Practicing a Two Bar Section of the Haitian Meringue La Douceur

There's a tune I've been learning called La Douceur.  It was written by the Haitian composer/violinist Arthur Duroseau who was part of the Duroseau musical family from Port-au-Prince who made some recordings in the early 1950's.  La Douceur is a Meringue type of tune.  It has some syncopated timing that takes some getting used to and a seemingly difficult sequence of 8th notes at the end of the B-part which can feel very sped up when compared to the rest of the piece.

I wrote that two-bar lick out in the notation form that I have recently adopted which uses major scale note numbers which can then be applied to any key or tonal center you want.  See image below.  The note numbers correspond to the notes of the major scale.  This morning I was practicing that lick in the key of B, which means that my note "2" is a C# note and 2b (flat 2 or "doo" for diminished two) is the note C in the key of B.  With this kind of notation it's pretty easy to transpose.  All you have to do is know a major scale and then apply that knowledge to the sequence of notes.  After I'm done writing this I will try it in a different key.

La Douceur "lick" at end of B part

Michael Doucet recorded La Douceur on the 2013 BeauSoleil album From Bamako to Carencro.  Here's a link to that recording.  The lick starts just after 50 seconds and is only a couple seconds long:  https://soundcloud.com/airshowmastering/beausoleil-avec-michael

And here's a video of the amazing banjo-mandolin player Dennis Pash of the Etcetera String Band and the Ragtime Skedaddlers playing it.  Dennis' version is where I first heard La Douceur and it made me want to learn this tune!  The section transcribed above starts at about 33 seconds into this video.



Remember, this method of notating is not like a tab or treble clef anything like that.  The numbers correspond to major scale notes, not finger placement, so it's not instrument specific or key specific.  You can use this notation system for any melodic instrument....saxophone, flute, guitar, mandolin, et cetera, and you can use it for any mode.  A tune in Dorian would probably have 2 as the tonal center.  Makes sense, right?

Grateful Dead Songs of Their Own #28 - Playing In The Band by Max Creek

JamBase teamed with microphone and headphone company Telefunken to produce "Songs Of Their Own", a 50-day tribute in honor of the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary celebration, featuring a daily cover of a Grateful Dead original song -- 50 videos in 50 days.  

I particularly like this jammed out version of Playing In The Band from day 28 by music veterans Max Creek.  The vocals aren't that strong but the improvisation gets really out there!  

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Learn Guitar With David Brent from The Office

David Brent of the original BBC The Office (Ricky Gervais) has a series of guitar lesson videos on YouTube.  These are of course meant to funny and an opportunity to showcase David Brent's original songs, but the funny thing is that they also serve as actual guitar lessons.  The information that David Brent provides has some merit to it and is not that different from other guitar tutorials on YouTube.  See for yourself!

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Anna and Elizabeth - NPR Tiny Desk Concert

Anna and Elizabeth

The mountain-music duo Anna and Elizabeth taped an NPR Tiny Desk a few months back.  It was finally posted yesterday. If you don’t know what a crankie is then have a look at the video below. This crankie is really good.

I had the opportunity sit in on an impromptu jam with Elizabeth LaPrelle a couple years ago, late, late in the evening around a festival campfire. That was a pretty awesome experience - trying to play along as she sang songs such as Cluck Old Hen and June Apple. 

Earlier this year, Anna and Elizabeth recorded some music with The Murphy Beds (Jefferson Hamer and Eamon O’Leary).  I'm definitely looking forward to hearing that!

YouTube Video Find: Medeski, Martin and Wood with Nels Cline - 2014 Cully Jazz Festival

This is a good find.  Pro shot, full set video of Medeski Martin and Wood with Nels Cline from 2014.  I don't think these guys play "songs" per say, but rather they just get on stage and jam, or free improv.  A great collaboration.  Click the image below to watch.

The Guitar Artistry of Bill Frisell - Harmony Transcript

There's a 5-part video now on YouTube called The Guitar Artistry of Bill Frisell.  It's from a 1996 instructional DVD where the guitar genius attempts to describe for others what he does so well.  I found video 3/5 of particular interest, so I have transcribed Bill's esoteric and custom-fit words below.  Starting about 2:40 into the video Bill says:

"Any song that I play, the melody - I always say that - it's just so important.  It gives an architecture to what you improvise.  If you combine all the theoretical knowledge you've learned - chords and scales and patterns - and keep that melody going, that's what can give you your own individual sound, really.  (plays melody)

There was the melody alone and for me that's a beautiful thing.  It's a complete... you don't need to play big fat chords or re-harmonize. If you add the bass notes, then the melody and the bass notes... that's getting pretty full there.

