I like that bridge Linwood....got any music?

Just tried the Marantz again....I don't think it likes Fridays.

I was eager to hear SK's Mad Scientist take... I even enabled popups... but only thing I got was a truckload of adware and no music...

BTW - my turn again. Here is again the sheet for my reharm of Cole Porter's "Easy to Love".

And here is a solo piano rendition of the theme. I'm not sure I like it, it's a bit rigid, but it delineates the harmonies at least.
I played a little intro, but I think it's clear enough when the theme comes in.




Thanks sk, and no need to explain - it was all said in good humour.





AAaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

That's nice Carlo.

You guys with your digital pianos don't have the same problems recording that I'm having right now.

Totally cool, adventurous reharm of "Easy To Love".

Now I just get a feeling that not many bar patrons would be found singing along with that version. I have a few good 'clear the room' pieces myself.

Years ago, a band I was in discovered that if we played "Ceora" loosely at a certain medium tempo, it would always clear the room - every time. That also fit our joke rule of thumb that if there are less people at the end of the night than when you started, you must be doing something right.

Dave, sorry you're having problems with the Marantz. I'll try again tomorrow to get that mad scientist thing up. But it's tacky anyway, so no 'great loss' if Divshare, in its wisdom, continues to reject it.

Some of my favorite reharms

"Monk for the masses" - if it leads people to check out Monk's stuff, some will think Monk is playing it wrong.

True, it's funny to check out the comments below some of the Youtube videos of Hans Groiner. Many people saying 'Man this guy sucks' without getting the joke.

For some reason, he left this one out:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4080438-ca8

No one under 18 allowed to listen.

Not *that* guy again, please... I understand it's a joke, but he just whips my stomach...

I'm still recovering from that Johnny Bowtie that Linwood linked to...

You seem to have no feel for real art whatsoever

Like this. Bob Dylan goes Smooth Funk. I think the song's worth much more after the treatment

Okay, I also dug out some notes I made for a reharm of the Gershwin tune "How long has this been going on". Someone told me about those wicked bitonal slash chords like B/Bb, so I stuffed some of them into the tune... Hear my plastic jazz trio...

I absolutely cannot get Esnips to work. The quest for online hosting continues.

the copyright stuff? I've got the feeling they've got some algorythm there that analyzises the structure of the mp3... I tried to upload something, was denied and gave the file another name. It didn't work until I heavily edited the file (meaning cutting stuff and fading the end).
DivShare ain't working for me, so I'm not gonna recommend it to you :). There's a site called rapidshare, but IIRC they're pretty mean to... I think you can only download a file 5 times an hour or so. So if five people listen to it, the sixth one has got to wait

Edit: Of course I could try to upload it onto my esnips acc, but I'm not sure it'll work

For $7.95 a month you can get ad free and up to 33% load time on Divshare.....I have no clue if this is a good price or worth it, as opposed to free.

Here's a possible coda for you "sensitive/sentimental" types for "Over the Rainbow".

Rubato:

http://www.divshare.com/download/4084029-e9c

Hey, sensitive and sentimental are *not* the same!
However, I agree that your "Over the Raimbow" coda is both.

Ok, so I've found a bunch of 20-year old stuff, among which I chose this half-sabotage of Gershwin's "Our Love is Here to Stay". (The score is too messy to show)
Imagine James P. Johnson meeting Keith Jarrett at late night, they're both completely drunk and start arguing...

Believe it or not, I used to play this with a singer.

Our love is here to stay

Almost forgot....

HAPPY EASTER to all crazy 'harmonic' heads!


(In case you're wondering, yes, I've had a few.... )

Happy Easter to you, Carlo and everyone. That's a funny Love Is Here To Stay.

OK..sensitive OR sentimental.

I like your "Here to stay" alot. I love pedal stuff.

Oh yeah...Happy Easter fellow deranged de-rrangers.

