Tag: USA

Snarky Puppy + Metropole Orkest | The Curtain

“Jazz has developed virtually since its inception through a close but often uneasy relationship between recorded media and live performance,” (UCLA Ethnomusicology Review). “Think of the ‘classic’ recordings that are celebrated as paragons of jazz artistry, but also of the common admonishment that any true experience of jazz is a live one, in which musicians and audience members commune with one another in a unique, never-to-be-repeated musical and social event. If recent trends are any indication, however, many jazz musicians do not view these modes of performance as irreconcilable … Snarky Puppy, led by bassist and composer Michael League … tour(s) the world extensively, introducing audiences to their exciting genre-b(l)ending style … They also invite an audience into the recording session, which sits among the musicians and listens through headphones. In this way, Snarky Puppy cultivates the intimacy and energy of live performance, but also retains the advantages of an outfitted recording studio.

Sylva … finds the band in the Netherlands to work with the Metropole Orkest, conducted by Jules Buckley … The theme of Sylva (2015) is the forest. … The album’s high point is ‘The Curtain.’ … this tune was the most challenging for the band, with sections featuring odd meters, multiple key changes, and forms with an odd number of bars … Jay Jennings’ flugelhorn solo is outstanding, his lyrical playing bolstered by the tasteful interactivity of the rhythm section and some beautifully building orchestral background figures. A new groove introduces League’s similarly impressive bass solo (well-deserved accolades for his roles as leader and composer mean he is sometimes overlooked as a stellar bassist) and a funky, virtuosic organ solo by Cory Henry. The musicians look on wistfully during Bill Laurance’s lovely, Chopin-esque piano cadenza, before joining him for a closing waltz.”

The piece begins with a strings feature in G minor, joined by building percussion at 0:51 and then going on to persist through various moods and meters. At 3:22, we hit uneven harmonic ground as the flugelhorn solo builds. The full instrumentation of the Metropole is then put through its paces until the 7:54 mark, where a calmer feeling prevails, along with a shift to F minor. By the ending, the piece has shifted back to a softer-spoken feel in G (major, minor, etc.).

Herb Alpert + the Tijuana Brass | A Taste of Honey

Well, the Tijuana Brass weren’t really from Tijuana, just some L.A. studio musicians to play along with Herb Alpert. And those bass drum kicks that launch the in-tempo sections of “A Taste of Honey” weren’t really part of the arrangement, meant instead to be a tape-splice marker. Nonetheless, the single achieved very real success, reaching #7 on Billboard in 1965. The single was taken from the album Whipped Cream and Other Delights, released on Alpert’s own label A&M, featuring the most famous album cover of the 20th century (ed. note: perhaps I’m biased in that opinion).

“A Taste of Honey” was written by Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow.for the Broadway version of a British play of the same name, later made into a movie. There are many cover versions, including a vocal version by the Beatles recorded in 1963. There’s a half-step upwards modulation up at 2:12.

As of this writing, Herb Alpert is still playing. Below, we’re including the same tune, performed this month at the Hollywood Bowl.

Whitney Houston | I Love the Lord

“We may never see the likes of a Richard Smallwood in gospel music again … Smallwood was an innovative songwriter and director who blended skillfully the majesty of classical choral music with the Black church writ large,” (Journal of Gospel Music). “His songs and arrangements possess an intensity that crosses denominational boundaries. Whether Pentecostal, Baptist, AME, or CME, congregants know the catalog of Richard Smallwood. It has its own brilliance, its own timbre. You recognize it when you hear it.

… His music even made the silver screen; Whitney Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir sang his arrangement of “I Love the Lord,” recorded originally in the late 1970s by the Union Temple Young Adult Choir, for the 1996 holiday film The Preacher’s Wife.”

Richard Smallwood reported that “[The music supervisor for The Preacher’s Wife] told me ‘I Love the Lord’ was one of Whitney’s favorite songs and one that she had grown up singing in church,” (Brooklyn White-Grier). “It also was a song that she wanted to do in the movie. When I found out — excited is an understatement! One of my songs in a major motion picture sung by one of the greatest singers ever, was a dream I never thought was possible.”

Beginning in C major with a solo section for Houston, the tune swells with the addition of choir and string section as the tonality climbs to Db major at 1:29. The texture continues to strengthen through the 4:00 mark, where the track ends with a softer-spoken string section.

Frank Zappa | What’s New in Baltimore?

