Tag: USA

The Revivalists | Celebrate (feat. Preservation Hall Jazz Band)

“The strongest bonds never bend, break, or burst. Such a bond forms the bedrock of anything worth fighting for, whether it be a family, a friendship — or a band,” (TheRevivalists.com). “The Revivalists retain this union 15 years into their impressive career as they prepare to unleash their strongest material yet. Standing together, this eight-piece rock ‘n’ roll collective has made the journey from hole-in-the-wall marathon gigs to sold-out shows at hallowed venues a la Radio City Music Hall and Red Rocks Amphitheater, multi-platinum success, numerous national television performances, and more than 800 million streams.

… ‘Art can revive and make life feel vibrant. Live music can especially do that. When we first started out, we were watching New Orleans rebuild after Katrina, and fight to keep the city’s spirit alive. In a way, that’s what we’re seeing now, except on a global scale. Everybody realizes what they almost lost, and it happens to be many of the things New Orleans is known for – being with friends, experiencing things good and bad, building fulfilling relationships, and going to concerts and restaurants. It boils down to the zest for life – that’s what our band name and music are all about.'”

Featuring the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band, an ensemble with roots going back 70+ years in the Crescent City, “Celebrate” is often a joyful shout chorus: just about everybody is playing at any given time. But the boisterous tradition of the shout chorus is something of a New Orleans specialty — and it’s used expertly here. At 3:08, a half-step key change appears.

Dean Friedman | Ariel

“Ariel” is the only US hit for singer and multi-instrumentalist Dean Friedman (Billboard #26, 1977). His song “Lucky Stars” made to #3 on the UK charts the following year. Although he hasn’t been scoring hits since then, Friedman has toured and recorded consistently over the years, releasing the album American Lullaby in 2021.

“Ariel” is about a romance between a guy from New York City and a girl from the other side of the Hudson, Paramus, New Jersey, who likes to sing “Tears on My Pillow” (the Little Anthony and Imperials hit) and “Ave Maria” (a hit across the ages). It’s a song designed to be a radio hit, with its erudite lyrics, infectious chorus, retro yakkety sax solo, and clean production.

A repeat of the chorus goes up a step at 3:42, landing back at the original key for the final verse at 3:57.

Maybe It’s My Turn Now (from “Schmigadoon!”)

“Maybe It’s My Turn Now” is featured in the fifth episode of the second season of the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!, which aired this summer.

The musical comedy series blends satire of and homage to the musical theater catalog, with this season focusing on the Post-Golden Age musicals of the 1960s-1980s.

Written by Cinco Paul and performed by Cecily Strong, this track is a pastiche of the Kander and Ebb anthem “Maybe This Time,” written for the movie adaptation of their 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. It begins in G major and modulates up a half step to Ab at 2:03.

Mariah Carey | Can’t Let Go

“Early on, critics griped about Mariah’s reliance on vocal acrobatics, which, they claimed, kept audiences at a remove from her actual songs,” (SlantMagazine.com). “Indeed, the title track of her sophomore effort, 1991’s Emotions, and the album’s bombastic uptempo centerpiece, ‘You’re So Cold,’ are lessons in fabulous excess, showcases for Mariah’s famous five octaves. But the album’s second single, ‘Can’t Let Go,’ is one of her most understated hits, her downcast verses floating ephemerally atop the song’s pointillistic percussion … With Emotions, she managed to strike a balance of soul and pop that’s not just technically impressive, but filled with undeniable, honest-to-god feeling.”

Co-written by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, “Can’t Let Go” was the second single from Emotions. Cashbox‘s review of the single included strong praise: “This time Carey is slowing down the pace from the first single ‘Emotions.’ In our opinion, this should have been the first single taken off the album. Her voice still has that crystal-clear sound that has hypnotized listeners of all sorts.” Although Carey’s first five American singles had reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, “Can’t Let Go” fell just short of that mark, reaching #2 and spending 17 weeks in the top 40 (Billboard).

