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Now it's spot your quote time...
Possibly, although we don't really know how it was composed. I do think that sound is redolent of the period, though. Tunes like Caravan, night club music echoing desert themes or belly dancers and all that. Exotic rather than sad, I think.Implied by the melody?
I certainly didn't feel 'sad' when playing it, I just enjoyed the dream-like quality of it and I suspect that was actually the point. So I'd go with John on that.I'm guessing (based on the title) it was meant to evoke a dream Nica described. So dreamlike, if not [insert pair of synonyms for puzzling here]. I actually don't perceive the song as "sad" or any other clichéd link between tonality and mood. It seems almost narrative to me.
I thought that was Christian doing his thing when I saw that but it wasn't :-) And I had to look it up. Definitely the right Latin rhythm they use. I just played the boring old Samba thing...Most colorful step of the classic minor Montuno pattern?
What I was going to say was that I couldn't see much point in having two m/maj7 chords like that and not using that (mel m) sound. I think that's what I enjoyed most about it.
Tell you one thing. You know that repeated pattern I used in the middle somewhere, then moved down, almost like rock guitar or something? Gosh, I haven't played one of those for years and years. But I could feel it needed it at that point so I just did it. Came quite naturally. Bit of a surprise :-)
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02-27-2021 12:43 AM
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A great discussion as if Nica's Dream were at least a symphony. In the case of jazz music, the name of the song is often quite accidental. This song could also be called Nica in Blue or simply Nica. The interpretation of the jazz musician is his subjective vision.
It is similar with poetry - people interpret and understand it differently ...
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The whole tone scale on m(maj7) seems an apt choice as well
A WT on both minor maj7 chords
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Great ideas from Andreas Oberg from about 10 years ago:
Originally Posted by christianm77
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it’s the same relationship; though I learned it listening to Wes Originally Posted by kris
I briefly use it on my recording. It’s fun!
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WT ideas from Django over 251:
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voxss: liked that a lot!
I don't perceive the tune as sounding sad either - the melody is quite uplifting to my ears.
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If you watched the vid does he reference the original recordings were Django uses these sounds? Originally Posted by kris
There’s a LOT of Django.
I know that lick though haha. Didn’t get it form Django, just seemed like an obvious thing to do with the diminished lick sweeping thing that everyone does.
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I picked up a similar lick from T.Bone Walker's playing where he shifts an augmented chord in full tone steps. Originally Posted by christianm77
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The minor key suggests some kind of sadness but the whole piece is not sad, maybe it's a kind of melancholy ... Originally Posted by TOMMO
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check out wes' comping Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Great solo of Louis Stewart on guitar. Originally Posted by voxsss
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Popular play with chromatically falling bass - often used in Latin music over minor chords. Originally Posted by djg
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Another great version by Louis Stewart (I saw him in London with this band once):
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Great player LS-Louis Stewart
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Nice version...great rhythm section.
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Yes he is one of my favourites, I’ve managed to collect quite a few of his albums over the years (mostly unavailable now sadly), and taped some radio broadcasts (including the London gig from which Nica’s Dream was taken). Originally Posted by kris
At one gig I saw him at, he plonked his guitar down on my table after the first set and said ‘Would yer mind lookin’ after this while I heads off to the bar?’ (in a strong Irish accent). He must have thought I looked trustworthy I guess!
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Oh, he did my lick at about 4.00 :-)
I can safely say I didn't do any of his...
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Every lick is good.
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LOUIS STEWART TRANSCRIPTIONS......https://louisstewart.wordpress.com/
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Yeah so the thing is I think melodic minor harmony was mostly popularised as a concept to distinguish m(maj)7 sounds from m7 sounds (well technically Tristano was teaching it in the late 40s but bear with me.)
Before then that’s just the general minor sound everyone used and the minor sound had influences from other scales too.
The main thing to change was the use of the seventh chords as basic units of jazz harmony which means you have to call it - minor or Major seventh?
m7 sounds as a base minor sound really came in with modal jazz. Before then it was just minor and everything seems to get mashed in together more or less.
in bop, swing and as has been mentioned cuban music, the 7th is ‘mobile’ - it can be major or minor, but the main resting note is the 6th.
you can hear Django and Charlie Christian shifting between melodic minor and dorian type sounds because their harmonic emphasis is on the m6 chord. You have classic bop lines like Bebop or Groovin High running 1-7-b7-6 which of course you also hear in standards like Blue Skies/In Walked Bud (not to mention baroque bass lines.)
But even in the modal era there was still a lot of chopping and changing. You hear players like Wes, Herbie and Miles interchanging melodic minor and dorian quite freely. So that mobile 7th remains a resource and an important sound in the music.
That’s why I don’t really like melodic minor as a concept as it’s really more complex. It’s more like ‘minor.’ I call it True Minor to separate it from Modal Minor (m7 etc.)
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Agree. "Minor" is an entity in this kind of jazz. Its not really melodic minor harmony (that does happen of course later on) Originally Posted by christianm77
To me this tune is just a good example of the 1950's fascination with "latin" culture. Lucy and Ricky and all that.
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It seems to me that melodic minor was used before. It fits perfectly with the altered dominants - it was played and played to this day / a half tone higher than the base of the dominant /. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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