Joe Zawinul was born in Vienna, Austria on July 7th, 1932. Zawinul`s “first instrument was accordian”(encyclopedia.com). He took lessons as a child at the “Vienna Conservatory, where he studied classical piano, clarinet and violin” (Curt Bianchi). in 1958 Joe “applied for a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music” and he got in to Berklee. He immigrated to America in 1959(Bianchi). He has played with many jazz greats like Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Wayne Shorter. He is known for having an open mind to new sounds and embracing electronic instruments.
Arguably Joe Zawinul’s most popular tune, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, was written while he was in Cannonball Adderley’s band. In the recording Zawinul plays an electric piano (sounds kinda like a rhodes) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4rXEKtC8iY) . The tune itself has a really strong gospel influence, which is incredible seeing as Zawinul’s background is classical music. The tune has a really straight forward, conjunct melody and the A section is mostly I-IV cadences with a few V of IV cadences peppered throughout the A section (bars1,3,5,7). The melody in the A section is mostly chord tones with at least one 13th in every bar (bars 1-8). Not indicated on the lead sheet is that the A section is is played at about half the volume of the B section. There is a crescendo from the start of the B section to the end of it. The melody of the B Section is almost all chord tones. The harmony in the B section is similar to the A section because it is mostly I-IV cadences with a few V of IV cadences. The harmony of the B section changes in bar 14 when it hits the V chord. The last 7 bars has more variety in chords and they are all diatonic. The last two bars have some Vi-V cadences. The form of this tune is neat because its a 60 bar form. Its a 20 bar section that repeats 3 times. The many I-IV cadences really lend themselves to a bluesy sound. The next tune is In a Silent Way. This is the title song of the Miles Davis album In a Silent Way. The version that this paper will look at is the one off of Joe Zawinul’s 1971 Zawinul album (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqyepMYvUac) . The thing that immediately sticks out looking at the lead sheet is Zawinul’s use of slash chords. Over half of the tunes chords are slash chords. many of the chords over the the 7th, or extensions such as the the 9th, 13th or 11th (bars 1,2,5, 17,18,19). This creates really cool sounds that Zawinul uses to his full advantage. The song is played as a ballad in a rubato style. The melody has lots of space. there are a couple of motifs in the melody. The first one is the opening 3 bars. There is a dwonward leap of a fourth then up a fifth. The motif comes back in the last 3 bars of the A section and serves as a bookend. The second motif is in the 8th and 9th bars. It is a syncopated ascending motif. It appears again slightly changed in the next system in bars 13 and 14. The B section is a solo for 2 choruses over a stripped down harmony of the A section. The melody overall is interesting because there is not much V7-I movement. The second bar and the last 2 bars have a B/C# that goes to an E5. The form is interesting again because the parts with the repeats are only 17 bars long. Man In the Green Shirt is from Zawinul’s time in weather report. The tune has a rock/funk sound to it. This tune again has an odd form, Its 65 bars long. The entire A-section with the exception of the first and second bars in the fourth system (which are an F) are over a Bb. This creates a modal section which really seems to work nicely over the rock rhythm section. There is a change in the B section and there is a neat section where there is a C- for 8 bars and Wayne Shorter solos over it on the recording. The C section harmony has a little more variety. It consists of mostly I-IV-V-I chord movement. He adds in a Vi on the first bar of the 9th system to change it up a bit.The melody is doubled on soprano sax and synth. There are a lot of 9ths as held notes in the melody. The melody ends on the b7 of E7sus, which is cool sound for a last note. The solos are open solos over an E7sus4. Zawinul gives the soloist a modal setting. The fact that the solos are open is cool because it lets the soloist really experiment with phrasing and ideas. The last tune is also from Zawinul’s time in Weather Report, Cannonball. The form in this tune is really long aswell. The lead sheet has an intro written in as well. The intro has a few time change shifts. The melody for the song switches instruments a few times in the recording. The bass, sax and synth all get some time on melody. The melody is mostly chord tones with extensions decorating notes. There are some slash chords in this song but very few are over extensions, like in In a Silent Way. This song also has more solos written into the form. It ends on a vamp and fades out. Zawinul has a very eclectic style of