, Canada, and South Africa. Contrasting with Nash’s original reggae groove, the Holly Cole Trio recorded a jazz-driven cover as the lead track for their 1993 album Don’t Smoke In Bed. The tune begins in Db and, almost as if the sun is breaking through the clouds, emerges into Gb major coming out of the bridge at 3:02.
Tag: jazz
Natalie Cole | This Will Be
“Natalie Cole bloomed into a superstar with her debut single, ‘This Will Be,’ released in 1975 when she was 25 years old.” (JazzIz) With its funky, soulful sound, the song helped her step out of the shadow of her father, Nat ‘King’ Cole, one of the most iconic vocalists of the 20th century. Since its release, it has also been featured in several movies and was used in a long-running series of eHarmony commercials.
‘This Will Be’ was written and produced by Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy. It became a Billboard hit and earned Natalie a couple of GRAMMYs, including that for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, a category that had been dominated by Aretha Franklin up to that point. As mentioned, it also turned Cole into a major star and her popularity continued to soar through the ’70s. While drug issues would slow her down, she would launch a comeback that peaked with her 1991 album, Unforgettable … with Love.”
The track has a unique layout which doesn’t adhere to traditional songwriting structure; there doesn’t appear to be a chorus! After starting in Bb major with an extremely long groove-driven intro for a tune that clocks in at less than three minutes total, two verses unspool as Natalie sings an impeccable duet with herself. As the third verse begins, there’s a transition up to Db major at 1:02. Each verse has a different overlay of vocal melody, but the underlying chords are the same. A stop-time bridge appears at 1:29. The intensity ramps up right to the end; even as the volume fades, Cole unfurls more and more of her powerhouse upper range belt. The swing momentum, effortless vocal prowess, and the sheer joy she communicates through her performance are reminders of the Cole family’s jazz and pop legacy, which started in 1940.
Brad Mehldau | New York State of Mind
In spring 2020, jazz pianist Brad Mehldau released a suite of tunes inspired by the opening months of the COVID-19 crisis. “Locked down in the Netherlands, (he) decided to compose a 12-part cycle that reflects his response to our new normal,” (Downbeat). “Don’t come looking for Mehldau’s long, lustrous improvisations—or even short ones, though there might be some light embellishments here and there. This is a composer’s work. If its bite-size pieces are easily digestible, so are its penetrating melodies. Like the thinned-out harmonies, they emphasize the isolation at the heart of both the work and the context. Well, that and the pure strangeness … Billy Joel’s “New York State Of Mind” and Jerome Kern’s “Look For The Silver Lining” find new reservoirs of heartbreak.”
On his Bandcamp page, Mehldau released these liner notes for the Suite: ” … a musical snapshot of life the last month in the world in which we’ve all found ourselves. I’ve tried to portray on the piano some experiences and feelings that are both new and common to many of us. I’ve pointed to some of the strong feelings that have arisen the past month or more … a bittersweet gut pain that has hit me several times out of the blue when I think back on how things were even just a few months ago, and how long ago and for away that seems now … Billy Joel’s ‘New York State of Mind,’ a song I’ve loved since I was nine years old, is a love letter to a city that I’ve called home for years and that I’m away from now. I know lots of people there and miss them terribly and I know how much that great city hurts right now.”
Like Joel’s original, Mehldau’s cover grows most sentimental during its softly stated middle section. Although the tune is in C major overall, the midsection (1:10 – 1:43) is a parade of ii-V progressions through multiple keys whose eventual destination is back home to the original key. During the piece’s closing bars, a distant echo of the iconic main theme of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” somehow boosts the NYC quotient even further.
Michael Lucke’s wonderful transcription of Mehldau’s solo is featured on this video.
Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans | Undecided
Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans, “the Belgian-American musician who cut a singular path as a jazz harmonica player … began his professional career as a guitar player (and added the ability to whistle a line above it), but inspired by the mid-20th century innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he returned to the chromatic harmonica and developed a bebop-influenced technique on it,” (NPR). “He performed and recorded widely with his bebop heroes and many other stars of postwar jazz, and his tune ‘Bluesette’ quickly became a jazz standard. His work also graces many film and television scores.”
Later in his career, “Thielemans became a first-call studio musician for top arrangers like Quincy Jones. His harmonica graced the theme song for Sesame Street and the score for the movie Midnight Cowboy. And that’s his whistling in the commercial jingle for Old Spice toiletries. Jazz remained his first love; even toward the end of his career, he would begin every morning with practice on the complex changes to John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps.’ … He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in the U.S., and a baron by the king of Belgium. He only retired from performing at the age of 92.” He passed away in 2016 at the age of 94.
His performance on “Undecided,” a 1939 standard by Charles Shavers, would have been remarkable for any other harmonica player — but it was utterly routine for Thielemans. His technique on the instrument broke through to entirely new levels of speed and agility. The groove drops out for a break just before the half-step modulation at 1:18. As if that weren’t enough, the second half of the video showcases Toots’ famous guitar-and-whistling skills!
Ella Fitzgerald | Old MacDonald Had a Farm
“Dubbed ‘The First Lady of Song,’ Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century,” according to Fitzgerald’s website. “In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums.
Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats, from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole, to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.) She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common – they all loved her.”
Her relentlessly energetic rendition of the children’s song “Old MacDonald,” performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, begins in Eb major. Starting at 0:18, she skips effortlessly upward through a series of half-step modulations, ending in Ab major.
