You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Solo Analysis: "Lingus" - Cory Henry - #23

Episode Date: January 30, 2019

For this week's Solo Analysis, Peter and Adam answer a popular listener request and cover Cory Henry's solo on "Lingus."Check out this video of Snarky Puppy performing "Lingus," complete with hipsters and bright red headphones!Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey Adam. What's up? Is that Morse code you're sending me? No, it's Snarky Puppie. Oh, I'm Adam Maness. And I'm Peter Martin. You're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz advice coming at you.

Coming at you with tune analysis Wednesday. We're not going to analyze this whole tune, Peter. This is Starkey Puppies' Lingus. We like it here. It is 10 minutes and 43 seconds long. That would be the whole episode. That would be more than, that would be like a three-parter, and you'll hear it land. Well, we did start it already.

So in theory we could, but I think we want to really hit this great Cory Henry Solo is what we're going to do. Solo analysis, right now. Yeah, that's why everybody's here right now. That's why this room full of hipsters is listening to this band is for Corey Henry's solo. They didn't even know it, but that's what it ended up being. But man, you know it's a good solo. Check out the view count.

17,722,817 views as of January 2019 for a jazz video. Right. And see, I thought that was 17,722 with like 817,817. 17 extra votes. That's a bona fide 17 million. That's some virality, my friends. Yeah, this is as close to a hit as anything like this can get. And it's due large part, in large part, to this now famous solo.

Right. Corey Henry. Yeah. And I remember, actually remember the first time I saw this being like, what? I know. The first time people kept talking about, I was like, come on. Then it had all these views. I was like, this is going to be sad.

This is going to be. Not sad. And I was like, yeah. But it's so rare when someone has, you know, something of an original thought ever, you know, because everything under the sun has been done. And this was a really original solo. He's got such an original sound and such a great vibe. And this captured it.

Yeah. And there's like a, you're going to have to skip over about five minutes because there's quite a buildup before it even starts. So we're definitely not going to have time for that. You are not. All right. Let's get into it here. Oh.

Some Red Beats headphones about to fall off. They're getting excited. Yeah. If you haven't checked out the video, the video is great. There's a bunch of folks in a huge studio. Yeah, like listening. Yeah. Some trying to be gruvier than others.

Oh, man. I'm going to stop you there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So someone, one of our open studio members asked if we could do like an analysis of just that section. Yeah, just the section before he hits the other synth. Right. And, you know, I did a bit of a harmonic analysis and rhythmic somewhat. I didn't like detail it out or whatever, but just try to figure out what I think he was.

thinking. Yeah. And I'm not sure if he could tell you exactly like like harmonically. Yeah. I think he's going off things, shapes. He's hearing. Yeah, I think so too. I don't think there's any like, like, oh, this is the structural harmonic theory he's using. I think he's going for a sound and he knows those shapes are going to give him that sound and he knows if he goes here. Definitely some leading tones in the in the top voice. Yes. For sure. I think it's very melodically driven in a way. Definitely. You know, I didn't catch that right at the beginning, but I think he goes. the more that I check it out. And there's a real structural element to how he does this based upon that,

you know, there's that baseline with that odd kind of groove gone. That's got nothing to do with what he's doing seemingly. But that like kind of sets off like structurally. There's the architecture there. And then before he goes to the other synth, it's like this is a section. And it's a complete musical thought that's really brilliant. It's true. And it's a great lesson too, especially for something like this repetitive ostinado.

that, like you said, it's going on underneath him. There's no harmony to it. There's just this straight rhythm that doesn't change. And you have so much more freedom in those moments than you think you do. That's right. You always do. You can, he might be playing to some kind of meter in his head. Yeah.

It sounds like some kind of like quarter and a triplet meter maybe. Right. He could also, he might just be playing freely over it and trying to and finding his, and like listening to that Asanato, finding his way back to the one every time. You know what is? Yeah, yeah. I think it's, yeah, I think it's something kind of. of almost in between.

