Don't Swing my Bach

Browsing around on another blog I ran into this which, believe it or not, I had never heard before:

The Swingle Singers were originally a French group, founded in 1962, and the performance you just listened to was from 1963. The group has been in existence ever since, though now based in London and with different personnel. The current members are all either from the UK or Canada. The line-up is either seven or eight singers plus string bass and drums. They have been hugely successful in a niche they created for themselves. In addition to many awards and the use of their music in films and television shows, Luciano Berio wrote his Sinfonia with them in mind and they did the premier recording with the New York Philharmonic.

What I don't like about what they do with the Contrapunctus IX from Bach's Art of Fugue has less to do with their vocal performance than it does with the bass and drums accompaniment. True, I don't think that 'swinging' the eighth notes adds anything except superficial excitement, but that is partially offset by the nice chorale effect of the main theme in the long notes as it appears later on. This is more effective than it would be on the harpsichord, for example. But I just can't stand the bass and drums. The bass especially, as a walking jazz bass has no purpose in this kind of counterpoint and just muddies up the texture, making it harder to hear what is really going on. Also, the drums are an unnecessary added noise.

Here is a much better way to perform this Contrapunctus:

Or:

With that much going on, how could anyone think it was a good idea to add bass and drums?

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John Coltrane - "Giant Steps"

A commentor recently took me severely to task for criticizing Jazz and cited "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane in particular as a great example of Jazz. So let's have a look at it. Here is a clip of the piece that shows the sax solo in notation:

Here is a discussion of Coltrane's approach to harmony in this and other pieces. The technique involves third-related harmonies which, since the relationships are symmetrical, avoids giving a sense of harmonic direction. The Wikipedia article on the Coltrane changes first describes the progression in "Giant Steps" as C, Eb7, Ab, B7, E, G7, C or, in terms of harmonic analysis: I, V of bVI, bVI, V of III, III, V7, I. Simplified a bit to show the movement down by major 3rds: I bVI, III (V7) I.

Later on in the article the chords given there are B maj 7, D7, G maj 7. Bb7, Eb maj 7, A min 7, D7 which is how they appear in the chart for "Giant Steps". The tenor sax is a transposing instrument in Bb, meaning that a written C sounds as a Bb, so if you want a C, you write a D. But that still doesn't get us to the progression in the chart. But never mind, let's just assume that in the first part of the Wikipedia article they transposed to C for simplicity. Here's another problem: the progression is described as falling major thirds or C, Ab, E, C (with an interpolated dominant). This progression is not unknown in Classical music, but usually in the form I, vi, IV, (V) I with first inversion chords interpolated. In diatonic harmony, this has a minor third and a major third. What I see in the progression given in the chart is, starting on B, up a minor 3rd, down a 5th, up a minor third, down a fifth, then a tritone, then a 4th. Also, the key seems to be G major, so the chords might be analyzed as III, V7 of I, I, V7 of bVI, bVI, ii, V7. I'm starting to see why in Jazz they don't analyze in terms of functional harmony!

So what John Coltrane has done is developed a harmonic structure with some interesting symmetries that tends to dilute the sense of tonic. I think the problems trying to analyze it start with the fact that in Jazz it seems to be the case that the idea of chord inversion is not significant. In other words, the idea of root movement is pretty weak. I say this because the bass and piano are free to play any element of the harmony as the lowest note. Similarly, so is the idea of cadence. The ends of sections are not marked with strong cadences--the closest we get seems to be a half-cadence. This suits the improvisational, open-ended character of Jazz.

But I still find it fundamentally unsatisfying because you can have open-ended music or you can have goal-directed music, but you can't really have both. So, forgive me, but what I hear when I listen to "Giant Steps" is some very cool music with a lot of character, but music that has no real direction. Intentionally has no direction, I believe, because the function of the non-functional, symmetrical harmonies is to remove that sense of real harmonic direction and movement that we find in Classical harmony. Fair enough. But when you take that away, what I hear is a jittery surface with no underpinnings...

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Mobs and Music

I've been reading this morning about mob violence at the Wisconsin State Fair where bunches of "youths" were harassing, beating up and otherwise ruining the evening of people trying to enjoy the fair. Does it seem that there is more and more of this? I used to live in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and every year there was a big sailboat race over a weekend. It was also the occasion for a big party downtown. Every year, the party seemed to get more and more rowdy until, after dark, most adults would just disappear, leaving the streets to mobs of drunken teens.

Here's the musical connection: one year I had the most unlikely gig of my career as rhythm guitarist in a big band. I don't much like jazz and I had never played it before. I was in the second year of my changeover from a popular music guitarist (blues and the Beatles) to a classical guitarist. But this big band needed a rhythm guitarist and I was the only one available. Tough parts, though. I still remember the first time I played with them. The first tune was in E flat (a horrible key for guitar) and the first bar had four chords: E flat 13 flat 5 followed by three similar nightmare chords! Turns out I am the world's absolute worst jazz guitarist! Anyway, I redeemed myself to the band the night we played for the sailboat race weekend. We had been booked to play a street dance Friday night. After the first half hour the audience consisted solely of drunk 16-year-olds who, frankly, hated Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller. The trombone players, sitting in front, were afraid to extend their slides for fear of having them grabbed. Luckily I knew a couple of tunes by Chicago, the "rock and roll band with horns". Myself, the bass player and drummer got going and the horns joined in as best they could even without charts. Then we just kept playing a little rock and roll and blues until the mob quietened down, at which point we quietly disappeared.

And I think that was the very last time I performed in public as anything other than a classical musician. Interesting experience, though. Oh, the solution to the problem was that they have, ever since, canceled any street party connected with the race.

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