Too Many Interests, Too Little Time

A fair number of developments in recent months…

After returning to Southern California, I started trawling Craigslist for local jazz musicians. I’ve hooked up with a quartet (drums, organ and guitar, me on bass; with a friend sitting in on sax every so often), and we’ve already had a gig (corporate holiday party). So my bass playing is progressing apace.

I’ve also resurrected my guitar playing with an ear towards developing a solo set. I’ve worked out some stuff for Darn That Dream* and have it pretty well to a point where I’d be OK playing a chorus for people (clocks in at just under 3 minutes). But in the process I got an idea for a tutorial video, or series of videos: “Anatomy of a Standard”, where I break down my choices (harmonic, phrasing, etc.) and approach. It’d be fairly guitar-centric, but applicable to any case where harmonization applies (piano, multi-voice arrangements). I’m not sure I’d go so far as to make it a “soup to nuts” approach, starting at the beginning, learning the melody, learning the changes (after fixing them, as necessary), scalar analysis, technical troubleshooting, etc. as there already seem to be a number of good tutorials on those subjects available.

I have other ideas for tutorials brewing, some ideas for getting teaching into swing (so to speak), and so on: hopefully this space will become increasingly replete with updates on a jazz musician’s career before the year progresses too far.

*Darn That Dream is memorable for being in my high school jazz band’s book, where I was the featured accompanist, playing the chords to a trombone playing the head the first time through: it was my teeth-cutting on jazz chord voicings. While what I did was rather mechanical — my guitar teacher just wrote out a bunch of fingerings for me to use — it was a formative event for me, and the tune stuck. Chelsea Bridge is another from that era (though I wasn’t featured on it), one near the front of my to-learn queue.

I wrote this during my first term at Westmont College (Spring ’92), a fairly productive period for me. One of my favorites of my tunes to this day.

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It got a lot of play the following year, including Westmont’s bid at the Berkeley Jazz Festival. I originally specified in the A section, if memory serves, a chromatically descending bass line from iiimin7-bIII7-iimin7-bII7 to the phrygian tonic, but I think I like the cycle of fifths movement from tritone subbing the dominants: it feels stronger and more organic to me to think that way, at least from the bass perspective.

I like this tune in no small part because of the way the rhythmic irregularity in the bridge worked out as organically as it did (though for improvisation, I specify a straight-ahead 8 bar section). In my experience, however limited, surprising and interesting details are most prone to emerge from composing when you’re not striving to be surprising or interesting.

The title doesn’t have to do with World of Warcraft or anything else along those lines (I doubt “Warcraft” even existed as a glimmer in its developers’ eyes at the time). I originally called it “No Mail” after the phenomenon of going to Westmont’s mailboxes, only to find your own empty. But I thought it’d be mighty clever to follow Wynton Marsallis’s homophonic example a la Knozz-Moe-King (but with actual words).

Hilarity ensued.

No, not that kind of methodology; this is yet another tune, the most recent one I’ve written (as of now), it so happens.

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I wrote this in 2004, long after I’d written anything else (mid-/late-90s). While I wasn’t thinking in these terms at the time, it’s basically a mutant C minor blues. I’ve never played this with a group; I could see playing it as a straight-ahead blues, playing the spelled-out harmony, 12-bar aharmonic “free improv”, or maybe something modal. I look forward to hearing what a group might do with this.

I’ve thought about pruning a few notes here and there in the interest of making it more up-tempo friendly, but that’s a little way off at the moment.

This is my obligatory rhythm changes tune. Does it need any commentary?

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Sure!

I wrote this summer of ’93, before my last year at college. I originally called it “Rhythmism,” but ended up thinking that was lame; so I changed it to the present title when I was in Cincinnati. At the time, I was temping full-time for work: the mood of the tune struck me as somehow fitting for the life of a temp.

