You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Solo Analysis: "Rebel Music" - Christian Sands - #13

Episode Date: January 16, 2019

In today's episode, Peter and Adam break down Christian Sands' "Rebel Music." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Oh, yeah. We all know what the intro music means, right? No. I mean, yeah. It's tune breakdown Wednesday, whatever we're calling it. Is that a thing? I didn't know we had a... Yeah, we do a regular Wednesday.

Well, we do like solo analysis Wednesday. Solo analysis Wednesday. Sorry. I've been gone, man. I've totally forgot. I like that tune breakdown Wednesday. That's good. Tune breakdown.

That's kind of going to be a little bit. Track, track breakdown. We've been really doing more track breakdown than we have solo analysis. And this one, I've been. is a good candidate for it. This is from Christian Sands' latest recording called Facing Dragons. This is the first track

called Rebel Music. Yeah. And incidentally, you will be talking with Christian Sands tomorrow. Tomorrow, yeah. So we can, if we have any questions about voicing, is there anything that we hear on this tune, on this track breakdown? And I can ask him specific technical details as well. That's great. Well, let's have a little

bit of listen to Rebel music. Okay. Who's in the rhythm section here with Chris? So this is Yasushi, Nakamura, affectionately known as sushi, actually. Perfect. Great young Japanese bassist really kind of on the forefront of the New York scene right now.

And Jerome Jennings, I believe, is on drums, out of Cleveland, Ohio. Very, very cool. And that's kind of Christian's regular trio. I've heard him over the last year a couple times live, and it's a really good, tight trio, like working trio, which is, you know, something that's not happening all too often now. So this track already has a few things that I'm a sucker for. I'm going to pause it before you get too heavy into the solo.

And that is the left-hand piano and bass ostinado. I overuse that myself quite a bit. Yeah, because it's fun and sounds good. It sounds great. And then roads and piano mix. Yes. I mean, I love them, of course, on their own, but I love having a roads on the side of the piano

and being able to do a two-handed thing with them. Right, right. And it's almost like on this track, and I think later on he gets into it some more, too. almost used as like a pad kind of situation. Yeah. Padding. I don't know if I'm using that term correctly,

but that's kind of the way that we sometimes do it with like a keyboard pad or whatever. Or a double. I think he's been using it as a double thing. Let's get back to the solo. Okay. Hold on. Let me back it up a little more. Wait, can we listen just to the beginning again?

Is that? Fine. No, because you talk about the baseline. I love that. I love that, too. Build up, too. Is it a bass plan? Yeah.

There it is. Okay. You pause? just for a second. So this is a great technique for composition. I mean, it seems like he's just repeating. Well, he is repeating this line. But what's actually happening?

He's introducing the thematic material. And so it really becomes a thing of like, what is the melody? What is the main thing? Well, it doesn't really matter, but it kind of does. And by doing it this way, it's almost like that's the most,

there's going to be a melody. We know that it's coming up higher. But that baseline kind of, wouldn't you say, it's kind of like the main theme at this point? It's the opening theme. for sure. And the way he orchestrates it without adding the bass right away is really, really

interesting and good. And something that I think, you know, if you're taking notes as a musician in a trio, feel free to use. The way that you can double the instruments is super important. And I think it's overlooked. You know, you and I have both on orchestration for orchestras.

And it's like the main tool in your toolbox for orchestras to get different sounds by doubling. So you can do it with the bass and the piano, with the drums in the piano, with the drums and the bass, like all these combinations. And it's always a matter of like when, if it's going to happen, when is it going to happen? Because that's a built-in dramatic point for you.