Compared to much of the rest of her early material, where vocal fireworks were the rule, “Can’t Let Go” found Carey showing great restraint — showcasing her stratospheric whistle tone vocals only as a faint whisper during the intro (0:20 – 0:25). After several wistful verses and choruses, the bridge builds from its starting point (2:18), ascending through fluid layers of Carey’s own backing vocals to a shimmering half-step key change at 2:45. After one more chorus, the now wordless vocal of the outro cycles back to the melodic shape of the first line of the verse — suggesting that the sorrow from this unrequited love is nowhere near a resolution.

Yellow Field (from “The Names We Gave Him”)

“Peter Foley (1967-2021) was an award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, and music director. His musical theater works include The Hidden Sky, The Names We Gave Him, I Capture the Castle, Bloom, Whitechapel, and The Bear …” (Peter Foley Music Project). “Peter’s songs have been performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Festival of Song, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below …

Peter also composed scores and themes for numerous television shows and documentaries, including Listening to America with Bill Moyers … An accomplished pianist and expert in music notation, he served as musical director/keyboardist for the premieres of Rinde Eckert’s Highway Ulysses, Kenneth Vega’s Heartfield, and concert performances with Manoel Felciano. He was the music assistant for the Broadway production of Sting’s The Last Ship, associate music director for the developmental workshop of Elvis Costello’s A Face in the Crowd, and music preparation supervisor for the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit …

Loosely based on a true story, The Names We Gave Him is about an amnesiac veteran of the First World War, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved. With a richly textured, dramatic score and riveting choral music, this new musical explores the agony of war for both the soldiers and the families they leave behind, the distorting power of loss, and the insistence of love. What is a country’s identity in the aftermath of such devastation? What is a self without memory?”

The duet “Yellow Field” from The Names We Gave Him (music by Peter Foley / lyrics by Ellen McLaughlin, 2021) begins with a spare accompaniment, with the voices occupying separate, alternating spaces as the narrative begins to unfold. But the first appearance of the refrain in E major (0:46) provides a solid platform for the duo to join in unison and octave unison. As the characters’ memories tumble forth, the sonic intensity grows. 2:41 brings another refrain, this time in Bb major. A gentle yet insistent repeated Bb from the piano provides connection into a final pass of the refrain at 4:20, this time in Eb major.

“Opening hearts has been my secret agenda in my entire musical life, really. I know it sounds pretentious, but I’m not afraid to say it. I just want to change how you feel for a couple of minutes, and maybe put you back in touch with some feeling that you haven’t felt in a while. That really was my whole goal.”

— Peter Foley

for Scobie

This live performance, featuring Briana Carlson-Goodman and Jason Gotay, has somewhat lower sound quality:

The Grass Roots | Sooner or Later

“They began as a bunch of faceless, veteran session musicians playing soulful pop, but the Grass Roots were no mere bubblegum band—they developed a mix of blue-eyed soul and big, brassy rock that would one day morph into the power-pop phenomenon,” (Liveabout).

“Formed in 1966 in Los Angeles, the Grass Roots may have made songs that are familiar to you even if you don’t know the band. ‘Let’s Live for Today’ and ‘Midnight Confessions’ remain the most likely candidates for Grass Roots songs you might have heard on radio, movies, or TV. The former was featured in Season 2 of American Horror Story, while the latter is heard in a Season 4 episode of The West Wing and on the radio in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.“

Full of kicks delivered by horns and organ, “Sooner or Later” (1971) is relatively repetitive, particularly in the simple lyrics of its chorus. But it somehow doesn’t feel that way due to the tune’s syncopation; every line of the chorus starts on an off-beat. At 1:47, a half-step key change kicks in unexpectedly as part of a tag at the end of a chorus.

Nelson Rangell | Map of the Stars

“Flute Talk Magazine states ‘Nelson Rangell creates the impression that anything is possible when he improvises,'” (AllAboutJazz). “Such praise is a confirmation of what contemporary jazz fans have known since the Denver-based saxophonist emerged in the late 80s: that Rangell is one of the most exciting and diverse performers in the genre, equally adept at soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone, as well as being a genuine virtuoso on flute and piccolo.

