My dad – who was a jazz guitarist in his spare time – has a phrase ‘interesting chords’, like ‘some of those chords are interesting‘ i.e. unusual. He also has a love of Bossa Nova, and introduced me to the phrase ‘plink plink/cling cling jazz’ – I suspect he must’ve heard the Stan Freberg spoof at some point. He also introduced me to the concept of descending sequences.
I think I now understand the ‘interesting chords’ comment watching this video on The Girl From Ipanema from Adam Neely, a track I love despite being covered to death and indeed whitewashed as seen in the video. I had noticed the changes in the early versions but lacked the musical education to say why. This explains how it has changed and how things have been lost due to a student at Berklee, probably white I’m guessing, not thinking the counter melody ‘important’.
The part in question? The one that was inspired by the African-American blues. That is exactly the sort of systematic racism and dilution that is still sadly topical 50 years later….and to miss that reduces it down to a xerox of a xerox, even in the wrong key and missing bits! Also that ‘hardwiring’ Adam mentions is partly why I wish I had more music theory, but having seen my musician friends ‘caged’ by these burnt-in traditional sequences and rules, I’m not totally sure it would be a good reason to be musically straightjacketed like that.
(video via Anthony @hinoirocks)
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