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Artist Statement:

In this piece we learned about jazz, and how to dig ourselves out of a musical rut. Jazz is a genre that our band members have a variety of experience in, but none of us had ever played in a jazz group before. We learned about how to work as a group with a more advanced chord progression and how to interpret classic jazz songs. We actually didn’t start with Fly Me To The Moon, we came to it after we hit a musical road block in Blue Skies and wanted to try something new. Starting over taught us about how important it is to work on something we are passionate about, and when to try something new instead of trying to make something work that we didn’t enjoy. We came to Fly Me To The Moon because of our groups tremendous and universal love for the song. We hope you enjoy our cover on this jazz classic.

Credits:

Armant (vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar)

Max (piano)

Jack S (bass)

Henry T (guitar)

Ethan (drums)

Artist Statement:

I love this song and think it’s a lot of fun, so when Nick asked us what we wanted to do, this song came to mind. Right away Nick wanted me to play the guitar on it, and I did not want to do that, I wanted to do the acapella version, like Seal. I tried that, and it went really slow. So one day I was sitting playing a country tune and Nick asks me if I’m working, and I tell him no. He suggested again to play this song on the guitar and see if it goes a little easier. I finally give in and start strumming it out, but I forgot to stop playing the country rhythm. Upon hearing it I had this moment of thinking, “hey that sounds pretty good.” So I recorded the whole song in that style and hope you enjoy it. 

Credits:

Hudson (vocals, guitar, production)

Artist Statement:

I sampled a song from The Isley Brothers, then sped and pitched it up in order to reach a tempo I liked. I then fit it to the bar lines and overdubbed some midi drums and bass. I also chopped up the sample to add little flourishes in between the bar lines.

Footsteps in the Dark was originally written and recorded by The Isley Brothers.

Credits:

Sampled and produced by Ethan

Artist Statement:

I played a live guitar recording, midi drums, and a midi keyboard for the second song. The guitar chords were inspired by the song “Just the Two of Us”.

Credits:

Written, recorded and produced by Ethan.

A project by Harvey and Mason L that celebrates the historical impact of New Orleans jazz!

Slide Deck (view each slide’s notes for links to additional audio/video content)

Artist Statement:

We chose John Coltrane’s arrangement of “My Favorite Things” because the tune’s balance of near-universal recognizability and modal complexity would be a significant step forward for us as musicians. Music in the more “avant garde” and bebop styles of jazz was intimidating for us given that we were not totally well-versed in jazz. “My Favorite Things” would be a primer to exploring those sub-genres/styles in a more accessible, but still challenging, way.

We really had to test our ears when working to transcribe the song when we were first learning it. This song, as most modal jazz songs do, stray from strict structures, opting for freeform experimentation with things like modal interchange (borrowing notes and chords from other scales). One thing that we played with was McCoy Tyner’s stacked fourths technique, where he’d take notes from a chord and rearrange them to play fourths in both his left and right hand. We also experimented with modulation to the E phrygian scale for Zander’s solo. The melody takes on a new feel, but is centered around the same key ideas. The final piece to the puzzle was the bridge, in which Zander reharmonized the melody in order to add some variance from exactly what Tyner played.

Our main struggle was staying together, rhythmically as well as melodically and harmonically playing off of each other and complimenting each other’s parts.

Reflection:

Jack

My Favorite Things” tested me in ways that few other music projects have. I took on a much more significant leadership role in this project because I was tasked with playing the all-too-familiar melody. In Coltrane’s version, the melody is what drives the song. He retained much of the structure from the Broadway original and added many embellishments to truly make the song his own. I certainly do not consider myself anywhere near the caliber of John Coltrane, but I tried to add some melodic and rhythmic embellishments of my own to our rendition. 

Improvisation was a key element to Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things,” and we made it central to ours, as well. Soloing has always been something that I avoid because it is (understandably) scary. Over-thinking soloing like this can bog down the actual result, making it sound more like mindless “noodling” than a moving musical exploration. I have a lot more work to do, but “My Favorite Things” inspired me to really give it a shot.

Luc

The main challenge this year was swinging in a ¾ time signature. Aswell, I was not used to moving my feet, especially my hi-hat foot, in a three pattern and having to improvise every hit on the snare. I worked on these three pieces and put them together in order to play “My Favorite Things,” by John Coltrane. Putting them together was hard enough, but I also had to swing with a buoyancy in my ride and overall groove in the kit, in order to make the music flow and not be robotic.

Zander

The main skill I was working on was being able to play with other musicians. I’ve played with musicians in the past, but it’s been focused more on playing what’s on the page. I had to work on listening for musical cues as well as making them myself. 

Credits:

Jack T (guitar)

Zander (electric piano)

Luc (drums)

Milei (upright bass)

Chartlton St. Studio (mixing, production)

Arranged, performed, mixed and produced by Cole.

Artist Statement:

Over the summer of 2020 I had decided to set out and diversify my music intake. I had grown accustomed to the obbligato bass lines of classic Thelonious Monk songs, the swinging melodic vocal lines of hit pop songs, and the weird and obscure music sampling instruments from Calvin Harris’ hit album Funk Waves Vol 1. I wanted to find a genre, an artist, a sound that could blur the lines of what I loved about all of these distinctive genres and styles.

I decided to revisit a band, a duo, a partnership that I had previously been familiar with, only this time take a deep dive into the music of the group: Steely Dan.