… Rangell first played flute at the age of 15. Within months he was studying both classical and jazz music at The Interlochen Arts Academy … (then) the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.” After college, he worked in New York City with artists including Hiram Bullock, Jorge Dalto, Eric Gale, Richard Tee, Jaco Pastorius, David Sanborn, and Michael Brecker. “He also found occasional employment with the legendary Gil Evans Monday Night Orchestra and worked on many commercial jingle recording sessions.” Rangell has gone on to release 15 albums. While apparently no fan of smooth jazz, Stewart Mason of Tivo calls Rangell “a gifted soloist capable of twisting away from simple, melodic lines without losing the cozy accessibility that’s the calling card of this style of jazz.”

“Map of the Stars” (1992) gives Rangell a chance to showcase the piccolo at its most fluid and agile. The charming opening melody, in F major, shifts to a second section in F minor (0:48), back to major at 1:04, then minor again at 1:20, this time announced by a playful trill. By the time the groove-driven chorus arrives (1:44), we’ve slipped back into F major. At 2:13, the next verse begins with a guitar solo as the pattern continues — until 4:04, where a masterful extended solo by Rangell finishes out the tune.

for Marje

Lauren Alaina | Pretty

Lauren Alaina was the runner-up on the tenth season of the American reality TV show American Idol, and “Pretty” is the final track on her 2017 album Road Less Travelled.

“This album is everything about me,” Alaina said in an interview with iHeart. “I didn’t really get to write the first album because I was at American Idol, I came off the show, and I was using that momentum to try to get the album out as fast as possible, to use that momentum. And this album I wrote for four years and had a lot of big changes in that time. My parents went through a divorce, and my dad’s an alcoholic and he went to rehab, I overcame an eating disorder — lots of really big changes. I moved to Nashville, I fell in love, all of these crazy life-changing things happened, and the whole album is about all of that. I feel like I’m really introducing myself to the world officially with this album, so hopefully they like me.”

The song is in F and modulates up a step to G at 3:25 for the final chorus.

Various Artists | Doctor’s Orders

In the late 1960s, UK producer and songwriter Tony Hiller created the vocal group Brotherhood of Man to showcase his songs. In 1970, the group scored an international hit with “United We Stand” (UK #10, Billboard #13). The original lineup consisted of Tony Burrows, an established session singer, Roger Greenaway, a songwriter in his own right, and sisters Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie. That incarnation of the group lasted until 1971. The following year, Hiller put together a new version of the group, which is performing to this day.

The sisters had recorded a number of singles as Sue and Sunny, without a lot of success. But they kept busy as background singers on many recordings by prominent artists, including Elton John, David Bowie, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker, and Tom Jones. Sunny’s solo recording of “Doctor’s Orders” became a hit in the UK (#7 in 1974). The tune was written by her former bandmate Greenaway, with Roger Cook and Geoff Stephens.

In the US, a disco-flavored version by Carol Douglas became a 1974 hit (Billboard #11, Canada #1). “An ad (was run) in Showbiz magazine specifically to recruit a singer to cover Sunny’s UK hit for the US market: the successful applicant, Carol Douglas, was a veteran performer who had remained an unknown recording artist.

Douglas, who reports that she is a cousin of Sam Cooke’s, recalled when she first auditioned she was told ‘I sounded great, but too black. [The track’s] producers wanted to capture my more melodic pop/commercial tones which undeniably made me sound white on the radio,’ (EurWeb). Although Douglas admitted to reservations about the song itself – ‘I really [would have] wanted a more soulful song’ – she’d also recall ‘I felt the minute I heard the music that it was going to be something, and after hearing my voice on the track it was even more amazing…[It] did throw me off when they played me the [Sunny] version. So I had to approach [singing the song] in my own way.'” The Douglas version shifts up a whole step at 3:48.

Josh Groban | Oceano

“Oceano” is the lead track on Josh Groban’s 2003 album Closer, the top-selling album of the 2000s in the US.

Produced by David Foster, the song begins by fluidly passing between F major and F minor. In the instrumental interlude between verses, the harmony turns very chromatic, passing through Eb major and E minor before winding back to the tonal center of F at 2:06. There is a definitive modulation to Db at 3:05, which then segues into a subdued outro in D minor.