John Coltrane's "Brazilia"

[bwv1005]

A thread in Musician 2 Musician prompted the formation of this new forum. I'd like to propose a topic. What standards provide sustained interest for you, and why? I'd like to explore the subtle mysteries of some classic songs and composers, and take them apart in depth. Consider Harold Arlen, who wrote songs like "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "Last Night When We Were Young." Incredibly sophisticated songs, which sustain on many levels.

mo

p.s. this thread has the wrong title, but I don't know how to fix it.

[lorenzini]

I believe you can fix that in "Thread Tools" in the panel on the upper right corner of your post.

EDIT: That was incorrect. Just go to the EDIT button and choose Go Advanced option. Rewrite what the topic from there.

[gennation]

Night and Day just keeps hitting me in the heart. Whether it's Frank singing it in a few different styles, Bill and Stan just having at it, others versions I've heard, and especially me playing over it...that tune is an essential piece to me. I think I listen to it to it a few times a day.

[EdByrne]

A thread in Musician 2 Musician prompted the formation of this new forum. I'd like to propose a topic. What standards provide sustained interest for you, and why? I'd like to explore the subtle mysteries of some classic songs and composers, and take them apart in depth. Consider Harold Arlen, who wrote songs like "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "Last Night When We Were Young." Incredibly sophisticated songs, which sustain on many levels.

mo

p.s. this thread has the wrong title, but I don't know how to fix it.

Great ideas, bwc1005!

Why don't you pick a tune first? H A would be great. Maybe even a tune you love, but haven't analyzed yet. This will be very enjoyable and revealing. Maybe we'll all compare analyses of the same tune?

I'm really happy that you joined the forum!

[El Barrio]

My two favorites would have to be "Invitation" and "Blue Bossa." They're both regular songs in Joe Henderson's recorded repertoire, and I'm a huge Joe Henderson fan. I love the way he plays over them - his ideas are so fresh! I've heard that "Invitation" is often done as a straight-8ths tune, but the only versions of it that I've heard, Joe's, are swung, and that's how I play it.

I just love the feel of the chords in both songs.

I don't learn many jazz tunes - at the moment, I'm primarily working on classical playing (piano). But hearing Joe play these songs prompted me to learn them immediately.

[groovy mcgee]

Any analysis of "Nardis" would be nice... I just started playing it, and now I love it!

[jazzfingers19]

Groove...if it helps I'd like to plug Ed's Method for playing over some tunes. I used it for Narids. I basically did like he describes and packed the melody notes into a pitch collection which I use to play over that A section. Seems to work well for me. I also sub that E Major for an E-Maj9 frequently.

I know it is not an analysis; but worth a try when playing on it.

[Mr_Tom]

Hi everyone

Delighted to see the the continued interest in analyzing pieces. Actually I happen also to be learning Blue Bossa and was also thinking of this piece to suggest here- so an easy choice to 'second'..

still working on GFI! :gavel:

Tom

[jazzbluescat]

If we're taking a poll/voting on what tune to start on, I go with Nardis too.

My biggest objection to Nardis is I don't like, or can't make the damn thing resolve like I hear. E minor just doesn't resolve to me. It sounds impertinent, not exactly wrong, but not exactly the right chord for that particular place. And then again, when I sometimes get lucky and do get it to resolve(or imagine it), it's too subtle a resolution, not decisive enough, maybe wishful thinking :).

[SamLeak]

If anyone has anything to say on But Not For Me, that would be useful (I'm writing an essay on it). I've been transcribing the coltrane favourite things version, and I have a recording of John Mauceri conducting Girl Crazy using as authentic materials as they have been able to attain (they have piano vocal scores made from manuscripts which were rented out at the time by the Tams-Witmark Music Library in New York - which were originally provided by Girl Crazy producers Alex A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley. They also seem to have used the Tams-Witmark orchestra parts. They decided that the assumed reliability of these scores is not actually the case, and therefore looked further. They found piano-vocal scores by copyists employed on the original production and sheet music for the 7 songs that were issued during the original run (including But Not For Me)). This should be a useful point of comparison. I'm going to transcribe the harmony off this recording and compare it to a jazz rendition at the time, and the coltrane one (which obviously has radically changed harmony). I may look at a recording between these two as well - maybe miles in 1954. Does anyone have any suggestions for the early recording by the way?

Yeah - so anything you have to say about this tune - I'm all ears!

Sam