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21 hours ago, Boom Tss said:

Something a little more recent.

 

 

Dare i ask what JWFan thinks of... Jacob Collier?

 

 

Big fan of Cory Henry! Always nice to have another gear nerd to look up to.

 

I haven't listened to much of Jacob Collier, but I liked what I heard. Any tracks to recommend? 

 

I discovered this band a few days ago. A bandmate listened to it and thought it would be a "me" tune. That part with the key changes leading up to that Dmaj7 chord with the lead on top at 1:41... :wub2::crymore:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 11/3/2019 at 3:42 PM, Nick Parker said:

I haven't listened to much of Jacob Collier, but I liked what I heard. Any tracks to recommend?

 

He's a millenial phenomenon. A multi-instrumentalist prodigy that came to fame with his dense acapella arrangements of jazz and soul standards. Personally I find his music rather overcooked and ostentatious, a kind of performative grandstanding that places form and technique above expression, but hey that's just me.

 

As he's revered by MusicTheoryYoutube, I just wondered what yourself, @Dixon Hill, @KK, @Loert and the rest of the gang here made of him.

 

 

 

 

 

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I share your assessment Sharky.  The carol you posted is a good example, I've heard cats doing what's at the core of that for longer than Collier has been alive and they didn't overdress it like he has a tendency to.  Maybe I'm a stick in the mud.

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Cheers for the videos Sharky. I agree that his stuff is by and large too over-produced my liking. Kid clearly knows his stuff, but his aptitude for the function of design (harmonic or sonic) seems to get in the way of the actual spirit of his music, especially when at the end of the day, that remains the soul of jazz (which from what I can tell, seems to be a shoehorned genre monicker for him anyway). I do think his latest album has some good stuff, but even then his voice doesn't seem to have a bold stamp or personality of its own, preferring to get lost in the shimmering harmonies of his earlier a cappella stylings.

 

With that said, I think there is something about the spirit of music-making of the last video that is definitely worth celebrating. As grandiose, and over-the-top as it is as a virtuosity showcase, when you're able to create a space that really transports your audience to that kind of frenzy, that's top class musicianship at work.

 

I was later much less impressed with the studio recording of this on album. Much more schizophrenic and even mechanical.

 

19 hours ago, Boom Tss said:

 

 

 

But hey, if this kid is ever back in town I'm definitely hitting that concert up.

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On 11/2/2019 at 5:54 PM, Boom Tss said:

Dare i ask what JWFan thinks of... Jacob Collier?

 

I listened to him a bit a few years ago. The fact that he's extremely gifted is clear enough, and I especially adore his enthusiasm. I wouldn't say his music is my cup of tea (shifts around too much), but it's interesting to analyze, and fun/exciting in its own way. I also prefer his arrangements to his compositions, which are a bit...weird.

 

What I find most annoying though is his cult following on MusicTheoryYoutube (as you put it). Yes, his harmony may be dense and pretty, his rhythms may be complex and exciting, but just because his music has chords with 10 pitches and uses something called "negative harmony" doesn't automatically make it the greatest work ever created*.

 

However, if anyone's interested in music production then I highly recommend watching his videos where he composes music live (example below). It's really fascinating seeing him think through his creation process:

 

 

* As an aside, one of my favourite moments in all of music is just a basic Eb major chord which appears near the end of Chopin's Sonata No.3 (24:02):

 

 

On its own it's not much, but given the surrounding context, it sounds powerful enough to move a mountain. My point is that you don't need a lot of notes to achieve transcendence in music.

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On 11/5/2019 at 12:32 PM, Boom Tss said:

He's a millenial phenomenon. A multi-instrumentalist prodigy that came to fame with his dense acapella arrangements of jazz and soul standards. Personally I find his music rather overcooked and ostentatious, a kind of performative grandstanding that places form and technique above expression, but hey that's just me.

 

Yo, dude, so sorry it took me a bit to get to this. So it turns out I was thinking of some other person, so this dude is new to me. 

 

So without knowing the originals, I liked the In the Bleak Midwinter video quite a bit. Some of the embellishments might not be "necessary" per se, but over the last few years, as someone who would be considered pretty minimal as a player, I've come to appreciate the idea of many notes creating one in a sense. This is something you can hear a lot in Corea, Hancock, and in a simpler sense NES video games--oh, and the strings in Hedwig's Theme come to mind too. Without wishing to sound too pretentious, I felt like the "extra notes" created that feeling of falling leaves.