In between. Like there is a, there's a groove. I don't want to make up a totally new term, but like flow groove almost. Yeah, I know exactly. Because there's definitely a flow. And there's like a structure as far as the phrasing that gives this section its own little architecture. And then of course, there's obviously a lot of really interesting, some very kind of traditional harmonic things he's doing almost like block chord-esque.

There's gospel harmony in there for sure, but he's not using it in like a traditional, in the place you would normally use it. Not at all. He's taking it out of the key. Yeah. You get some of those voicing. You get some of that harmonic. movement always based on the melody.

But I really, like the, what did you say, the flow? The, uh, oh, my brilliant new term that I forgot. No, the, uh, the groove flow or something. Yeah, the groove flow. I, I totally understand what you mean. I think anybody who's done a lot of improvising, like a lot, a lot of improvising, understands that there's moments where you are not even feeling like this is the pocket that's of the song.

Right. Just that this is the pocket where I'm hearing everything right now and it maybe doesn't have anything to do with what's going on. Right. And it sounds dope. Yeah. And actually this kind of super structured like Astonato baseline groove with the drums and stuff, I think it's a perfect place to play like that because it gives you that immediate kind of

rhythmic counterpoint to what's happening. You know, it sets it off there. If he were just to play this on its own, it still would be really cool, but juxtaposed against that groove that's there. I mean, first of all, it's totally unexpected to come in. You know, a lot of keyboard players would be like, oh, I'm going to play something like right in the groove, which could be cool, too, with what's going on. Yeah, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, yeah.

you know right in there totally but to float over it yeah and to totally float not even really go in and out of it to do something different that some somehow still fits because it's got such a complete musical thought to it what a great thing let's go back and hear that again yeah and all this leading up to it has a big impact as well you know that's why it's such a great choice I mean it's like an epic you know and a total breakdown bass players like what's going to happen those are all just like 5-1 diminished things yeah super melodic sound Sounds. Space.

Before you got into these 16th notes, he was definitely implying some triplet 4 over 3. Right. And then right when drums went to the rims is like the first time they're grooving together, I think. So this is more like typically the way you'd expect somebody to start the solo, which would be cool too. But what a nice segue of buildup. Ah. Ben, bend. Jeez.

And he's sliding in and out of the time in a really cool way with the melodies of the solo. But catching the harmony. Those are all just triands underneath him. Yep. That's such an important part of the solo, because he was burning. And he broke it back down to almost what he was doing in the beginning, but it's more flushed out.

Let's hear that again. And what he's playing underneath is just harmonizing that melody with, I think, I'm pretty sure it's just like second inversion triad. Yeah, I think so, yep. Yep. Triplate 4 over 3. Practice your left hand, two folks. That's right.

It can come in handy sometimes. It really can. Too-handed? Two-handed? Makes for nice moments. Someone let that kid eat something. Back to that. Straight triad.

Yeah. Oh. Ridiculous. Yeah, man. That's some ridiculousness. You know what's really cool? Like he hit, you know, before he got to the real climax at the end, there was actually, I think, in a way, a high point of the solo,

when it got super intense and he didn't go like he backed off for a little bit you know off the 16th notes thing and got like real basic but he was still within the group was ding ding ding ding and it was like little moments like that

are really cool to check out when you it's a soul like this that you really like and you listen to it it's like one of the things that are a little bit unexpected and how do they set off what's coming later this has become a recurring theme in solo analysis Wednesday it is this has happened on a lot of these

great especially more modern solo that the longer they get, you know, this solo is four minutes, four minutes, 15 seconds, that Herbie solo, that Pat Mathini solo, those were both longer solos, that you can't just build to some kind of like orgasmic climax

every single, you know, time it's just pushing over. Right. Pulling back and having those moments of reflection almost during your solo or just pulling back the energy for yourself. You know, the band in, pull back the energy. No, no. It was on the steady climb the whole time. They knew the trumpets were

coming in eventually, you know what I mean? And I think the way Corey pulled it off there was very sophisticated in that he pulled back, but because the band did in the groove, and there was no pulling back. I mean, the horse is out of the barn. Yeah. So he stretched things out in terms of the phrasing, but he didn't go back to the like kind of counter time or against the time or the flow groove or anything. Like he still, and he wasn't like, he actually brought the volume down a little bit, the intensity down, but the rhythm, like he was still in there with that. So it's like he chose which parts he was going to alter as opposed to pulling everything back where it might have sounded awkward, totally like in the moment sort of just hip musical decision. But it's the kind of

