BTS & other musings

What I'm currently listening to and studying right now -

As part of my teaching work with private students across multiple fields (songwriting, production, bass, music theory etc.), I've been analyzing a lot of songs, chords, melodies, and overall structures. Some recent highlights include:

Toni Braxton "Another Sad Love Song" - remarkable in it's flawless composition, melody coherence (Babyface, baby, production, and the power of the sus chord! It's centered around the key of Aminor but uses the G sus (from Cmajor) as a pivot chord at the end of major sections. Not to mention the Bridge and outro modulation Chorus...wow

Thundercat/Tame Impala "No More Lies" - these two guys have an uncanny ability to find groove and melody with some extremely dense harmony, and make it all feel good. There's a play with descending major & minor chords in the structure, and the choices made melodically and production wise just feel genius levels deep. Feels like a Tame Impala song with Thundercat on it, but then there's the crazy bridge with even more chords! Check it out.

Olivia Dean albums "Messy" & "The Art of Loving" - if you're living/breathing any current music you will have heard Olivia by now. She just won best new artist Grammy too. What stands out to me is how well recorded, produced, and WRITTEN her albums are. Not to mention her general authenticity. That's pretty much the winning combo... and when I say well recorded - that's what really struck me about the recent album. The levels an artist can go when they have full studio access (and budget!) to make their incredible songs really shine. This makes it such a group effort combined with a great engineer, players/musicians, and producer.

SCORING - I've been studying film composers and classical composers off and on for the past year or so. I have a strong desire to score a film one day, and have been going deep. Here's a few recordings/films that have impacted me.

Philip Glass "Koyaanisqatsi" - I was referred to this work during a meeting I had at a streaming network end last year. I had played some things I was working on in the meeting, and they said it reminded them of this recording, which is from a film of the same name. I haven't seen the film yet but I love Glass's approach to composing, especially how he slowly evolves themes over time organically. Very powerful. I'm specifically interested in darker experimental textures right now when it comes to this field..

Mica Levi "Under the Skin" - speaking of textures, I've been obsessed with Mica's work since I watched Zola. Since then I've seen Zone of Interest and Under the Skin which they both did scores for. The mind altering sounds in Under the Skin are inspirational to me, and evoke just the kind of emotion I want to feel in a futuristic/strange movie like this. There are some very interesting string techniques used as well to achieve certain effects. If you are familiar with their work as a composer or not, I highly recommend these films.

LA Philharmonic & Esa-Pekka Salonen "Rite of Spring"(Stravinsky) - I came back to this piece about 2 years ago and I continue to revisit it when I feel moved to. I don't have a score but I plan to get a copy soon to really look at what's going on. For me no matter if I'm producing records, playing jazz, teaching or writing, I NEED to hear things like this to keep my mind expanding, and remember what's possible in music & sound. The effective explosion through the orchestration and undoing of "typical" harmony of the day that Stravinsky achieved is historic to say the least.

Rosalia "LUX" - in these times an album like this is protest music (to me). The effort and time that went into creating this body of work is special. Check out any interview of her talking about it. She's singing in something like 10 different languages, and is quite musically ambitious. I wouldn't say these sounds are something we've never heard before.. but the intention behind the work is very bold, especially in the face of AI and the geopolitical evil we are all living through right now. Finding some nature and putting this on is a good way to repel the daily chaos we are all subjected to currently.

Behind the scenes making of The Love Tape LP

In early October I went down to After Hours Records in Orange County in between teaching gigs and worked with the mastering engineer Ben on the vinyl. We got into the details of each song and carefully checked bass & treble frequencies via his impressive digital setup, where we could literally zoom into the grooves of the record to check how everything was sounding. It was amazing to see visually what the music sounded like and some of the edits we needed to make to ensure top quality sound. It's a challenge to fit 11 songs on two sides of a record but I think it came out beautifully all things considered. Check out the phots and videos for more...!

Thoughts on D'Angelo's passing

R.I.P. to a Legend

For me, D'Angelo gave us musicians permission to be "different", while remaining soulful and in the pocket. Unusual harmonies, "chordless chords", strange phrases. Time feel so deep it felt like another galaxy. Sonics so rich you could live in the musical layers... and yet his music still resonated on a global level.

As I got to know the person behind the music I really related to who he was. He seemed like a sensitive soul who really cared about the music. He studied and incorporated the history of artists before him. D created when he felt moved to create (he famously took 14 years to create his final album). He clearly had a great sense of humor and candor too, yet instantly gave you a sense of his vulnerability in his performances.

This might sound strange but I've always tried to study other artists with the same astrological sign as me, and try notice any similarities or cross currents. D'Angelo, Dilla, Brandy, Questlove, Roberta Flack.. are all Aquarius. I've always felt that I hear odd phrasing in music or unusual harmony and giants like D'Angelo helped me understand my own musical proclivities through the choices he would make.

The loss of this musical force has affected everyone I know in the music community. It really just makes you think about the sounds you want to create while we are on this earth for a limited time. Lastly, I'd recommend the 4 part interview he did with Tavis Smiley, it's a wonderful portrait of a unique and singular force as an artist.