What are some techniques that you guys use when you're looking at something to spice up a tune? For instance... you can see where a melody is going and what chord it's going to land on and you reharm those pickup notes. Just for an easy example, lets say Misty. You see a Bb7 written and the notes in the melody Bb G to D with a EbM7 chord symbol. So my target is the EbM7 with the D in the melody. So I have two notes to deal with, Bb and G. To find roots for them, the easiest thing is to just go chromatically into the EbM7. I want the roots to move contrary to the melody(that's not carved in stone), so that gives me Db to D to the Eb. So this time, I'm gonna play:

LH Db Ab F RH Eb G Bb

LH D A F RH C E G

LH Eb Bb F RH G A D


I went chromatically into the Eb, but I could have used whole steps, m3s, M3s, 4ths, 5ths intervals to move the roots into the Eb and picked my scales containing the melody notes. You can obviously do this with more than just 2 pick up notes and with any tune and it'll always work. What are some other things that you guys have at your disposal.

Gotta post and run - in between gigs here. Here's a mad scientist Rainy Day. Not the one I first put up, which must have been corrupted at Divshare. This one has electrical distortion for a few seconds - just consider it an inadvertent nod to Varese. It's musically stupid and doesn't deserve better. The first version was better but it's GONE.

http://www.divshare.com/download/4084326-5cd

Carlo, I stuck more chromatic chords on the bridge of "Our Love Is Here To Stay" - heh, for fun. http://www.divshare.com/download/4084329-d31 Kinda funny. I like the way your voicings probably force a healthy conflict of emotion on the listener, having to analyze each moment to decide what they're feeling. As it should be.

While we're on mad scientists, here's a reharm of "If I Only Had A Brain" - this by my baritone sax buddy Glenn Wilson. We've done this together a million times, but I'm not on this track. He took the tune and added Giant Step's changes (actually Countdown changes) and a riff from Seven Steps To Heaven. So it's entitled "If I Only Had 7 Giant Brains." http://www.jazzmaniac.com/FRBrain.mp3

Linwood, I go about 99% by ear on the decisions I make on voicings. So I'll have to give your post more thought when I get home.

I can accept "I do it all by ear" as a valid answer.


Just listened the the mad rainy day. You ARE mad. Great, SK as usual.

I got my Marantz working...I can hear the drive spinning on playback w/ phones..not sure if it comes across here.

Coda to Over the Rainbow
http://www.divshare.com/download/4085129-71a

Skylark
http://www.divshare.com/download/4085128-f03

This is what I get for $7.77 a month - http://www.powweb.com/powweb/index.bml
tell them kevinanker.net sent you

That is sweet madness, especially as I just transcribed some of the solos by Carl Fontana over "IIOHABrain" (I play trombone, too *hides and runs*) and got those West Coast licks in my mind. Those double time moments crack me up, as the original idea of the tune

SK, Dave, and Marino, thanks for all you're suggestions concerning OTR, I will work out a new version of that tune, as it's now lifted to a higher level

Linwood, I don't think that is new to YOU , but I like to harmonize some of those notes before the "landing" as the #11 of the chord, so if you have e.g. "G" in the melody, put a Db7 (#11) underneath it. Also works nice with 13, but I prefer the sharp eleven. As a nice effect I also like to take a chorus of those tunes and put them in the parallel minor tonality. Works out fine sometimes.
my 2 weak american $ cents

No, it's not really new to me, but I'll still find roots that way all the time. It will take me places that my ear wont take me most of the time. Like with the same approach, it might make me think, hey maybe I'll try some kind of polytonal mumbo jumbo and using the same roots go:



but now I'm seeing a Bb triad with 1 on top and subbing 2 for 3 over a Gb triad w/5 in the bass to a C triad over a E triad but I'll sub -7 for 1 to a D triad over an Eb and I'll sub 2 for 3 again. It's a good way for me to find places to go. Guys like SK, Marino, Dave, and Beeboss can do that without thinkin' about it and just go there. Me....I've still gotta think about it, try and understand what's happenin', get my ear use to it, and under the fingers. I've gotta a ways to go. Fun stuff; this music.

This is the $10million question, and it's difficult to talk about it without being at least a bit generic... I'll try.

I've tried to assimilate many styles and techniques during the years; I tend to study one particular technique heavily during a period of time, until I feel I have grasped it, more or less. There techniques include '30 harmonies and songwriting, bop changes, advanced hard bop substitutions, latin stuff, pentatonic/quartal/modal harmony, Coltrane changes, non-functional harmony (post-modal), Miles' semi-free stuff, and so on. Also, having studied classical composition didn't hurt. Plus, I've been writing and arranging constantly.