writing. Being able to write something so gospel-like as mercy, mercy, mercy and then a few years later being able to write something like In a Silent Way. He does have some common characteristics in his compositions. He seems to favour odd forms. None of the tunes I selected had a traditional 32 bar form. He seems like he does not really think about it when he writes. This is refreshing, he is pushing the boundaries. He seems to like I-IV cadences. Theres not too much V-I harmony in these tunes either. His works in Weather Report have sections written into the arrangement to solo on. His tunes written in weather report seem to suggest that he likes playing in a modal style because both Cannonball and Man in The Green Shirt sections where there is one chord to play over for an extended amount of time. This also probably has to do with how jazz was moving towards more of a modal style at the time when these tunes where written as well. He pushed the boundaries of jazz and created something totally his own. Sources Bianchi, Curt. “Joe, Zawinul, A Short Biography”. 2008-2014. zawinulonline.org. web http://www.zawinulonline.org/joe-zawinul-a-short-biography/ “Zawinul, Joe”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. Web. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Joe_Zawinul.aspx Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. Cannonball Adderley Jazz Quintet. 1966. youtube.com. Nov.15 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4rXEKtC8iY In a Silent Way. Joe Zawinul. Zawinul. 1971. youtube.com. Jul.16 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqyepMYvUac The Man in the Green Shirt. Joe Zawinul. Tale spinnin’. Weather Report. youtube.com. Apr. 21 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-sr3vczKFk Cannonball. Joe Zawinul. Black Market. Weather Report. youtube.com. Jul.8 ,2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7XwwcvjUFg
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Coltrane is one of maybe a handful of jazz musicians that the general public has heard of. This is for good reason. He had relatively short career but revolutionized the music. His technical proficiency on tenor and soprano sax was unparalleled for many years. He is still many peoples musical role model. He made the free jazz movement legitimate and made dissonance more accessible to the general public with tunes like “my favorite things” and “Greensleeves”. After Coltrane kicked his drug habit, He became very interested in spirituality. Coltrane was a introvert, “a reluctant interviewee”(Devito xv). Coltrane on Coltrane is a culmination of “almost every known Coltrane interview”(xv). It covers his whole career from pre-Miles to a couple articles published after his death. From reading this book you really get a sense of who Coltrane was. His responses are to the point and focused, but also very kind . I've always respected the music he created and his intense work ethic. After reading this book, I've come to see him as an open minded humble person, searching for musical perfection. The book is put together chronologically. It is grouped from 1952-1960, 1961-62 and 1963-67. Most of the interviews are really short (less than 20 pages). This is really nice in some ways because it makes it more like a book you can casually read. An Interview here or there, 17 pages before bed or while having a cup of coffee. The downside to this is although the interviews were interesting it didn't really grab me the same way as other biographies with a continuous train of thought. I think a problem with the book is that it assumes that the readers know exactly what is going on in Coltrane's life and career. There is little context usually given before the interview. I think that the best way to read this book would be to read a Coltrane bio simultaneously with this one. Its not that most of the interviews aren't well written but i feel like the purpose of the book is to know Coltrane as a person rather than know about Coltrane. I think the book really does accomplish that. Most of the interviews are by journalists but some are by people Coltrane seems close too. The first interview is actually over dinner with August Blume, of the interracial jazz society, at Blumes house. In this particular interview “Coltrane didn't know he was being recorded until almost the end of the conversation”(9). It is particularly candid not only from Coltrane but even from Blume in almost a Seinfeld sort of way. The first few lines of the interview they talk about a broken toilet. Other particularly notable ones include Coltrane's letters to his fans. These are a good read because it shows his generosity to his fans. On a couple of occasions he evens sends them autographed photos if they ask for it (33). Another particularly good interview is one that was by Jean Clouzet in Paris, France 1962. This one is special because Clouzet states that he spent from “noon on the 18th of November and didn't finish until the next day toward 5 in the morning”(169). In