Hi! During Jazz Band this semester, I have been working on “Scrapple from the Apple.” My instructor wants me to learn this piece so I can grow in my improvisation. The first two measures follow a ii–V chord structure, a very common chord structure in jazz. This means that when I’m soloing and come across a ii–V chord, I can play the first two bars of “Scrapple from the Apple’s” melody to get started! With that, let’s jump into this piece.
Continue readingRaimbaults Got Rhythm
Raimbault’s Got Rhythm: Song For My Father
Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father” is my favorite jazz tune. I love playing the bass lines of bossa novas, and this song’s melody frequently gets stuck in my head. In fact, I’m listening to this piece as I write this and keep finding myself distracted and grooving out to the music. After visiting Brazil during Carnival, Silver wrote the melody for “Song for My Father.” He realized that while the rhythm was Brazilian, the melody was in a Cape Verdean style. Silver recalled his father’s request to do jazz renditions of Cape Verdean songs and decided to dedicate this new piece to him. Silver’s father is even pictured on Blue Note, the album featuring “Song for My Father.”
Continue readingRaimbault’s Got Rhythm: Autumn Leaves
Hi! Welcome to my new blog series Raimbault’s Got Rhythm in which I will be discussing different jazz songs, their histories (as available), and a selection of performances. This week, I will be talking about “Autumn Leaves.”
Like many of the pieces I will be discussing in this series, Autumn Leaves was introduced to me by my bass teacher. Through a bit of research, I learned that the lyrics to Autumn Leaves were actually based on a poem by Jacques Prévert. It took a surprising amount of digging, but I was able to find the words to the original poem. (Much thanks to David Issokson and the website “French Learner”!) They are translated from French to English and read as follows:
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