 

Stuff like Hideaway I enjoyed until he gets to the part where he's tracking twenty takes of him doing one melody--that's where I see the overcooked thing you mentioned. Maybe if I approach it from the angle of him trying to be a piano or orchestra with his voice I might appreciate it more, but the wall of sound can tire after several minutes. Makes me pine for someone like Davis would infamously surgically remove parts from say Zawinul's tunes and strip them to "leave a window open so [he] could get out."

 

Definitely a musician of YouTube, for YouTube...the music community has gotten...interesting on there, lately.

 

On 11/6/2019 at 4:45 PM, Loert said:

MusicTheoryYoutube

 

:pukeface::pukeface::pukeface:

 

(1:47-1:52)

 

:pukeface::pukeface::pukeface:

 

 

Not my crowd. 

 

 

On 11/6/2019 at 4:45 PM, Loert said:

negative harmony" 

 

Ugh

 

On 11/6/2019 at 4:45 PM, Loert said:

On its own it's not much, but given the surrounding context, it sounds powerful enough to move a mountain. My point is that you don't need a lot of notes to achieve transcendence in music.

 

For sure. On Williams' front, the moment that immediately comes to mind is this one here, which I've geeked out about before.

 

 

Not counting the moving lines and the occasional suspended chord, you're dealing with super simple stuff, basically an A to D then back if I'm not mistaken (the first several seconds). But everytime I hear it, it melts my heart to chocolate syrup. 

 

 

 

Well, speaking of Davis and Zawinul, here's a Wayne Shorter tune to soothe evenings and moisten eyes.

 

 

 

 

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One of my favorite Jerome Kern songs, sung by the incredible Bobby Short.  This recording makes me feel so suave and sensitive.  Gimme a cigarette and a very dry martini.

 

http://www.kritzerland.com/kern_webTrax/13 Never Gonna Dance.mp3

 

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

One of my favorite Jerome Kern songs, sung by the incredible Bobby Short.  This recording makes me feel so suave and sensitive.  Gimme a cigarette and a very dry martini.

 

http://www.kritzerland.com/kern_webTrax/13 Never Gonna Dance.mp3

 

 

 

In the beginning, there was dark and disturbing.

 

Then, followed realistic and relatable.

 

You've waited for the rest of the story, and now...

 

 

...Suave and sensitive?

 

The trilogy of JWFan Allliterative Adjectives is at its end. You _don't_ want to miss it.

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As we enter that time when Autumn is slouching towards Winter, the warm, ruminative embrace of Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra performing "Autumn Nocturne" is particularly comforting.  It's an impeccable arrangement by Thornhill.  When the solo clarinet comes in at 1:42... oof, just a perfect choice.

 

 

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Duke Ellington - "Blutopia"

 

I'm just hearing this piece for the first time and it's some really nice stuff.  From his early "symphonic jazz" phase, around the same time as Black, Brown & Beige.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Was somebody claiming he was wrong? Personally, I only knew him as a engineer for film scores. I mean, when did you hear Doors fans talking about Bruce Botnick? The only engineer people talk about is George Martin (and he went from classical music to Pop & Rock).

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51 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

The only engineer people talk about is George Martin...

Tsk, tsk, Alex. George Martin was a producer, not an engineer.

 

 

 

51 minutes ago, Alexcremers said:

...when did you hear Doors fans talking about Bruce Botnick?

You obviously don't know many Doors fans :lol:

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18 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

You obviously don't know many Doors fans :lol:

 

True, you are the only Doors fan I know. But is there anything you don't like (except for A.I.)?

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7 minutes ago, Jay said:

Doors fans absolutely know Bruce Botnick without question.  He's been involved in all their remasters and has done tons of interviews and featureless about working with them.

 

Featureless? That's a bit harsh!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I love this.  It's definitely some of the coolest orchestration you can hear from Strayhorn.  I love the clarinet-violin duo he keeps returning to.

 

#NickParkerBait

 

 

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On 11/3/2019 at 4:42 PM, Nick Parker said:

 

I haven't listened to much of Jacob Collier, but I liked what I heard. Any tracks to recommend? 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/4/2020 at 10:39 AM, Alexcremers said:

 

 

 

Hmm. This is where his overproduced sound sort of flattens the range of the core idea. Made it very one-note.

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Well, Herbie and I find it to be harmonically very impressive. And an "overproduced sound" to me means if he would've added power drums, bass guitar, a horns & strings arrangement, synths, piano, classical guitar doubled with an electric guitar, all drenched in a multitude of effects. This one is just Collier 'barebones'.

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Damn, RIP Ellis Marsalis, fine pianist and father to Wynton and Branford.  He died yesterday from the coronavirus :( 

 

Here he is playing a lovely, thoughtful version of the very Duke Ellington tune I posted last week above

 

 

 

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