George Benson | Give Me the Night
“‘Quincy Jones was looking for artists for his new label, Qwest Records,” jazz/pop vocalist and guitarist George Benson remembered in a Guardian interview). ‘I’d started to cross over from jazz and Quincy asked: Do you want to make the world’s greatest jazz record – or go for the throat? I laughed and said: Go for the throat! … He said: George, put yourself in my hands. I know more about you than you do yourself. I was insulted at first, but calmed down, and things started happening.’
George was under pressure to have a crossover hit. Nobody yelled at each other but there was tension, because he wouldn’t always do what Quincy told him to. (The sessions for 1980’s ‘Give Me the Night’ were) a clash of the titans at first. ‘I asked for the same musicians he’d used on (Michael Jackson’s) Off the Wall. The sound they made inspired me. Quincy also brought in Rod Temperton, formerly of the band Heatwave … Rod was always in the background except for when something went wrong. He didn’t mind saying: George, you’re singing in the wrong key.” Patti Austin, now known for her own R+B, jazz, and pop material, was the accomplished background singer Jones hired. Austin remembers: “‘When I went into the studio, the tracks were already recorded. I used to be a jingle singer; you have to be able to walk in, sight-read, and make whatever product the jingle is plugging sound orgasmic. So I worked very quickly.'”
Built in F minor overall, the tune shifts to Ab minor for the chorus at 1:19 – 1:42, later repeating the pattern. The track crossed over with a vengeance; it wasn’t a smash hit, but managed to become a solid global presence (see below) while hitting top five on the US Pop, Soul, and Disco charts.
Miles Davis | So What
“For many, (Miles Davis’) crowning achievement was the album Kind of Blue, the best selling album in jazz history,” (JazzWise). In 1999 it topped The Independent’s ’50 Best Recordings of the 20th Century’ list, in 2006 it topped the Jazzwise ‘100 Albums that Shook the World’ listing, while more recently The Guardian’s ‘1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die’ gave Kind of Blue a half-page box-out, an honour accorded to just 20 or so albums on the whole list. It even featured at No. 66 on the pop station VH1’s ‘100 Greatest Albums of Rock ’n’ Roll.’
“No other recording in jazz has come remotely near acquiring the kind of cachet Kind of Blue has accumulated over the decades. It’s an album that has probably been responsible for more Damascene conversions of non-believers into the jazz faith than any other, it has been the base-station from where countless fans have begun their journey into jazz and it’s an album that crops-up in the record collections of classical, rock, pop and country & western devotees who would not otherwise give jazz house room.”
After an intro, Kind of Blue‘s “So What” (1959) starts in earnest at 0:34. Even though the melody repeats throughout, the half-step upward modulation on the third pass (1:02 – 1:17) lends the track a classic AABA form. At 1:17, the tune reverts to its original key.
Judy Garland feat. Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Mickey Rooney | I’ve Got Rhythm (from “Girl Crazy”)
Tap cowboy boots? Yep, we’ve got those. The ninth of ten movies co-starring the iconic pairing of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, 1943’s Girl Crazy ends with “I’ve Got Rhythm” staged as a gargantuan Busby Berkeley production number –the very definition of the “Golden Age movie musical.”
From Film Frenzy‘s review: ” … another Rooney-Garland confection where not much of interest happens when everyone isn’t singing or dancing. The Gershwin score is tops, though.” HighDefDigest describes the title as “the best film pairing of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland … Girl Crazy not only showcases the dynamite talents of two enduring dynamos, it also features a first-class score by George and Ira Gershwin that includes such standards as ‘I Got Rhythm,’ ‘Embraceable You,’ and ‘But Not for Me,’ a bubbly cast, and a lavish rodeo finale staged by Busby Berkeley.” Meanwhile, Tommy Dorsey leads his orchestra while playing some top-drawer trombone.
After the intro, the tune begins in earnest at 0:58 in Eb, shifts to F at 1:34, and lands in D at 1:42 — for starters. Thereafter, key changes continue to parade by throughout.
Coleman Hawkins | Body and Soul
“Out of all the hit recordings of ‘Body and Soul,’ Coleman Hawkins’ is the best remembered,” (JazzStandards.com). Considered the first truly great jazz saxophonist, Hawkins’ October 11, 1939, version cemented his fame and must be considered the definitive recording of the song. According to Mark C. Gridley, author of Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, ‘Coleman Hawkins loved to improvise on complicated chord progressions and invent solo lines whose construction implied that chords had been added …'”
In 1973, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences inducted Hawkins’ 1939 recording into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The original recording is on Coleman Hawkins’ Body and Soul CD. An interesting reworking of the tune can be heard as the title cut on Hawkins’ 1944 Rainbow Mist recording on which he lays a new melody over the chord changes of ‘Body and Soul.'”
The 32-bar tune, composed in 1930 by Johnny Green, is built in Db major overall. After a brief intro, the first A section begins at 0:11 and the second at 0:32. The B section, which features several departures from the original key via a huge amount of harmonic sleight of hand, begins at 0:52. Finally, 1:12 brings the form’s last A section, returning to the original key.
Vox One | Shenandoah
The Boston-based five member a cappella group Vox One was founded in 1988 by a group of students who met at the Berklee College of Music (they went on to all serve as professors there.) The group’s arrangements combine elements of blues, funk, gospel, and folk; they have toured internationally and released five acclaimed albums.
Their cover of the traditional folk song “Shenandoah” appears on Say You Love Me, released in 1999. It moves through many tonal areas, beginning in Gb and ultimately landing in Bb at the end.
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