” … This looming existential dread and the small, conservative California towns in which he was raised were a powerful force against which Zappa reacted, with his music that constantly defied convention and conformity,” (Baltimore Sun). “As his former percussionist Ruth Underwood says in an interview, ‘he was a walking mass of contradictions but he was consistent in those contradictions.’ He was a wild man with a psychedelic imagination who eschewed drug use, and an anti-establishment artist with a keen sense of business acumen.

… a complicated man, an exacting artist and a wholly singular visionary. His bandmates assert that he was a demanding songwriter and bandleader, constantly striving for perfection, rare to dole out compliments. If the outsize legacy of his work bears any consistency, it’s in the purest expression of his vision, whatever that might have been. Zappa repeatedly states that he made the music that he wanted, needed, to hear … “

Zappa’s album Frank Zappa Meets the Mothers of Prevention, was released in 1985. Its title was a reaction to efforts by groups such as the Parents Music Resource Center urging the US Congress to advance legislation labeling pop and rock albums featuring controversial lyrics. The initial E minor section of “What’s New in Baltimore” alternates with an E major section, first heard from 0:16 – 0:26. At 0:52, a chaotic extended multi-key midsection launches. The 2:00 mark brings us to a relatively straightforward guitar solo section in E major, written over only two chords; for a change, all mallet instruments are banned during this passage, which turns out to also be an extended outro.

Amy Grant | That’s What Love Is For

“If you were listening to any kind of normal radio in the early 90s, you remember ‘Baby, Baby,’ which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as ‘Every Heartbeat,’ which hit No. 2. ‘That’s What Love Is For,’ ‘Good For Me’ and ‘I Will Remember You’ all were Top 20 hits as well,” (Daily Vault).

The best part about (1991’s Heart in Motion) … is not the success it brought Grant as much as the way it openly addressed important issues in life. ‘Ask Me’ talks about how faith can help heal a person’s past, specifically child abuse; ‘That’s What Love Is For’ addresses that relationships are tough and take work. Strength and hope are the themes of Heart in Motion … The simplicity of Grant’s voice with her honest lyrics contrast what so many other big names (Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera) attempt to achieve.”

“That’s What Love is For” begins in E major, building gradually through its first two verses. The chorus, in C# major, then appears with great fanfare at 1:08; the video further obliges the mood change with a shift from black and white to full color. At 1:42, we dive back into another verse — in the original key and the original black and white! The pattern continues until 3:04, when we stumble into D major as we hop over yet another B+W/color border.

Seals + Crofts | Get Closer

“’Get Closer’ (1976) has all those soft-rock flourishes that everyone loves to deride: the wash of strings, the soulful piano, the soothing harmonies … The lyrical premise of ‘Get Closer’ is simple and pleasantly symmetrical,” (SF Weekly). “Seals and Crofts are asking for reciprocity in their romantic relationships. ‘If you desire emotional intimacy with me, I need you to open up more,’ they seem to be saying. ‘You want me to be monogamous with you? Then quit sleeping around with my friends.’

This song has the added bonus of the voice of Carolyn Willis. Willis was a member of the R&B group Honey Cone in the early 1970s. After the group broke up, she worked as a session singer in Los Angeles for many years before retiring. She seems to have never pursued a solo career; aside from ‘Get Closer,’ you may also recognize her voice on the original ‘Wonder Woman’ theme.”

After starting in G major through the verse, there’s a shift up to A major at 1:01 the chorus. At 1:41, an unprepared modulation back down to G major would have been a bit jarring all on its own, but we’re also knocked further off balance by an unexpected 2/4 bar in an otherwise 4/4 arrangement. The pattern continues from there — until we jump all the way up to E major for the balance of the track at 3:12.

Toad the Wet Sprocket | Starting Now

“By 2019, it was evident that there would be a new Toad the Wet Sprocket album,” (American Songwriter). “As frontman Glen Phillips was toiling with what he thought was new solo material, something wasn’t sticking. What he had was a Toad record. ‘We’d taken a long break from recording together,’ says Phillips, ‘and it felt like we had the right songs and the right energy again.’

As he was pulling together Starting Now, Phillips was also coping with bigger life changes, the end of his 23-year marriage, and his kids leaving home, all shifts he says transformed his relationship to songwriting … He adds, ‘For me, it’s much more a matter of like, I am trying to find my way in the wilderness, and I need all the help I can get, so the songs are my own bread crumbs for the things that I know to be true but often forget, and in that realm, it’s about leaning towards hope.’”

