There Will Always Be Another Scale: Bitonality in Woody Shaw’s Improvisation “If it sounds good, it is good.” – Duke Ellington Amongst the numerous goals of a jazz improviser, perhaps the most vital is to challenge people’s preconceived expectations of what sounds good. Any trained musician can play a blues scale over a blues progression, […]
Best Albums of 2019 I already ran down my favorites of the decade, but I didn’t want 2019 to feel left out. 10) CJ Run, Here for Now – Chicago-based rapper CJ Run has a unique voice – literally, as they were born of Afro-Caribbean parentage in Germany but raised in the UK. […]
Best Albums of the 2010’s I heard somewhere (actually, I’m pretty sure it was Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!) that a person’s tastes in music stop evolving once they turn 30. I surpassed that milestone in the middle of this decade – at last tally, I am 34 – but I feel comfortable saying […]
Best Albums of 2018 Is it that time of year already? 12) Big Heart Machine, Big Heart Machine – Produced by Darcy James Argue, the self-titled debut from Brian Krock’s postmodern jazz big band Big Heart Machine certainly bears strong resemblance to Argue’s angular, rhythmic, and symphonic approach to big band writing. Anchored […]
Best Albums of 2017 If you like genre-bending folk music or introspective dance/R&B, have I got a list for you: 12) St. Vincent, Masseduction – Annie Clark continues to solidify her reputation as one the premiere personas in music, but what makes the songs on Masseduction memorable are the ways in which they […]
Best Albums of 2016 The uniting factor among the albums that made my Best of 2016 list is that every one of them actively seeks to blur boundaries of genre. Devoted readers of my Best of lists will not be surprised by this, as musical curiosity and willingness to infuse different styles are some […]
Best Albums of 2015 One thing I noticed as I reviewed my Best-of list for 2014 was that several of the albums were notably brief. My #1 album from last year (Sleepy Kitty’s Projection Room) clocked in at a tight 37 minutes. This year – not so much. My top 3 albums this year […]
On its surface, Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” seems like an odd choice to include in an analytic series devoted to the IV chord, not to mention to devote an entire entry towards. The song does have a couple IV chords (two, though the section in which they appear returns later in the song), but […]
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the music of Sleepy Kitty, no need to feel ashamed. They have gone on national tours, but they are mostly a cult favorite in the Midwest. This is particularly true in their adopted hometown of St. Louis, where they have received glowing accolades from the beloved institution […]
In Part I of this series, I examined the secondary plagal progression, which is a unique way in which rock/pop composers have extended the established sound of a IV-I plagal progression. Another common technique that demonstrates the evolution of the IV chord is the incorporation of tonal instability through its presence in a harmonic progression. […]