It also gets into some odd fingerings because you're thinking... You have to find ways - usually on the upper strings - to play melody, and then you've got a couple strings left to find a bass note that might... so a lot of times you end up with these odd, what could be considered wrong, ways of playing.  Like again, not in a position.

I'm just sort of... Sometimes I don't even know where I'm gonna end up, but I know there's an F there, there's an open D there.  But what I'd like to say is that once you get that sort of outside skeleton together, then you can start looking for little other notes in between, still not thinking of full chords but...

Some of the things we were talking about before with these scales that run together, notes that run together, I like to use smaller intervals, like 2nds; that's a big sound with only a couple of notes.  I'm gonna try to think of... I'm gonna still use the melody and the bass as my frame, and then I'll be a little freer with... Maybe I'll limit myself to 2nds or something, and think of something to put in between. (demonstrates this)

That's another thing, that I was lucky enough to be able to study with Jim Hall.  He showed me some things, like where I was talking about playing up and down on one string.  If you start adding intervals to that, like go through all the intervals.  Again, this could take your whole life.  (plays)

There's a C major scale.  If you do it in 4ths, or 2nds.  I use that a lot with bass-line melody and then try to think... Find intervals that have a color that you like, or some quality.  Another thing that's interesting to me is to use the melody as a statement, and then sorta think of... Sorta like having a conversation with yourself.

Play the melody and then answer what the melody is saying with either another phrase or a chord.  Like, comp for yourself or whatever.  But that can go on... I could do that all day.  Like, keep playing the melody and then, you know, you could... The melody is what gives me ideas, even to play things that are wrong just to see what they sound like.  (plays)

I don't even know what I did there, but if you keep hearing melody it can also give you more freedom to find harmonies that maybe aren't even in the key.  Or just think of sounds."

Guitar Legend Bill Frisell will be at the Richmond Jazz Festival on Sunday August 10, 2014!

Bill Frisell

I'm getting psyched about seeing one of my all-time favorite musicians, Bill Frisell, at the Richmond Jazz Festival at Maymont this weekend!  Bill will be performing with his Beautiful Dreamers trio (Eyvind Kang - viola and Rudy Royston - drums) on the MWV stage at 4:30pm on Sunday 8/10.  Click here for the full Jazz Festival lineup and set times.

Guitarist Bill Frisell's sound has been described by Jazz Times as "instantly identifiable".  Jazz Times goes on to say that his "tone is overwhelmed with reverb and delay, and he's developed the tic of bending the neck after striking a note or chord, in an effort to move those pitches into an unattainable perfect tuning.  Complementing those serene, liquid tone colors is his physical attack, wherein economy is paramount and looping devices are constantly tweaked for purposes of orchestration and atmosphere rather than theatrics."

This one-off performance in Richmond precedes a 5-day stint next week at the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Kilkenny Ireland, where it looks like Bill will sit-in with a wide variety of artists and projects, including a performance of Terry Riley's In C and a set with Irish traditional musicians Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill!  I would love to hear both of those.

Beautiful Dreamers trio

I've only seen Bill once before back in 2008 during his Disfarmer tour, so needless to say I've been geeking out in anticipation by reading interviews and watching videos.  Speaking of interviews, here's a really good interview with Bill Frisell done by his friend, banjoist Danny Barnes, and here's one where Bill interviews one of his own guitar heroes, Jim Hall.

Frisell seems to thrive in unusual, improvisational settings with all sorts of different musicians.  I'm particularly fond of the music made during this February 29th, 2004 performance at the Barbican Theater in London, where he played with Malian musician Djelimady Tounkara.  Here are some videos from that concert:

Bill Frisell seems to be a little outside the smooth jazz and funk that the Richmond Jazz Festival normally features, but then again Bill's going to be a little "outside" of any lineup he is part of.  Perhaps his presence will bring some increased awareness to an already successful and vibrant jazz festival.

Old-Time Mandolin and Guitar Duo YouTube videos

A YouTube user named Dawn Cantrell has uploaded several great videos of old-time fiddle tunes on mandolin and guitar.  These include Julianne Johnson, Rock the Cradle Joe, Dry and Dusty, Seneca Square Dance, Red Apple Rag, Twin Sisters, Big Sciota, Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss/Angelina Baker, Liza Jane and many more.  It's fun to play along with these.  Here's the video for Julianne Johnson:

The mandolin (or mandola?) player does a nice little turnaround at the end of the B-part worth figuring out.