I’m out of town staying at a friend’s place in Montreal. He’s in France and I’m watching his place. It’s just me and my guitar. A nice combination. It feels great to spend the day (and night) playing. The jazz festival is on and I going to check it out tomorrow. The weather’s supposed to be a little warmer. For the time being I want to enjoy my friend’s space. And his CD collection.

I’ve been digging through a lot of old great recordings. Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Van Morrision. Today I was working on a Little Feat song, Long Distance Love. I’m learning to sing a few songs. Something I don’t do that often, since my voice is not the greatest. My pitch is alright, but the tone and character of my voice only works when there’s heart felt inspiration, and confidence. Then, I’m not bad.

If I could sing like anyone, I’d choose Lowell George. He described himself as “just a white boy singing the blues.” I’d agree with that. Add to that a fabulous slide player. I associate Little Feat with my friend Bruce Reid, a pedal steel player/guitarist, who turned me on to them when I used to live in Montreal. Some of their tunes really speak to me, especially the George tunes. It’s their feel and their attention to the right kinds of song writing details. It’s sad that Lowell George died so young.

This performance, though with a rough sound, captures Lowell’s voice, raw and unaffected.

LONG DISTANCE LOVE
Lowell George

Key of G: 4/4
Intro
G |Bm |Em D/F# |G |Asus |Bm |Bm C |D/F# G |C D/F# |G ||

Verse
G |Bm |Em D/F# |G |Asus |Bm |Bm C |2/4 D/F# |4/4 G     |
Oh, hello, give me missing persons,
They said, “What is it that you need?”
I said, “Oh, I need her so.”
They said, “You`ve got to stop your pleading.”

Chorus
Em D/F# |G |Em D/F# |G Asus |Bm |C|C D/F# |G |C D/F# |G|
But no matter what you do, even pray to heaven above,
All you ever get from her is long distance love.

Verse
Em D/F# |G |D/F# Bm    |Em |D/F# |G |C D/F# |G |
I read the papers, I got the blues
I was so sad to hear the news
Help wanted, but not enough
You know these times are gettin` rough

Chorus
Em Bm |G |Em D/F# |G Asus |Bm |C |C D/F# |G |C D/F# |G |
But no matter what I do, even pray to heaven above
All I ever get from her is long distance love

Solo
Em D/F# |G    |Em D/F# |G Asus |Bm C |D/F# G    |C D/F# |G |

Verse
G |Em    |Asus Bm |Em |Asus |Bm |Bm C |2/4 D/F# |4/4 G    |
You know her toes they were so pretty
And her laugh so sweet
I wonder does she know
Does she know she hurt me so

Chorus
Em D/F# |G |Em D/F# |G Asus |Bm |C |C D/F# |G |C D/F# |G|
C D/F# |G    |
Cause no matter what I do, even pray to heaven above
All I seem to get from her is long distance love

Written in 1945, les feuilles mortes was a popular French song, with lyrics by Jacques Prévert, that was translated to English by Johnny Mercer a few years later. I found this nice a cappella version (I’m not sure who the singer is, but thanks to Jim Clark for the animated video). The English version sung by Nat King Cole became the title track to Robert Aldrich’s melodrama from 1956. (It stars Joan Crawford and Canada’s Lorne Greene. It’s not one of Aldrich’s best films but it’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of his work.)

IMPROVISING ON A TUNE

There is so much to learn in this single performance. The way the melody is played by Miles Davis, the contrast between Miles and Cannonball Adderly’s improvisational styles, and the arrangement are good places to start. Phrasing, tone, color, use of space and time: this is a masterpiece in subtley and sophistication.

I’m including Peter Simms’ chart for the tune that oscillates between G major and E minor. It’s not in the key of the Cannonball version (they play in Bb major or G minor). Try to transpose the chart into the key of G minor: all notes up a minor 3rd or down a major 6th.

G = Bb, A = C, B = D, C = Eb, D = F, E = G, F# = A.

Am7 = Cm7, D7 = F7, …

Then, learn the melody and try to play it along with the recording. Then, try to pick out some of the notes from Miles Davis’ solo. His spacious approach is much more accessible than Adderly’s faster, bebop style.

Here’s a wonderful duet for thumb piano and synthesizer. Lead by Joe Zawinul (1932 – 2007), I love the flow of the groove between these two players.

I been listening to a lot of Jaco Pastorius lately and it’s led me back to my love of Weather Report. I love their early, more experimental music, but I also love the way Zawinul’s compositional approach evolved through the course of his collaborations with Wayne Shorter and into the Zawinul Syndicate: long rhythmic pieces flowing through time revealing trinkets of tunes and splashes of color and virtuosity.

No one is like him. He is missed.

