Look who's Bartok-in': folk song reinvention from Bela Bartok to Chick Corea and beyond

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I recently watched a PBS documentary called ‘The American Epic Sessions’,  which features the producer and guitarist Jack White resurrecting a Western Electric recording lathe from the early twentieth century for […]

That Thing You Said: a line on the changes to "What Is This Thing Called Love"

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‘That Thing You Said’ is a bebop-style melody line that I composed on the chord changes to Cole Porter’s ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’.  (Thanks to jazz singer Linda Oats for coming with the tune’s title after […]

'Silverbird' - a tune on the changes to 'There Is No Greater Love'

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‘Silverbird’ is a melody line I composed on the chord progression of the jazz standard ‘There Is No Greater Love’.  This line is meant to demonstrate key aspects of the bebop melodic style, including its balan […]

The neighborhood hang and the history hang (including 'Monk, Bud and Elmo', a tune on the changes of 'In Walked Bud')

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Above: Jack Teagarden, Dixie Bailey, Mary Lou Williams, Tadd Dameron, Hank Jones, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Orent around the piano at Mary Lou Williams’ apartment / Below: the same group in a different order around […]

A Wrinkle in Time: Joe Davidian's solo on 'Straight, No Chaser' (State of The Blues, part 3)

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Joe Davidian is a highly talented jazz pianist and native Vermonter who is currently living and playing in New York City. I’m proud to say that I watched Joe grow up as a player in the Vermont jazz scene, a […]

Root Systems, Part 1: Join the ii-V-I Club

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The exercise above combines one-octave major scales using a ‘seven up and down’ pattern with a progression that could be called the two-bar ii-V-I or ‘short’ ii-V-I.   Briefly, a major ii-V-I progression is a s […]

Music of Hope in Action (a meditation for Martin Luther King Day)

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This is the text of a talk I gave on January 21st at All Souls Interfaith Gathering’s Music and Spirit service.  The service also included performances of the music discussed in the talk.  In an issue p […]

Sonatinas and other two-sided stories

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The word ‘Sonatina’ is used to describe a variety of pieces for the piano.  Some of these pieces, such as the first movements of Muzio Clementi’s Sonatinas Op 36 numbers 1 and 2, the first movement of Haydn’ […]

'Making the changes' on short forms, part 1: Liza Jane

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‘Liza Jane’ is a North American folk tune that is a standard in the repertoire of New Orleans jazz.  It has been performed by musicians from pianist Ramsey Lewis to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.  It is an example o […]

'Making the changes' on short forms, part 2: Polly Wolly Doodle (a musical cousin of Iko Iko)

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I was going to make this a post about the New Orleans standard tune ‘Iko Iko’, but then realized it is a copyrighted tune, so I decided to go with ‘Polly Wolly Doodle’, which uses the same chord progression and is […]

'Making the changes' on short forms, Part 3: When The Saints Go Marching In

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This arrangement is inspired by Louis Armstrong’s 1938 version of the tune.  It can be practiced along with that recording by listening to the spoken introduction (in which Armstrong introduces himself as […]

Terry Town Line - a melodic line based on 'I Could Write A Book'

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‘Terry Town Line’ is a bop line I composed based on the changes to ‘I Could Write A Book’ by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.  The tune is dedicated in part to my mother, Roddy O’Neil Cleary, who for a number o […]

Talking and taking the words away: a visit from Stefon Harris (The State of the Blues, Part 2)

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In a recent master class with my students at UVM, Stefon Harris talked about the connection between language and melody in an improvised solo.  While discussing the performance of a student group, he said: ‘The de […]

Harmonic Moss, Part 5: The 'B' form voicing of the minor ii-V-i progression

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The voicing which Phil Degreg calls the ‘B form’ of the minor ii V i progression starts with a clear demonstration of why Thelonious Monk referred to the minor 7 flat five chord as a ‘minor sixth chord with the s […]

Harmonic Moss, Part 4: the 'A' form voicing of the minor ii-V-i progression

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The previous posts in the ‘Harmonic Moss’ series dealt with various voicings, scale outlines and various melodic patterns for the major ii-V-I progression. Although I have another post, ‘What Is This Scale Calle […]

Simple Paris Dancers: a bop-style rhythm changes

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‘Simple Paris Dancers’ is a through-composed bebop-style melody line on the ‘Rhythm Changes’ progression. ‘Rhythm Changes’ refers to the chord changes from the George and Ira Gershwin tune ‘I Got Rhythm’, whic […]

Everybody's Inside Blues: 'making the changes' in a blues line

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‘Everybody’s Inside Blues’ is a through-composed melody line on the twelve-bar ‘jazz blues’ progression.  A concert chart for the tune is below; here’s a link to a recording of it from a gig I played with guitari […]

You Are Here: a melodic study on 'All The Things You Are'

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‘You Are Here’ is a tune I composed based on the chord changes of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein tune ‘All The Things You Are’.  ‘All The Things’ has been recorded by many important jazz players including […]

Harmonic Moss, Part 2: The 'B form' voicing of the major ii-V-I (including a scale outline and various melodic patterns)

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The ‘B form’ voicing of the major ii-V-I prominently features the 9th degree of the minor 7th chord which functions as the ii.  I find it a useful exercise to apply this voicing to tunes which both use major […]

Harmonic Moss, Part 1: The 'A form' voicing of the major ii-V-I (including a scale outline and related melodic patterns)

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This series of blog posts is titled ‘Harmonic Moss’ as it deals with rootless chord voicings, and moss is sometimes referred to as a rootless plant.  This is not the first time I’ve come across moss in reference […]