this interview he is questioned whether or not he would like to work with Mingus and Coltrane says “ that the experience would interest him a lot”. I think a Coltrane/Mingus record would have interested a lot of people. He goes on to talk about how his embouchure may eventually “become too tight to play tenor” because of the sopranos “particular way of holding the lips”(177). The problem of his embouchure seems to come up more in other interviews after this. Later on in the book there is a section of Coltrane quotes and an article about him published after his death. You get to read about Coltrane early in his career. He is very much the same person as he is later in his career. Even as early as 1955 he is interested in philosophy, he says he is not really “looking for and end” but later on in the same interview states that “it seems to be something in it that he kinda likes”(10). Although he says its just something that he enjoys this searching continues throughout his career with Coltrane both referring to his music and his spirituality. Actually in most interviews it comes up in some shape or form. Music and Spirituality seem very intertwined for him. This culminates in his liner notes for A love Supreme. In the liner notes it seems like he has decided he believes in god. Coltrane states” the album is a humble offering to Him”(226). After this he more concerned with searching for something musically. The interviews really paint Coltrane as an awesome guy. A little on the quiet side but he never really says anything offensive about anyone. This is different from the Miles Davis autobiography who seems to talk negatively about people whenever he feels like it. Coltrane doesn't cuss or swear in the book, he is very mild mannered and his responses are typically very short and to the point. I would highly recommend this book but I would also recommend getting a Coltrane biography to read at the same time. It would give the book even more meaning. As it sits it is a worthwhile read, but i think reading a bio about the events in his life would help shed some light on certain aspects of his life. He is always talking about searching for something musically and spiritually. I think reading a bio alongside it would give maybe a little more light on how exactly he was searching. He talks very vaguely about it when in is brought up, and after reading this book it seems like it was a huge aspect of his life. After all it is partly his constant searching that makes him a legend today. Sources Chris Devito. Coltrane on Coltrane: the John Coltrane interviews. Chicago Review Press. 2010. Chicago, Illinois. Print. Miles: The Autobiography
Miles Davis is well respected for his musical abilities. He was a very talented player, with an ever changing sense of creativity. I have always enjoyed his music, from the birth of cool to kind of blue to bitches brew, so I decided to read his autobiography to see if there where any lessons that could be learned From Miles, where he found his inspiration and what type of a person he was. Well Miles the autobiography doesn't disappoint. Miles: the autobiography is written by Quincy Troupe. Troupe is a university professor who taught at Columbia University and the University of California. He received a American Book Award in 1990 for this book. In the Afterword section of the book Troupe states “Miles chose [Troupe] to write his book”(413). He first interviewed Miles in 1985 for Spin magazine. During that time Troupe interviewed him for two days and “felt a kinship” with Miles (413). Troupe goes on to list many things they had in common such as “music, art, hip clothing, basket ball, football, and boxing”(413). A quick Google search on Troupes reveals he himself may not be the most credible author. He faked a bachelor degree from Grambling in order to land himself a Poet Laureate at University of California (http://www.houstonpress.com/2010-02-18/calendar/quincy-troupe/). Troupe admits in the afterword that the book comes from not only miles as the prose would imply but “many others who knew him intimately and some who didn't”(414). He also admits some of what miles said “ had to be edited out of the book for legal reasons(414). Troupe still says the book is still “truly Miles”(414). The book itself was an easy read. It reads very intimately. The way Miles talks just kinda feels like your sitting down having beers with a friend. It was no problem reading a couple of chapters a night. Miles has a certain charisma. Some issues people might have is that Miles likes to swear. That's just the way he talks, if you are easily offended you will be missing out on the story of arguably the greatest jazz icon to ever live. Another issue that I had was when Miles freely talks about his long-term drug use; how accurate are his memories? That paired with Troupe's questionable credibility really makes it hard to take everything in the book as truth. Miles has also got a lot of racial issues that come up in the book. Its hard for me to