Too Many Interests, Too Little Time

Here’s a rough take of an original, Room for One:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The tune had its genesis in my Jazz Composition classes at The Grove School: they were part of the Composing and Arranging Program, but I took them between starting CAP and finishing my guitar term, as I had all the harmony requirements done (and when I took CAP, having done composition allowed me some room for ensembles and improv classes).

The composition process just started with that minor 9 chord and the first two notes of the melody, and grew from there. I don’t think I ever finished it for hand-in as a completed assignment, but liked it enough to finish later, as I digested all the harmonic and compositional knowledge I got at Grove. I recall the bridge never being satisfactory, not until a few years later when I was at Westmont. I played it as part of my Faculty Recital, pretty much as it is now, though the last motif in the bridge descended instead of ascended.

A couple of years after that, I wrote lyrics for it; which I plan to publish here, once I get one rough spot I’ve never been happy with ironed out. Maybe I’ll look for a singer who can help me do a decent demo. I tried it myself, but… meh.

While I’m happy with this take, I’d really like to polish up the feel and phrasing (some subtle things that bug me). I’d also like to explore alternate voicings and reharmonization, but those are features of the perpetual work-in-progress.

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.

I just added a category “Creative Commons 3.0″ in which I’ll put all relevant posts (i.e., posts with original content) to help me avoid having to stuff boiler plate everywhere. Hopefully it’ll increasingly go without saying that CC3 applies to all my work; but this seems like the kind of thing it’s prudent to make explicit and over which to beat a dead horse.

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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.