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i know there are few rules on what you cant do when reharmonizing a jazz standard and i know you can do alot with an ordinary aaba form standard provided the melody can support your choice of chord substition and such, but i was wondering would it be abit too extreme if you just tossed the existing chords of a standard out of the window and reharmonized the melody tone with chords of your own choice, provided of course you stay in the same key?
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04-14-2016 04:00 PM
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the thing I would say is that if you are playing solo, it is entirely your world. I'll completely chuck entire sections sometimes.
if you are playing with a steady group and you can talk to the other guys about what's on your mind and what you want to try and they agree to have a go, then again, the world is yours
its when you are playing in a pickup sort of setting like an open jam session that you really have to keep in mind that there are other players who have certain expectations when it comes to the harmony.
so that's the practical end of it...on the artistic side you are taking the chance that your listeners get completely put off by your choices for the harmonization. That is the chance that you take when you go far afield.
but will some old geezers in sunglasses and dashikis come and haul you away and ban you from playing jazz? no, not at all. So take the risk and either wail or fail. You never know until you try.
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thx for the reply i will keep that in mind, and i like the imagery of that last line in your post
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From the point of view of playing with others or performing at a gig,etc, I think best work first with subtle re-harms of certain bits of tunes, rather than full on re-harms of the entire form..think Coltrane on 'Body and Soul' or Henderson on 'Night and Day' , for example...
If others are responding positively to what you're doing to these small bits, then yeah why not, go on re-harm more extensively if you want
Before you do any re-harms, do make sure you can play the tune proper though..often people try to be all fancy with some complex re-harm, but they can't even get through the common/original melody and harmony properly --there's just no excuse for that!
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I really like what Nate had to say.
Y'know, a song form is there as a guideline, for you, for your listeners, for the people you play with. You are given melody, harmony, rhythm and even an arc of development. All of these are the stuff of re-interpretation. What isn't provided is intention, and to the best soloists, and the best solos, intention is what comes through.
What you put in is your creative license. You may think of the individual parts that make up a standard and use your own command of the form to create your own. Writing out radical reharms is a great exercise for your own soloing. You're playing music; form is just the other player.
Coming up with your own choices that carry as much conviction as the original writer, ...you pull that off and everyone has a good time.
David
Andy Laverne loves to put new heads on existing changes (contrafact) and new harmony on existing melodies. This is Rhapsody, but check out his harmonies.
Jerry Bergonzi loves to reharmonize to the point of mind boggling mystery, but he pulls it off. A lot of his stuff I hear him do this on isn't recorded, but here's some Giant Steps DNA on Night and Day.
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I've been working on a reharmonization of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that I'm actually thinking of in terms of a commentary or low-key kind of message about the song and our times. Nothing heavy or political, just a kind of musical meditation. So far it's going well, and I've got some things in place. I'm combining some standard substitution rules with some other pretty common arranging practices, and in places simply saying "Hey the melody note is this, and here's a chord with that melody note in it and I"m putting this bass note on it because that's what my bass line needs..."
The question, of course, is will listeners (who know the song fairly familiarly) "get" what I'm doing? Will they understand the thought and intent behind it? Or will they just think I took a perfectly lovely song and made it muddy, confusing and ugly? Or will they just connect with it musically? "Hey he did something I didn't expect on that tune..."
It's hard to know, but I'm enjoying the project.
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that's what you never know. First, there's the question of will they even notice. If you are trying to be subtle, they might not even cotton on that something's different. Then even if they do notice something, will they know what it is?
Even when you clear all those hurdles, then comes the big question: will they associate the meaning you intend?
this is where things get sticky. There are some sounds like a baby crying or glass shattering that we know and understand. Those sounds have intrinsic meaning.
Musical sounds only have meaning in context. You can even make the case that the only real meaning that musical sounds have is structural. Emotional associations are all subjective.
One thing that does give us something to work off of is our "collective unconscious". The little melodic fragments everyone has heard that have an associated meaning in the culture. A nursery rhyme or popular TV show theme are examples of this sort of meaning.
this subject has always been interesting to me. We as artists, especially jazz players, we put a lot of feeling into what we play, but there's no way to actually tell somebody how to put feeling into their music. There isn't any sort of "put your 2nd finger there on the 3rd fret and then sweep the pick and..." sort of technique for conveying particular emotional responses. That is all up to the listener and out of my control.
