Early Jazz Influences

This week I was asked an interesting question. A friend of mine had attended our university's jazz big band concert which I was playing in. She had never actually been to a live jazz performance, or let alone had much exposure to the genre. After the concert she told me she wanted to explore jazz and asked me, "where do I start?"

The question made me look back and try to remember what jazz I had listened to when I first took interest in the genre. 

Some of my early experience with jazz was due to my Grandpa - for a couple consecutive Christmases he gave me famous jazz recordings: Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck's Take Five, etc. Brubeck proved especially formative for me; listening to "Blue Rondo a la Turk" and "Strange Meadowlark" was great ear-training for a 12-year-old. 

During that middle school age I continued to explore jazz. One of the albums I listened to the most was Harry Connick, Jr.'s Blue Light, Red Light. That record offered a particularly rhythmic New Orleans sound - a good counterbalance to Brubeck and the other things I had been exposed to. I think what I enjoyed so much about Harry Connick, Jr.'s music was the lively, stomping feel it had to it. It sounded fun. That type of music inspired the 12-year-old me to keep pursuing jazz because it showed me the enjoyment that I could find in it.

As I studied jazz piano more seriously in high school I was exposed to other names, artists that only jazz lovers listen to: McCoy Tyner, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, etc. I continue to explore their discographies and I still love coming across other artists and hearing new sounds.

So what was my recommendation to my friend? Where should she start her exploration into jazz? I simply told her to start where I started - to check out Dave Brubeck and Harry Connick, Jr. Hopefully she'll hear the fun that I heard, and that the music will spark an appreciation for jazz in her like it did in me.

A Glimpse at Robert Glasper, Jazz Pianist

Every once in a while a friend will turn me on to a new artist, and instead of just giving it a quick listen, I find myself listening to track after track, nearly hypnotized.

And hypnotic really is the word for Robert Glasper's music. He's a jazz pianist, but beyond the basic realm of standards and bebop (in which he is undoubtedly well-versed), he manages to break out and modernize jazz in an accessible, quasi R&B style. He obviously has chops - he knows how to play - but in the recordings I listened to, it was apparent that Glasper made the effort to harness back. He seemed to be lulling the listener into a state of relaxed awareness, vamping on a mellow, extended form, and then suddenly moving into a section of intricate technique. The contrast makes for a truly engaging listening experience: since the listener knows Glasper's ability, their ear is naturally drawn in with expectancy during the mellower moments. 

Check out his version of Stella By Starlight, recorded live at Capitol Studios:

Besides his trio work, Glasper is involved in an array of genres. He has released a couple of R&B/Hip-hop albums, which don't showcase his technique, but still highlight his musical ingenuity. You also may have heard him on Kendrick Lamar's newest Grammy-winning album, on which he consulted and recorded background jazz piano. 

Artists like Robert Glasper show that the energy to reignite jazz in the 21st century exists. They are proof that musicians want to push the boundaries and take what came before them in a new direction.

Even More Great Film Scoring: The Genius of Joe Hisaishi

I suppose I've been on this movie music kick for a few weeks now, but I couldn't stop without making mention of Joe Hisaishi.

One of the soundtracks that most moved me as a child, one whose melodies have stuck with me, and one that adds so much nostalgia to the film itself is Hisaishi's score for Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.

Hisaishi is a Japanase composer, and his style is naturally different than the American sound of John Williams and the like. Hisaishi's score for Spirited Away is much more introspective - and honestly, much more delicately gorgeous - than a lot of American film scores. In fact, the movie opens with the isolated notes of a sole piano, and while the music rises and develops throughout the film, the returning use of piano remains a consistent motif. 

The use of delicate piano in this way seems to tell the tale of the film through the eyes of the protagonist, a young girl named Chihiro. The melodies mirror her experiences: when she feels alone, the piano, too, is solitary. When she's frightened, the piano plays in a low register and exudes the same anxiety. The piano almost seems to have a voice of innocence, wordlessly relating the inner thoughts and feelings of a young girl far from home.