thing that sometimes you can think about in the moment and so you can start to develop it as part of your playing. And emulate it from other great soles. And I think it's what makes the solo as great as it is. You know, the single note line 16-no runs thing? Yeah. I mean, what he has is really great, but a lot of guys have that. A lot of guys have that stuff, you know? What sets this apart are those, is really, it's his time feel. Yeah.

It's those kind of, you know, that pulse of either quarter-note triplets or sometimes like eighth note, dotted eighth note, like meters that he goes into against the time. Yep. Syncopation, really. The syncopation. It's like funk syncopation kind of.

Exactly. And it's his ability to pull back in those moments and be patient. The free... Yeah, yeah. Sorry, you can bleep that out, but that free stuff in the beginning is like ridiculously cool.

Yeah, and I mean, you know, as great as that is, it's kind of like once you lay that down, it's so innovative, it's almost like, I'm done. So then you got to go into, like, he put a bunch of different sections together with the solo in a way that was super effective where you had both, it's almost like chapters, you know, to a story, but it still had that trajectory.

I mean, there's that clear demarcation point, and part of it's because he's switching keyboards to and switching sounds, and then there's a couple other demarcation points. But it was all done in a music, musical way and it was never like just a straight line. There was always a few unexp- I mean, of course, you know it's gonna build up because of the nature

of how everybody's playing before it and because it starts out so open and the groove is there. It's like way down, you know it's gonna go up there. But he chose to make just a few interesting alterations to that straight line that I think really brought it together. Agreed. Yeah. Some things to note as a keyboard player or a pianist that he didn't do, he very rarely just comped and then soloed.

That happened a few times, but he did some things. And so this goes to what I bring this up, because I think it's a really good lesson in having different sounds available, different colors available, different textures available for you. So, you know, he obviously did the thing in the beginning where he's doing chords, you know, harmonizing those lines. And he did it again up top of the synth.

Two hands, you know, we said, don't sleep on practicing both hands for this very reason. It gives you another gear. It gives you another color to hit. And then he did more chords. He very rarely just, played, sometimes it's just just right hand, you know, using some of the pictures. Yeah, it's a lot of different techniques without it sounding jumbled, I didn't think.

Totally. He went through a lot of different. The other thing about the two-handed stuff on the keyboards, you know, some lesser players will just trigger another sound, you know, an octave low or something, but don't be lazy like that. First of all, you get a different sound because when, no matter how good you are with your left hand and the right hand, it's always going to be a little different. It's like, you know, having two violinists play together.

It's never going to sound like doubled one. violin. Unless you're Jeffrey Kieser. Unless, yeah. Well, Keyzer has, yeah, that's true. But I mean, when you get it, you know, then you get that humanity in the two different sounds. Totally. And then, you know, so don't take the easy way out on that or think you're going to just because you're playing a key. First of all, the piano, you can't do that anyway. But, yeah, good stuff. Yeah, Corey. Great.

Cool. Yeah. Well, thanks for the suggestion. This was a suggestion by our listener. 17 million of our listeners suggested this. This is from Josh, from Australia. Yeah, thanks, Josh. This is a great suggestion. We've had other folks. Thanks, Mike. Is that offensive?

I don't know. I don't mean that. I mean, I love. Yeah. So if you want to send us a suggestion for either a solo analysis or an episode, you can go to you'll hear it.com. You can also go to YouTube.

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Lillian Vernon catalog. Yeah, so links below, check that out. Little pithy show description. Those are always fun. Yeah, and also begs mentioning that this podcast is brought to you by Open the Studio. Wow, why are you going to do your sponsorship voice there? Well, I just wanted to let people know that if they wanted to get some more information about Open Studio,

then go to Open Studio Network.com. Oh, that would be beautiful. We will meet you there if you go there. That's me. All right. Well, until tomorrow, you'll hear it.