Following in the tradition of jazz waltzes dedicated to a female, I wrote this during my year in Ohio (late ’95/early ’96) after being snubbed by a woman in whom I’d expressed considerable interest (yes, to her; yes I did ask her out). It’s an involved story — though an amusing one, in hindsight — which I’ll avoid retelling; but suffice to say I felt appropriately devastated by her rejection at the time. Such have often been apt conditions for my muse to decide to show up.

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I wanted to write something with “fusiony” and “poignant” changes and a slightly irregular form. I recall the tune grew pretty organically — the quadruplet rhythmic figures included — from this “mandate” combined with the initial four-note motif. It’s one of my favorite of my tunes; though I’ve yet to play it with a group.

As the original woman who served as the impetus for this tune has not been in my life since early in my Ohio residency, beyond hazy and infrequent memories, I decided to rechristen it and dedicate it to my daughter.

[You might observe that I'm a bit fond -- overfond, perhaps -- of major7#5 chords. Dick Grove used to refer to them as "25-cent chords." In a way I see what he means; and maybe they do serve a purpose similar to that served by polysylabs for English majors. At worst, I think, they're good for the musical equivalent of trolling.]

I wrote this tune late ’95/early ’96: I don’t remember exactly when, but it was during my brief stay in Cincinnati, OH. It arose from playing the first two notes harmonized with minor triads (G min – F min), while imagining John Scofield’s growly tone. At the time, I had his group with Joe Lovano, Bill Stewart and Dennis Erwin very much in my head, so perhaps it has a bit of that spirit (though I feel it’s a bit less so on the bridge).

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I think this is one of my more lyrical melodies, but my muse has always excused itself whenever I’ve attempted to put words to it. I welcome any songwriters, budding or experienced, to make a try. Remember that this is licensed under Creative Commons 3.0; so just mention me as the composer, if you have occasion to, and otherwise have at it! If it helps – or more likely doesn’t help! – I’ve always imagined the last 3 notes of the 2nd A section going with “not a-gain”; and whenever I think of the first 4 notes of the first A, I still reflexively think “It’s not ea-sy” (which feels a bit awkward to sing; but maybe that’s a good thing). That’s about all I got.

I don’t properly remember the genesis of this tune, except that I wrote it in 1994 (with some modifications somewhat later). The form on this recording is ABCA (the C section is for blowing): the few times I actually performed this had an extended form as ABCAB [: solo : AB :] ABCA, with solos over some modal 8-bar batches (8 bars of a min7 chord, down a whole step each time, except down a half step to a 7#9 chord for the last 8). I’m not entirely settled on that and will revisit it when I’m in a position to play it with a group again. For that reason, the lead sheet is still a work in progress.

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The tune is named rather arbitrarily: I always liked the name Actual Size for a band; and as I never actually put a band together called that, naming a tune thus was the next best thing.

Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution

[This is the first of a collection of original jazz tunes written over maybe the past two decades. These versions are just one or two choruses, mostly arranged for piano trio, sometimes with horns, written in and played back using Finale, Garritan Personal Orchestra and the Kontakt player.]

This is a fairly standard blues shuffle with a slight twist. It was inspired by “Blues,” a track at the end of Wynton Marsallis’ Black Codes from Underground, the opening notes of which (La-Do) I basically used as the tune’s motif.

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The Story Behind This Tune

A friend had a copy of a book by Dave Liebman: I can’t remember the title, but I recall the subject being somewhat esoteric, at least from a judge-book-by-cover perspective. One day, he lost it and kept asking, “Has anyone seen mah Leebmn?” pronouncing his name in just that way. So I named the tune after him (them?). Voila.

My daughter (almost 5 years old as I write this) really likes this tune; in fact, she’s said more than once that it’s her favorite, even above Green Day’s music, which is her favorite band these days. So it seems apt to post this first.

Lead sheets forthcoming…

This and all other original work on this site available under a Creative Commons 3.0 attribution license, unless otherwise specified.