The score is genius in many other ways. Hisaishi's themes paint Spirited Away with lush brushstrokes of sound, adding so much depth and emotion to what is an already beautiful work of art. 

His score is truly a triumph. 

More Great Film Scoring: "Inception"

A couple of weeks ago I started looking at the genre of film composition on this blog. I hope to eventually delve into the inner workings of the film scoring industry, but for now I'd like to just look at another score that I consider influential to me:

Hans Zimmer's original soundtrack for Inception.

This recording marked the first time I fell in love with a film score before even seeing the movie. As I perused iTunes one afternoon in 2010, I saw that the Inception soundtrack had already been released at least two weeks before the film was due to premiere. Since I was eagerly anticipating the movie, the score's early appearance intrigued me and I decided to listen to all the available samples.

Even before I'd seen the film, the music alone managed to take me on an aural journey. Sure, the titles (like "Dream Within a Dream") were evocative and inspired my imagination, but the music told its own story - one of intense thought and focus, even of confusion and disorder.

Having heard the soundtrack before hand, watching the movie was all the more exciting; it was fascinating to see just what events the music was juxtaposed over. The marriage of music and film here was so cohesive - each one enhanced the other and combined to form an amazing result.

When I experienced the effect of the soundtrack in this way (i.e. listening before seeing the movie), I realized again that movie music, when done right, can be a force of its own. 

A-F-R-O: 17-Year-Old Rap Prodigy

Sometimes, because so much of today's music seems fabricated by the big record labels, you start to wonder if any raw talent is actually making its way to the surface. You wonder if the "inspiration stories" you used to hear about, where kids push the limits and climb their way to fame, ever happen anymore.

Then you see this.

The video tells the story of A-F-R-O, a young rapper who was discovered in an online contest. When A-F-R-O submitted his tape he was only 16 years old, but the judges mistook him for a 30-year-old man. Maybe that's because of his deep voice and fluid vocabulary, but either way, he made his mark.

The video poses the question, "can this 17-year-old reignite the golden age of hip-hop?". After hearing A-F-R-O's unbelievably inventive freestyles and diving into his impressive discography, I definitely think so. 

But beyond his obvious natural talent, A-F-R-O's going to make an impact because he's doing this for the right reasons. Like he says in the video, he just wants to save someone's life the way music saved his. 

And when that's the motivation and passion behind his art, you know he's bound to make it big.

Great Film Scoring - "The Shawshank Redemption"

Today I'd like to start taking a look at the world of film scoring, a sector of the music industry I've been drawn to for a number of years.

Though there's so much to discuss and dissect in this industry, for now I'd just like to talk about one of my favorite soundtracks. It's an album I consider a truly great film score; it's one of the scores that opened my eyes to the emotion behind film music and inspired me to experiment with my own composition.

The album I'm talking about is Thomas Newman's original 1994 soundtrack for The Shawshank Redemption.

I was a junior in high school when I first watched Shawshank, and its compelling story of the human spirit - victory over oppression - really spoke to me. The movie seemed to exude a sense of triumph, but only after bringing the viewer on an honest journey of highs and lows. I realized that a large part of the film's emotion, while powerful on its own, was owed to its music. 

I bought a copy of the soundtrack and listened to it many times. Something about it was so mesmerizing; maybe it was the way the strings determinedly yet solemnly introduced the opening notes (aptly titled Stoic Theme). Maybe it was the melodic glimmers of hope contrasted with an otherwise bleak motif. Maybe it was the way the music seemed to tell the movie's story all by itself.

Whatever it was, just by listening to Newman's score I could grasp the same sense of triumph that the film portrayed. And that's why I consider it a truly great score - it has an evocative power all of its own. 

I don't come across soundtracks very often that do this as well as Shawshank, but exciting things are still happening in the world of film composition. So next time you watch a movie, pay attention to the score - there's a lot to discover.

Disruptive Creativity

Sometimes in the world of music we think there's nothing new under the sun. We hit creative walls and don't know how to get past them. We think all musical ideas have been covered before - that there are no new chord progressions, no new melodies, no new styles.