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Years ago, i was playing at my kid's school Heritage Day Show and after I played my Scottish folk tune, i found myself up on stage with another parent who happened to be a jazz pro -- cannot recall his name, but he was 17 when he toured with Miles -- and we did a duet on the only jazz song i knew at the time, Autumn Leaves, me on guitar and him on flute.
Well, I tried to get fancy with subs and only managed to botch the chords and got lost in the form. Didn't phase him in the least. Afterward, I apologized, but he said it didn't matter what i played because the melody line was strong enough to carry over anything.
He said: "You were reharmonizing. You just didn't know it."
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Two excellent treatments regarding reharmonization are Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" (two chapters: Basic Reharmonization, and Advanced Reharmonization), and Randy Felts "Reharmonization Technique" (Berklee Press). I find endless inspiration in these two seminal jazz books. Levine's examples are from the standard jazz repertoire and Felts has exercises for each reharmonization technique. Anyway, be sure to share your reharmonization.
Saludos de Panamá....
Ron
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Randy Felt is brilliant name. I will buy his book on that basis alone.
Here's a question - standard songs lend themselves to all types of harmonisation.
Would you agree that the same true of most jazz compositions? Tin pan alley type songs work because the melodies have an identity in themselves - seems like most jazz compositions are written harmony out and the line defines the harmony bop style, or floats above the chords modal style.
But, if anyone has some killer reharms of jazz compositions I would love to hear them....
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Felts addresses what types of tunes/songs are appropriate for each reharmonization technique. One can do amazing reharmonizations with even simple tunes that have only a few basic original chords. It really is a fine book and with a reasonable price (Amazon.com has new for $22.45 and used for $14.64). I agree, I would be pleased to see anyone's reharmonizations. I am working on a few reharmonizations but I am still in "study mode" so I'm mostly woodshedding. But, perhaps soon....
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I would add one more cool thing about the Felts book, each exercise has possible solutions in the back of the book. This is great.
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Ok - a dissenting voice.
I am not particularly a great fan of reharmonization of jazz standards because often there is little to gain imo, as opposed to making stylistic changes such as setting the tune to a bossa nova beat or half time or other rhythmic or tempo changes. I prefer those type of alterations as opposed to butchering Jerome Kern or some other great composer's work. This is a personal preference not a proscription.
On the other hand one can play a relative minor in place of a one chord or a diminished chord in place of a flat fifth sometimes without marring the harmonic palette of the tune.
I know some people are familiar with Peter Mazza's style. While I admire his skill, I find it tiring to the ear after a very short period of listening.
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Re-harmonised version of What a Wonderful World by my duo.............attempt to re-imagine the feel and meaning of the song..........
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RK - sounds very nice and your duet partner has a lovely voice!
Where are you located? West Coast, I imagine...
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I think most players reharmonize tunes they cover to some extent. For me, reharmonization techniques are very helpful in composition as they offer a huge number of alternatives. In Levine's book, the section in the Advanced Reharmonization chapter called "Build a Chord on Any Note" is outstanding. As for reharmonizing standards, I agree with Jay that perhaps is it kicking a dead horse as they have been done so many, many times before. I have digitized (Finale) Levine, Felts, and a few other important works because I am not proficient enough on piano to comfortably play the more complex illustrations. It takes time to put these in Finale but well worth effort as it greatly enhances learning.
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Very nice reharmonization, indeed. Intriguingly modal. Do you have something else? If so, please share.
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We are in the West of Ireland.............gigging mainly around Limerick
Originally Posted by targuit
RK - sounds very nice and your duet partner has a lovely voice!
Where are you located? West Coast, I imagine...
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Thanks Ron - this is our take on Chili Peppers Under the Bridge...........again we have tried to reharmonize the verse to get a different feel rather then do a straight cover Originally Posted by Ron Hoggard
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That is what I do, not necessarily Jazz, but here's a couple (for the rest check my YT channel).
Practical standards thread is one source for Jazz material, the rest comes along the way, although the rest sometimes turn more Jazzy than Jazz ....
Oh Yeah On The Radio (Roxy Music)(Country Ska)
Day Tripper (The Beatles) (Psycho)
Come Rain Come Shine (2 versions Rock + Jazz)
My Foolish Heart (Jazz Funk Rock)
Soleil Soleil (Middle of the Road) (Jazz)
Black Orpheus/ Manha De Carnaval (Ska)
What's this thing called love (Heavy)
And the most recent one: Naima (John Coltrane)
Last edited by Vladan; 04-29-2016 at 10:13 AM.
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