Thoughts on playing pop/rock instrumentally?

[Jimmy Smith]

This is one of my favorite pop tunes done instrumentally. She embellishes it a lot to enhance the feeling of the song without taking it in a different direction. That's what I want to be able to do. Also I think the melody is pretty memorable so it gives her more to work with. More so than the Nirvana tune where it's basically just Cobain's feels propelling the song.

[RJVB]

I suppose you'd add some dynamics? (nice playing for the rest, hammertone )

Anyway, this got me to finally dig up something I hadn't heard in ages ... not yet very sure what I think of it now... but I'm certain a live performance wouldn't be boring!

[Bop Head]

This is not instrumental but it shows how a 90ies grunge song could be voiced and reharmonized on keys.

[sgcim]

I suppose you'd add some dynamics? (nice playing for the rest, hammertone )

Anyway, this got me to finally dig up something I hadn't heard in ages ... not yet very sure what I think of it now... but I'm certain a live performance wouldn't be boring!

Thanks for posting that! I love some of APP's songs, Time, Eye in the Sky, but especially Old and Wise. I was moved to see a YT video that featured a live version of an APP concert from Germany with the audience singing along to O&W! In the US there's no reaction to it. They also appreciate William Gaddis in Germany,and have the WDR Big Band, so Germany seems to be the place to be for the arts, AFAIC.

The adaptations of APP's music are along the same lines of what I'm doing with a big band, but Andrew Powell and the other two arrangers are in as opposite a direction from what I'm doing as a jazz arranger as is possible. Every note they write is from a strict classical conception (which of course works, because they're coming from a band that is classical/rock), where I'm coming from a strict jazz conception.

Still, I've given serious thought to trying to adapt O&W for jazz band, because it's so musically powerful, and also has an alto sax solo (which is left out on the Andrew Powell record- couldn't they find one alto sax player who could improvise?), so it's a possibility, but will require a lot of work on my part to bring it off.

[sgcim]

This is not instrumental but it shows how a 90ies grunge song could be voiced and reharmonized on keys.

Wow, she did a great job with that!

[Bop Head]

Wow, she did a great job with that!

In every concert recording of Norah Jones I have seen she is smiling. If you watch her closely here you will see her very serious, almost crying. She played the song at a Detroit concert only five days after Chris Cornell’s death (official version: suicide) on the same day he had been cremated and buried in LA.

[RJVB]

Thanks for posting that! I love some of APP's songs, Time, Eye in the Sky, but especially Old and Wise.

You're welcome! In my memory these were full orchestral adaptations that didn't even involve the band, but clearly I was wrong. There's another band that I was thinking of when posting, that I somehow put in the same category but couldn't remember the name of until late yesterday: Spandau Ballet. Apparently it is they who worked with the London Symphonic at some point; it looks likeAndrew Powell's orchestra is not identified (= was an ad-hoc ensemble?)

Funny thing, I knew Spandau Ballet had performed at Live Aid, but going over the list of performers didn't help me remember their name. Maybe because they came just after Ultravox, probably my favourite group at the time