So when something so innovative and fresh comes out, I wonder, "how did the artist come up with that? Did it just pop into their head? Was it something they heard that inspired their sound?"

Take a look at this TED talk. Tim Harford talks about how sometimes the best way to solve a problem (or get past a creative wall) is through disruption. He suggests that we take random, even stupid steps to get new results. For example, he talks about Coldplay, and how during the production of one of their albums they didn't like what they were writing. So each band member decided to switch instruments with one another - a seemingly pointless move - and the resulting sound turned out to be just what they were looking for.

Of the anecdotes he shares, my favorite is about Keith Jarrett and the unplayable piano. It's the perfect case of a "messy problem": Jarrett, a world-renowned jazz pianist, shows up to play a solo concert in Cologne, and discovers that the piano is in poor condition and won't serve for his performance. But after being persuaded to play, Jarrett adapts his playing to meet the piano's deficiencies. The result? The #1 solo jazz piano album of all time.

So next time you hit a wall, remember to mix things up. Try something stupid and random. Break out of your boundaries. Disrupt your creativity. 

Writer's Choice: Album of the Year 2016

The five official Grammy nominees for the 2016 Album of the Year are Alabama Shakes' "Sound and Color", Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly", Chris Stapleton's "Traveller", Taylor Swift's "1989", and The Weeknd's "Beauty Behind the Madness". 

Which do I hope wins it? Easy - Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly."

"To Pimp a Butterfly"

From the early single release of "King Kunta" (track three on the album), I could tell that Kendrick was aiming for an old-school sound. After all, the entirety of the video was shot in a 90s-esque Compton - a deliberate nod to early NWA influence. I loved the style and hoped the rest of the album lived up to the hype. 

I was not disappointed. The first time I listened to the album from start to finish, I was somewhere in Ohio, hours into a cross-country road trip. My brother served as a quasi listening guide, explaining the meaning of the album as we progressed through the tracks. He pointed out that To Pimp a Butterfly deals with the modern rapper's plight of being "pimped" by the industry - in other words, how the rap game takes raw talent and warps it into materialistic mindlessness. 

And although we observed that the album was directed primarily at a black audience, I was impressed by how accessible the music was. The lyrics felt so real and so raw - something I hadn't heard in modern Hip-hop in a long time. 

Production quality on the album is phenomenal. The beats range from be-bop jazz trios to hypnotizing ghetto anthems, and they never settle for a dull moment. 

So much more can be said and analyzed about this album, but suffice it to say it deserves its Grammy; To Pimp a Butterfly is a technical feat, both musically and conceptually.

A Look at Beck and Last Year's Grammys

The 2016 Grammys are getting closer, so I decided to look back on the artists who took the cake last year. I was out of the loop about 2015's results, and I actually hadn't looked them up until just recently. As I checked the rankings, it turned out that I had already listened to the "Album of the Year" before I even knew it had won that title - and in a way, I was surprised that it had. 

It was Beck's "Morning Phase", a soft, ambient, acoustic work by the well-known Los Angeles musician. I had first listened to it just a month or so ago as I drove into Hoboken, and the weather that day seemed to match the music: cold, gray, and brooding. Not that "Morning Phase" is dark in any sense, but it certainly comes off as introspective and mellow. It's a great album, but it didn't exactly take off commercially, and certainly didn't top the charts, which was why I was slightly surprised it had stolen the show at the Grammys last year.

Beck's winning album originally sold so few copies compared to the big-name artists who are typically nominated for the award. Take Adele, for example. In 2012 her album "21" was a massive market success; it also won Album of the Year. Taylor Swift's "Fearless" similarly won the title in 2010. It turns out, however, that this prestigious award is given out not with regard to album sales or commercial success, but rather to "artistic or technical achievement", says Grammy.org.

I guess I had just gotten the wrong impression of what it takes to be an "Album of the Year" winner. You really don't have to be a chart-topper to pull it off. You don't have to go platinum on record sales, either. As a matter of fact, you just have to be a great artist and produce an exceptional, new work of music - which I believe Beck was able to do. 