This training gives you two very important things... freedom of choice, and a good ear.
Hopefully, you reach a point where all creative musical actions (composition, reharm, arranging, improvising) are approached the same way; you imagine an overal 'sound' in your head/ear, and you just go reaching for the right kind of chords and voicings to achieve it.

Sometimes, I write with a particular instrumentation in mind (say, piano trio, quartet with sax, etc.) or even a specific group. Other times, it's just a lot of fun to write in style ("I want it to sound like Hank Jones"), or maybe you have commitments to do so. Your only obligation is to the music itself; it has to sound coherent and satisfying into the limits of the style.

Sorry for the logorrheic/didactic tone... I guess you've waken up the teacher in me. I know you don't need to be reminded of those principles.... but if you like, I could post a couple of specific examples.

I'm also far behing with checking the guys' stuff...
I'll be back in a while.

To add a bit to the the previous post... I've noticed that over the years, my harmonizations of standards have become simpler. Clearer too, I hope...

OK finally I got to listen the 'Stormy' version of 'Rainy Day'. What to say, other that things like "SK, you're a super player", and "SK, you are nuts"...

I also tried your alternative "Here to stay" bridge... it seems to make the song more coherent perhaps, but maybe more obsessive too... in other words, I like it.

Dave - it's evident to me that "Skylark" is a special song for you. I love the overall mood; the basic harmonies don't sound too different from the original to my ears, but you seem to have done a lot of work on voicings, passing chords and turnarounds.

I did a series of concerts on Cole Porter a while ago, where I treated his tunes all the way from 'light' reharm to totally ridiculous... but there's a song, "Everything I Love" (one of my favorites), which I didn't dare touch. I left every one of the original chords, doing just a bit of work to personalize the voicings. You don't mess with masterworks.

Thanks Carlo. As you can tell, I wasn't seriously playing Rainy Day there. But fortunately, it didn't last long! To even find anything nice to say about it shows what a good guy you are.


Linwood, that is a vital question you asked, what you decide to change in the music you're playing and how to voice it. My generic, unacademic reply promises to be boring:

I don't look at reharm any differently than improvisation. For me, the motivation for a reharm is the personal mood or concept you wish to convey. If I don't think I can express myself any better than the original chords, then I'd want to play it verbatim. But I gravitate to music I can find myself in.

I rarely sit down with the idea of reharming a song (an old tune in a new package) anymore, because I find arrangements limiting. Even when I do, when I play it, I still find myself trying get beyond the 'arrangement'.

It's not "all by ear" for me, although mostly. Not to sound weird there, but I think that's common among musicians to play beyond analysis, once the language has become part of how you speak. IOW, I don't mathematically calculate what the next voicing will be (or stop playing and refer to a manual for the next set of chords. ) But sometimes I'll 'plot' an extended cycle of fifths in advance, or choose a voicing I want to hear for effect. And decide where to go next and how to get there, just like you and every good player does.

I like surprise more than anything, so I'll veer away from 'expected' tones to find something different. Or if it becomes too dense and chordal, I may stress single notes or space more than chords. I have a short musical attention span for repetition, I think partly because people in general have become more conditioned that way. In popular music, repetition is still often the hook of the song, which condenses a whole song down to a single idea for me.

So I always subconsciously ask myself "what is needed at this moment?" and if something is already being covered in the music, I'll seek out something else to play. Whatever is missing, whether it's a texture or even silent space, is what I try to consider. If a funk beat is the dominant aspect of a song, I'll establish that groove and then move on to peripheral solutions of 'what else can happen'.

Then you're no longer being a traditional player in a traditional style, because you're supplying something that was missing. Like if a song is swinging hard for a while, I may play against the swing. No one idea or groove will get better and better past a certain point until it needs to move on. So my approach to improvising and playing all fits into the same strategy for reharm.

Pardon the wordiness - sheesh. This may not be very helpful, but for the purpose of this forum, it's the most basic way I could explain it.

SK

Just got off the phone w/ Tom Garvin, he said to say a big hello...we were talking about you.
I've got family over right now...I'll tell you about it later.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I enjoy reading your takes on how you play and what you want out of a tune. You guys inspire me. I feel like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets when he tells Helen Hunt, "you make me wanna be a better man."