Thursday, January 16, 2014
I’ve had a little more time now to study the structure of this piece. First, I’ll lay out the form as I see it: 0:00—0:13 (mm. 1—5): Intro figure 0:13—0:28 (mm. 6—9): Guitar & bass cycle 1 0:28—0:43 (mm. 10—15): Head 0:43—0:48 (mm. 16—17): Bridging material (based on m. 2) 0:48—3:31 (mm. 18—41, 42—65, 66—89): […]
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Over a year ago I started transcribing Henry Threadgill’s “To Undertake My Corners Open”. I got to the 90% point a long time ago, but as with many projects, it’s the last 10% that takes the most calendar time. One thing that slowed me down is that Threadgill’s flute is super sharp, especially in the […]
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Henry Threadgill’s Zooid group has made some really interesting recent music in an original musical language, but I’ve seen very little discussion of what the language is, and Threadgill himself doesn’t seem to be very forthcoming. The best description I’ve found comes from guitarist Liberty Ellman in a phone conversation with Nate Chinen, but there’s […]
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Another step in my continuing quest to learn more about jazz by transcribing recordings. I like Wayne Shorter’s 1960s albums a lot, and “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” (YouTube video) is my favorite tune from the most famous of them, Speak No Evil. The spur to do a Shorter tune came when Ethan Iverson transcribed his solo from Lee […]
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Six months ago I made some general comments about the musical vocabulary of Tim Smith (of Cardiacs). Here are some notes on “Odd Even”, a song that illustrates a lot of his standard tricks. The song is on YouTube here and my transcription is here (PDF file). The form could not be simpler: three repetitions […]
I’ve always liked the sound of jazz but have never been as interested in it as rock or classical. Recently my interest has flared up a bit, and I’ve been trying to make up for lost time by listening to more of it with active ears. The standard approved way to work on your analytical […]