A Spot on Spotify and Music's Evolving Format

My friend once told me, "I don't really use iTunes anymore." This was more than six years ago, when he introduced me to Spotify. I was wary of the idea to begin with. After all, music streaming was a foreign concept to the rest of us normal music lovers who bought tracks on iTunes and slowly amassed a digital library. What Spotify offered was, of course, access to a much vaster music collection, though you never actually downloaded the songs or stored them on your device. 

In fact, Spotify isn't just six years old. It was founded ten years ago in Sweden, and although it didn't make too big of a splash to begin with, it has essentially redefined the format of digital music in the past several years.

They're not unique, either. Apple Music offers a similar paid service. Competitor Deezer has gained plenty of attention, too. And they all seem to be getting lots of attention from the investing world; according to Billboard, Deezer recently announced $109 million in new funding. 

Check out the article in Billboard:

Is There a Music Tech Bubble?

They say that the biggest music streaming companies are already receiving multi-billion dollar valuations, which is a huge indicator of growth, given that Spotify, for example, is still in its investing stage. For now Spotify is focused on strategic development, and not on pure profitability. Obviously this is a concern for artists - until profits are turned, where are the royalties?

Although this new trend complicates matters with artists' compensation (for now), I'm still excited about it. It's a growing industry, and it's a great way to put more music in the hands of more fans.

A Sample on Sampling

Did you know that the beat to one of the top songs of 2015 was actually written back in 1972? Drake's "Hotline Bling", produced by nineteen85, relies heavily on its sample source, "Why Can't We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas. Take a listen and see if it rings a bell:

Almost instantly you'll recognize this now famous cha-cha groove (though in the original instance, it's a bit slower and lower in pitch). Timmy Thomas probably never imagined in 1972 that more than 40 years later his song would resurface as a Top 20 hit.

Yet there it was in 2015, juxtaposed over some heavy 808 kicks and intricate trap-style hi-hats. Drake and his producer had breathed new life into a track long forgotten and had made a fortune doing so. 

The case of "Hotline Bling" made me consider sampling in a new light. It made me think, "how much of what I'm hearing on the radio is actually original?" I've realized that in modern day industry - especially in hip-hop - this type of sampling is pretty common. That's not to say that these types of tracks are unoriginal, but rather that their compositional roots pre-date themselves. 

A lot of great examples of this phenomenon are found in Kanye West's discography. You all know the song "Gold Digger", but did you know most of that beat was hacked together from an old Ray Charles tune? Another famous track of his, "Stronger", off Graduation, mostly revolves around an earlier Daft Punk creation. In fact, this type of heavy sampling seems to be one of the things that defines Kanye's sound.

While some artists use the technique of sampling more than others, it has still become a prominent part of modern music production. And in theory, it makes sense: if a track was well received the first time, why not re-hash it, sample it, and lay it under the top-selling artists of today?

So keep your ears peeled - a lot of the sound you hear on the radio had its origin before your favorite artist dug it up. 

"Hit Charade" - Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic, October 2015

                                         Image Credit: Nicolas Dehghani

Here's an article worth the read. For the longest time, I viewed the music industry as an inaccessible entity available to only the ultra-talented. I thought the biggest performing artists were all-in-one, jacks of all trades - people who could both write their own music, perform it flawlessly, and market themselves into stardom. I imagined Rhianna pouring over the piano as she worked out the chords to "Stay". I pictured Justin Bieber personally crafting acoustic guitar riffs over professionally-processed drums. But it turns out that, in the case of a lot of top superstars, their music is actually scripted by 40-year-old Norwegians. Sure, Katy Perry's still a great vocalist, and Taylor Swift has more influence than most stars today, but the truth is that most of their biggest hits are simply not written by them. 

You'll also learn why venture capitalists choose certain artists over others to bring to fame. You'll see that the pop music industry isn't so much about the music itself, but rather the marketability and personality of the artist. 

So give "Hit Charade" in the October 2015 Atlantic a read. I don't think it will depreciate your awe of your favorite stars, but rather open your eyes to the hit-making geniuses across the pond.