Post 125: ONE TO A PART IN MUSIC - SOMETHING SPECIAL?

I have been interested for about thirty years in small music groups. I attend chamber music concerts wherever I can; and I play the cornet in a small traditional jazz group. Even though it's just a hobby I have taken up in my retirement, it's great fun having a go.

Chamber musicians and jazz musicians have much in common. They play one to a part and their music does not attract mass audiences.

They take pride in being miniaturists. They like music played acoustically. It is easier to appreciate details. The noise level is bearable. They better appreciate the drama of the music’s dialogue. Delicate textures are more apparent. The individual players - playing just one to a part - are more free to express themselves. Agreed?

Post 124: WOMEN OF THE SHOTGUN - LADY MUSICIANS IN TRADITIONAL JAZZ

I wrote an article recently about the increasing number of women who play instruments in top traditional jazz bands in the 21st Century - a very pleasing development in the history of the music. You can read it BY CLICKING HERE.

Well, a particularly powerful pairing in a great 'front line' are Marla Dixon (right) on trumpet and Haruka Kickuchi on trombone.

They play in Marla's Shotgun Jazz Band, which is currently one of the best bands operating in New Orleans.

For a fine example of their work,

CLICK ON THIS VIDEO.

And then
CLICK ON THIS ONE.
The men in the band are not bad, either!

Post 123: 'ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE'

I looked  at the lovely song All The Things You Are.

As so often happens with the work of those popular composers who wrote music for the shows in America during the middle of the Twentieth Century, I was left gasping with amazement at the cleverness of the structure and especially the brilliance of the harmonies.

The song was written by Jerome Kern (with words by Oscar Hammerstein) for the 1939 musical Very Warm for May. It has a 36-bar structure, freely re-interpreting the usual A – A – B – A format. For example, the second ‘A’ transposes the first down by a fourth.

But may I draw your attention to just one point that I particularly loved?

In the fifth bar from the end, there is one of those luscious chords that take the breath away.

The words at the end of the song are: Some day I’ll know that moment divine, when all the things you are are mine.

On the word divine, the melody jumps up a third between di and vine. In the key of Ab, we land on a G at vine; but this G rides over the chord of  F diminished. So we have a G played with F – Ab – B – D. In most circumstances, G against this chord would sound horribly wrong; but Kern knew exactly what he was doing, and the effect is sublime. I have highlighted the note in red.