And so the sort of typical thing, which could have worked Goodwood for the bass to come in and start doubling that. And he plays it later. But I think that when the drums come in and it seems like the base is going to double, it doesn't. So it almost heightens the drama of kind of when it's going to happen. And so there's no right or wrong way to do this, but you want to kind of get a handle on how the different ways of doing it

affect the architecture of the tune, and then that becomes part of your kind of compositional palette. Yeah, check it out. The bass comes in on a hit and then is in. And now it feels real. So then you've got that, you know, that shifting. Now we're going to get into the, I guess, the real part of the tune, but this is such a great, obviously setting it up for a nice segue later on, maybe something to solo or whatever. But like you're setting up this section, this kind of expositional section. and the harmony shifts when he goes to that sort of diminished with the raised seventh sort of thing

but the baseline stays the same that's another kind of technique that I recommend for aspiring composers and arrangers to have into their palate we always think the baseline and has to exactly match the harmony and that can be okay but that's a little bit corny sometimes to do that well especially if you're doing something as repetitive is this ostinado yeah you know you have that that it's like it becomes a pedal and you can add tension to it and what I love about this is how patient they are before they take it to the melody you know he's he's setting it up just really nicely and that little shift yeah that little change adds a lot yep nice drumming some great ride symbol and hi-hat yeah just the right amount of auxiliary kind of work I love

that you can you probably remember here that do you like the way that that kind of grace note is sort of delayed I don't want to over analyze just listen to it if you like it steal it because he stole it with the bass and the drums phrase it phrasing so now I mean you've got that baseline you've come to any time you've established it you know look out look out look out look out taking it to jazz Congress now that's what I'm talking about the McBride trio comes out that's right but the way Sam's soloing he starts out that's a really interesting choice because I'm always sort of my tendency at that point would be

like right in the cut right in the time go for it yeah he's like very esoteric almost like floating above it yeah which is cool too because now you've got the drama of like when he does go in there right on the time it'll kind of sync up in a way that's very interesting there's still an element floating yeah even though the bass and the drums are locked in there yeah i mean it just always shows what a great uh instrumentation of the trio is it's because you've got two and one one one and two three altogether yeah one one yep let's check out out that moment out again now they're in it that's really amazing about this is uh how um not

jagged, it feels going between the swing and the straight for them. Yeah, really the way he's soloing the signal lines and not a lot of comping of the left hand is what kind of links up those sections. Yeah. And enables bass and drums to really go straight back and forth from those two grooves. You don't feel taken out of, you don't feel like it's a drastic change. It's good. There it.

Ah, scuba-duba-de-go-de-de-go-head. Lick-siding, licks-siting. Yeah. But this is really the first point where he's like straight in the swing. So this is like, how far into the tune are we? Three minutes. Yeah, that's great, man. I love it.

And like this kind of play, I love that when you're like swinging over the groove, which is really what that is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's so great, man, as I'm listening to this, just realizing, even though Christian Sands is still young-ish, you know, I've been following him for a long time. It feels like a long time. I've known about him and been listening to him with Christian McBride's trio and just so great to hear the growth, you know? Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah.

Yeah, and I mean, I think he's actually approaching 30. It's like funny when we think about it, because I've known him for... Well, I'm an old man now, so... Well, yeah. Yeah. Well, as am I. But, I mean, I'm thinking... I'm trying to remember that...

I definitely heard him when he was, like, early 20s, maybe even like 20 or something. So it is fun to hear. Like, he sounds the same. Yeah. But there's been a lot of growth in his playing and music. It's almost like see growth in their... There's someone's musicianship. When there's such a good pianist from a young age,

you see more growth in their musicianship, their composition abilities. ability to lead a trio ability to put together a great album which i think this album is just wonderful from beginning to end i'm really totally touching on the first track today but but i think even the piano stuff sounds like it's grown in the last couple years yeah you know what i mean as will happen we talk about this all the time the cumulative effects of work right on it but yeah it sounds really great good stuff yeah way to go it's funny because we're always who is it always i think it's mcbride's always calling them you always call them young sands like almost like it was his name young sands we'd call them that well uh tell them i loved it even though i won't be on the

episode tomorrow when you talk to him really really great stuff yeah that's gonna be fun we're looking forward to that tomorrow so we're going a little deeper dive probably on this track and the album and just have some have some fun he's a really funny guy too cool so I'm looking forward to that really smart really funny of course amazing pianist he's from Connecticut that's the only problem but yeah we're not gonna hold that against him well until then you'll hear it