Topic: Rap
Rap was a style of speaking within a structured format. Despite its associations with Gangsta Rap, the subject matter was varied, but generally restricted to experiences of the rapper and his or her audience.
Leon adapted the style to evangelism in 2006. He described a person ready to kill and one ready to smoke crack using short staccato phrases to advance his narratives. One described a fight
"He hit you so hard
Like he broke your jaw"
that led to the vanquished pulling a gun with
"Balls of sweat
Down your face drippin’"
In the second, a boy stole his mother’s wallet to buy crack from the dead man. In both cases, they were stopped by a voice that told them to put the gun/dope down. This was followed by:
"And fall to your knees
Crying out loud
Lord help me please"
At that point the recording changed from a single male voice chanting slowly against a drum to a group of men singing the "somebody’s praying" verse from "Come by Here" in harmony with the 1-5 melody. The drum continued through the chorus with an Xx beat. In the verse, it had only played a strong beat at the start of the second half of each phrase.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Leon
Vocal Group: men, not identified
Instrumental Accompaniment: none
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums
Credits
(C) 2006 Barrydrecords
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: strong Xx pattern so, for example, "everybody yelling" became "er by yellin’"
Verses: praying
Vocabulary
Pronoun: somebody
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: drug slang
Basic Form: verse-chorus.
Verse Repetition Pattern: chorus repeated twice
Ending: none
Unique Features: used traditional "Come by Here" as chorus
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: ABAB. Leon described the B chorus as "lyrical harmonic loops." [1]
Singing Style: A was chanted; B was sung in harmony
Notes on Performers
Barry Leon Dorsey was born in Miami, Florida, in 1970. He said he was singing with a toy mike when he was two, and "later played the drums in the church and sang in the church choir." In his twenties, he was performing professionally, although he did not specify with whom or what style music. His favorite groups, Run-DMC and Earth, Wind and Fire, suggested he preferred the disco and early rap of his adolescent years. [2]
Instead of providing biographical details, he recast his experiences into a tale of salvation. He wrote:
"I spent many years writing and performing music that was inappropriate. During this time of rebellion, I battled with good and evil over the type of music I wanted to play. One day my soul hit rock bottom and the devil lost the battle." [3]
Availability
CD: Role Model. 23 May 2006.
End Notes
1. CD Baby website for album.
2. Liner notes reprinted by CD Baby.
3. Liner notes.
Friday, March 30, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
J-Bo - Kumbaya
Topic: Rap
Rap developed as a verbal form within African-American popular culture, and, after the success of Straight out of Compton in 1988, [1] within the music industry. [2] As previous posts have shown, [3] it evolved from individuals making random comments, to a verse-chorus format that introduced some thematic unity, to Grandmaster Flash’s "The Message," which imposed unity on the verses as well.
Ice-T added narrative techniques in "Cop Killer" in 1992. [4] Instead of describing his own experience, he put himself inside the head of someone like Rodney King, who was beaten by Los Angeles policemen in 1991. When people criticized him for his asocial views, he was able to say
"All I’m doing on this record is playing a character I invented who’s fed up with police abuse. He’s not the average person who just figured out after the Rodney King incident that police brutality exists. This particular character has seen it too long and he loses it and goes on a rampage." [5]
J-Bo took on the persona of a killer in his 2014 version of "Kumbaya." The first-person verses primarily were threats to a woman, interspersed with a chorus that began
"Kumbaya kumbaya
Chop a head on wise
Since somebody died
Kumbaya kumbaya
Now they’re wearing black"
and ended with repetitions of "kumbaya." The second iteration of the chorus added "oh my God, oh my God."
J-Bo clearly enunciated his words in the verses in a deep voice that was accompanied by a synthetic rhythm. A synthesizer was added on the chorus. There the male voice may have been electronically altered, since it was higher, faster, and harder to understand.
The two kumbaya’s were spoken in a monotone with each syllable given the same duration, but a slight emphasis on the last. The second repetition was lower than the first. Perhaps the slightly menacing delivery was the entire meaning of the reference.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: J-Bo
Vocal Group: other voices made occasional comments in the background.
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: electronic
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom bi AH
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: God
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: ABABAB
Singing Style: chanted
Notes on Performers
Jeffrey Ray Grigsby grew up in Decatur, Georgia, in the years after the white town had turned Black with the expansion of Atlanta in the 1960s. [6] He and Sean Paul Joseph began performing together when they were in middle school. They began recording as the Youngbloodz in 1999, and had their greatest success with an album produced by Lil Jon [7] in 2003. By then they were known as J-Bo and Sean P. [8]
Sometime after their bus was stopped in 2006 for expired plates and everyone was arrested for possession of marijuana and concealed weapons, the two went their separate ways. The driver was later the one charged, [9] but they were the ones whose reputations were tarnished, not with fans, but with booking agents and record distributers.