speculate on the accuracy of his views. I wasn't around and in the scene when this was going on. I know that the world has got a lot better regarding equality between races since then. Through the whole book I kept thinking Davis is so cynical but he could be right. Plus reading this you know he has a huge ego, how much of this has he embellished to perpetuate his legendary status? The book goes through Davis' childhood. How he was close with his father and had a strained relationship with his mother. His time in st. Louis in Eddie Randall's band. His first encounter with Dizzy and Bird. Miles moving to New York to supposedly go to Juilliard but really going to searching for Bird. Miles calls Dizzy the “head and hands” of bebop if Bird was “the Spirit”(64). Dizzy made Miles “really learn to play piano”(64). Dizzy had an undeniable effect on young Miles' trumpet playing and his understanding of jazz. He came searching for Bird but his relationship with Dizzy really benefited him more, as he learned and improved greatly. Miles also talks about meeting longtime collaborator and friend, Gil Evans, and how they got to be real friends on Birth of the Cool. The book talks about his use of drugs although sometimes he just mentions using some coke or drinking but only a few times does the book really dive into how bad his addictions actually were. Cab Calloway told the public about Miles and others being “Junkies” to Ebony magazine (163). After this for a while Miles “couldn't buy a job” (163). It also goes into how he got clean and continued to be an innovator up until his death. It is a very interesting read. You find out about the relationships between the jazz musicians and who knew who. Miles didn't hang out much with Coltrane “ once [they] left the bandstand” because they were into different things(224). Coltrane being into heroine when Miles wasn't and then Coltrane's life consuming practicing. His musical relationship with Gil Evans and how he was “real important to [Davis] as a friend” (386). Davis got into a argument with Charles Mingus over leaving Bird in L.A. While Davis went back to New York with Billy Eckstein's band and how the “Argument really hurt [there friendship]”(96). Its really interesting to see how all these jazz legends interacted with each other as people. One also learns a lot about other important events that happened to other jazz musicians. How Bud Powell got got a brain injury from getting hit from a bouncer “upside [Bud's] head” outside the Savoy Ballroom(112). Miles got very personal and talks about his relationships with all the women in his life. How he never “had any trouble finding women”(403). He goes on to talk about his preferences about women. The book goes into his marriages and many significant relationships. He always seemed to be doing to many drugs to really be present in his relationships. I thought the book was an entertaining read. It was hard to put down the book and get some sleep at night. Miles really lived an interesting life. He's recorded many albums and the book often talks about the sessions and the bands on the sessions. He really is a band leader, right from the beginning you can tell he really wouldn't be happy being someones sideman. He surrounds himself with musicians that can play whatever his uncompromising creativity dishes out. He really pushes people to play their best or he doesn't hire them. The book is an autobiography so it's essentially Miles' view of himself. I think it succeeds at being that. I don't think it's a fair view but its the only view really possible when a book is written like this. The book kinda inspired me to go to read more jazz biographies for three reasons. The first is that it was very informative about jazz and the formations of bebop and how it evolved into jazz today. The second reason is I'm really interested in the credibility of the book. At least if I read other bios I can perhaps find out how true parts of the book are. The last reason is I want to see how other people view Miles. He really comes across as a pompous jerk in some parts and other times he seems like a really cool guy. Its hard to tell what other people thought of him. I think Troupes main reason for writing this book is that Miles and him generally got along well. It would be hard to get all this info out of a person if they didn't have some sort of trust between them. I would suggest every jazz lover or musician give the book a read. At the very least the book was entertaining. You find out a lot about one of jazz's greatest players and band leaders. On a bigger level you find out about the relationships between people, and the drive one needs to make a living out of playing music. Sources Alvarez, Olivia. Quincy Troupe. Feb. 2010. http://www.houstonpress.com/2010-02- 18/calendar/quincy-troupe/ . Nov.28 2012. Web Troupe, Quincy. Miles: The Autobiography. Simon and Schuster. New York, New York. 1989. Reissue September 2011. Print. |
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