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
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
ArchivesCategories |