“Starting Now,” the mid-tempo track from the 2021 album of the same name, begins in C# minor. An instrumental bridge (1:54 – 2:17) pivots subtly towards its end, leading to a shift up into D# minor at 2:18 as the next verse begins.

Scott Walker | Angelica

“Scott Walker … the pop idol turned crooner turned shocking avant-garde auteur, died (in 2019) at age 76, but not before leaving behind one of the most fascinating catalogues of the rock era,” (The Second Disc). “An American and child actor on Broadway who found his success in England as one third of The Walker Brothers, Scott could have been content reliving his glory days of ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore,’ ‘Make It Easy on Yourself,’ and ‘Joanna.’  But the uncompromising artist never stopped pushing the envelope, as a songwriter, performer, and producer.

… The music business is famous for hyperbole, but it’s no exaggeration to say that few have had a career anything like that of Scott Walker. An American who skyrocketed to fame on British shores in the heady time that was the mid-1960s, Walker (born Noel Scott Engel in 1943) turned his back on the world of a pop idol. He became one of the first major performers to embrace and champion the dark musical melodramas of Jacques Brel but that, too, didn’t last long. After some largely undistinguished albums recorded during his self-described ‘lost years’ and a period of relative seclusion, Walker emerged, creating provocative soundscapes that dispensed with any traditional notions of melody or songwriting.”

“Angelica” (1967), written by Brill Building legends Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, begins in B minor. At 1:10, a soaring vocal melody leads us into the first chorus, with a shift into B major. At 2:03, the pattern repeats, beginning with a second minor verse.

Nickel Creek | Scotch and Chocolate

“These are not veterans of bluegrass – these were three young people who drove their string machines like race cars … they have an appeal for the average ear just short of a confection – but never too sweet,” (Americana Highways). “They have the skill to play impressively and rollick in a bluegrass-commercial flavor that’s tasty … Their recordings are well-made and the group possesses a pearl of musical wisdom to perform with agility, passion, and creative beauty.

… Nickel Creek manages to balance these genres with each performance. It’s obvious the trio could play adeptly alongside such traditional mainstay contemporaries as the classic English ensembles Pentangle, Fairport Convention, Curved Air, the Acoustic Strawbs, Steeleye Span, Dando Shaft, Amazing Blondel and the Incredible String Band.”

After a soft-spoken, meandering intro, “Scotch and Chocolate” (2005) solidly settles into A major at 0:51. At 2:05, with the tempo now at a gallop, D major takes center stage for the balance of the track. This performance is from the COVID-cancelled series Live From Here, the more music-centric successor to A Prairie Home Companion. The series was hosted by Nickel Creek’s mandolinist, Chris Thile.

David Wilcox | Rusty Old American Dream

“Around the mid-to-late ’80s, major labels started to notice a new group of folk artists,” (Popdose). “They were more diverse than the Seegers and Guthries of decades past; the ‘new folk’ label could apply to traditionalists like Ellis Paul or Jonell Mosser just as easily as it could to the more overtly commercial Shawn Colvin. And the new folkies could be obvious direct descendants of living masters, like the Richie Havens-channeling Cliff Eberhardt, or they could head off in new directions entirely, like Patty Griffin. Though it’s doubtful anybody in a record label boardroom ever thought the “new folk” would be a huge commercial success, having an “Americana” imprint was sort of prestigious — it meant the suits hadn’t been entirely blinded to the meaning and appeal of music at the root level. A&M Records, recognizing this … signed David Wilcox.

Wilcox had been plying his trade in and around Asheville, North Carolina, for some years, and had become a favorite fixture at the legendary Bluebird Cafe. The Bluebird’s proprietor, Amy Kurland, was instrumental in the development of his career — even after the release of his second A&M album, the label was referring publicity calls to her — and it’s easy to see why she took such an interest. Other artists may have been more implicitly traditional, and thus more representative of ‘true’ folk, but Wilcox’s smooth vocals and emotional lyrics hinted at bigger things.

It’s no Born To Run, but for a folk musician in 1989, How Did You Find Me Here came fairly close — the album won him a modicum of critical attention on the national stage, nearly unanimous in its praise, and A&M realized it had a potential moneymaker on its hands.” One of the album’s standout tracks, “Rusty Old American Dream,” might be about an old car which has seen better days. But propelled by Wilcox’s intricate fingerstyle technique and impeccable time, an unprepared half-step key change (1:47) “gives that old starter a spin.”