When arranging a piece of music choosing the right instrumentation is key to shaping the sound. The original version of Caravan was born out of Juan Tizol’s concept of the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s sound, a big band. Compare the different arrangements, noticing the overall effects of instrument choice. Another aspect of the difference you may notice is how the players solo over the chord changes.

Now if you add lyrics to the melody and hear it arranged by Nat King Cole you’ve got something very different but the essence of the tune is not lost – I would say it’s enhanced.

CARAVAN lyrics

Night and stars a-bove that shine so bright

The myst-’ry of their fa-ding light

That shines up-on our ca-ra-van

Sleep up-on my shoulder as we creep

Across the sand so I may keep

The mem-’ry of our ca-ra-van

This is so ex-ci-ting

You are so in-vi-ting

Rest-ing in my arms

As I thrill to the ma-gic charms

Of you beside me here be-neath the blue

My dream of love is com-ing true

With-in our des-ert ca-ra-van!

I’m working on a great book I recently got, A Portrait of Jaco. It’s a well-written and accurate collection of solos transcribed by Sean Malone that focuses on Jaco’s ability to improvise.

When I was starting to play music in Montreal Jaco was in everyone’s mind. Even if you didn’t like the music he was making, or it wasn’t your style (and half the musicians I was hanging around with were not into Weather Report), he was respected. I heard him with Pat Metheny on Bright Size Life, Joni Mitchell’s Heijira, and his solo record – the one with a closeup of him. All of these records became favorites – not to mention the Weather Report albums.

I had the great fortune to see him play a number of times with Weather Report. He was an incredibly dynamic personality on stage.

Today I found this interview and I thought I’d share it with you.

RHYTHM is a movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions. While RHYTHM most commonly applies to sound, such as music or spoken language, it may also refer to visual presentation, as “timed movement through space.”

Put in simple musical terms, RHYTHM is the flow of a composition through time. It is found in melody, harmony, structure, and texture.

One of my earliest influences as a guitar player was John McLaughlin. More than anything the rhythm in his music captivated me. I didn’t understand it but I felt it and wanted to figure out how it worked. Here’s a recent video of John McLaughlin and his group, Remember Shakti. I saw Shakti play five times when they were first together. Each concert was fabulous.

Indian music has had a place in my heart since I was a teenager. I went on to study South Indian music with Trichy Sankaran, who was teaching at York University when I was doing my undergraduate degree in jazz performance, and composition.

HARMONY is the simultaneous use of pitches (tones, notes), or chords. Chords are a big part of a guitar player’s world.

The guitar, like a percussion instrument, has lots of attack. The acoustic guitar has a quick decay and little sustain. In many styles of music the guitar plays an accompaniment role for the instrument carrying the tune, like a singer or a saxophone. In this role a guitarist is expected to play chords, or supply the harmony. The song I am featuring in this post is by a great Canadian guitarist/composer, Bruce Cockburn. Moment of Truth is an instrumental piece for the steel string guitar, electric bass and drum set has virtually no melody. It’s all chords and rhythm.

Below Bruce Cockburn explains his unusual thumb technique in a one minute lesson on If I had a Rockey Launcher.

Bruce Cockburn plays If I had a Rockey Launcher.

In music, TEXTURE is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition, thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece.

If you compare the two versions of Britten’s composition, you get a feeling for how texture can effect, or illicit different feelings from, a piece of music. The a cappella choir helps to create the setting for the piece, “in the bleak mid-winter.” Whereas, the version for boy soprano and piano is more directly expressive of lyrical meaning. To compare two other versions, see my post MELODY.

Corpus Christi Carol

Britten

A MELODY (a tune, a voice, a line) is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity. Below are two versions of the same melody, one sung by Jeff Buckley and the other instrumental by Jeff Beck. The Buckley version of this resonant tune carries with it the emotional connections of the lyrics. With a simple electric guitar accompaniment in a well produced recording the essence of the song comes across. Jeff Beck was inspired by Buckley’s version and made an instrumental version of it below. Without the lyrics you’re lead to in a different way. Compare these versions to the others I’ve included in my post TEXTURE.

He bare her up, he bare her down
He bare her into an orchard ground

Lully lullay, lully lullay
The falcon hath borne my mate away

And in that orchard there was a hall
That was hanged with purple and pall
And in that hall there was a bed
And it was hanged with gold so red

Lully lullay, lully lullay
The falcon hath borne my mate away

And on this bed there lyeth a knight
His wound is bleeding day and night
By his bedside kneeleth a maid
And she weepeth both night and day

Lully lullay, lully lullay
The falcon hath borne my mate away

By his bedside standeth a stone
Corpus Christi written thereon