Availability
MP3: Only the Strong Survive. 26 November 2014.
End Notes
1. N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Records SL 57102. 1988. (Discogs’ entry for album)
2. Wikipedia. "N.W.A."
3. See posts for three previous entries posted 22 March 2018, 24 March 2018, and 26 March 2018.
4. Body Count. Body Count. Warner Brothers Records 9 26878-2. 30 March 1992. (Discogs’ entry for album)
5. Ice-T [Tracy Morrow]. Quoted by Chuck Philips. "‘Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining’: A Q & A with Ice-T about rock, race and the ‘Cop Killer’ furor." Los Angeles Times website. 19 July 1992.
6. Wikipedia. "Decatur, Georgia."
7. For more on Lil Jon, see post for 22 March 2018.
8. Wikipedia. "YoungBloodZ."
9. Wikipedia, YoungBloodZ.
Rap developed as a verbal form within African-American popular culture, and, after the success of Straight out of Compton in 1988, [1] within the music industry. [2] As previous posts have shown, [3] it evolved from individuals making random comments, to a verse-chorus format that introduced some thematic unity, to Grandmaster Flash’s "The Message," which imposed unity on the verses as well.
Ice-T added narrative techniques in "Cop Killer" in 1992. [4] Instead of describing his own experience, he put himself inside the head of someone like Rodney King, who was beaten by Los Angeles policemen in 1991. When people criticized him for his asocial views, he was able to say
"All I’m doing on this record is playing a character I invented who’s fed up with police abuse. He’s not the average person who just figured out after the Rodney King incident that police brutality exists. This particular character has seen it too long and he loses it and goes on a rampage." [5]
J-Bo took on the persona of a killer in his 2014 version of "Kumbaya." The first-person verses primarily were threats to a woman, interspersed with a chorus that began
"Kumbaya kumbaya
Chop a head on wise
Since somebody died
Kumbaya kumbaya
Now they’re wearing black"
and ended with repetitions of "kumbaya." The second iteration of the chorus added "oh my God, oh my God."
J-Bo clearly enunciated his words in the verses in a deep voice that was accompanied by a synthetic rhythm. A synthesizer was added on the chorus. There the male voice may have been electronically altered, since it was higher, faster, and harder to understand.
The two kumbaya’s were spoken in a monotone with each syllable given the same duration, but a slight emphasis on the last. The second repetition was lower than the first. Perhaps the slightly menacing delivery was the entire meaning of the reference.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: J-Bo
Vocal Group: other voices made occasional comments in the background.
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: electronic
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom bi AH
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: God
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: ABABAB
Singing Style: chanted
Notes on Performers
Jeffrey Ray Grigsby grew up in Decatur, Georgia, in the years after the white town had turned Black with the expansion of Atlanta in the 1960s. [6] He and Sean Paul Joseph began performing together when they were in middle school. They began recording as the Youngbloodz in 1999, and had their greatest success with an album produced by Lil Jon [7] in 2003. By then they were known as J-Bo and Sean P. [8]
Sometime after their bus was stopped in 2006 for expired plates and everyone was arrested for possession of marijuana and concealed weapons, the two went their separate ways. The driver was later the one charged, [9] but they were the ones whose reputations were tarnished, not with fans, but with booking agents and record distributers.
Availability
MP3: Only the Strong Survive. 26 November 2014.
End Notes
1. N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton. Ruthless Records SL 57102. 1988. (Discogs’ entry for album)
2. Wikipedia. "N.W.A."
3. See posts for three previous entries posted 22 March 2018, 24 March 2018, and 26 March 2018.
4. Body Count. Body Count. Warner Brothers Records 9 26878-2. 30 March 1992. (Discogs’ entry for album)
5. Ice-T [Tracy Morrow]. Quoted by Chuck Philips. "‘Arnold Schwarzenegger blew away dozens of cops as the Terminator. But I don't hear anybody complaining’: A Q & A with Ice-T about rock, race and the ‘Cop Killer’ furor." Los Angeles Times website. 19 July 1992.
6. Wikipedia. "Decatur, Georgia."
7. For more on Lil Jon, see post for 22 March 2018.
8. Wikipedia. "YoungBloodZ."
9. Wikipedia, YoungBloodZ.
Monday, March 26, 2018
BrUceBuNgi - Cry Pray Kumbaya
Topic: Rap
Politics was inherent in early rap. As soon as members of Grandmaster Flash went beyond proclaiming their greatness to describing their physical environment on "The Message" in 1982, [1] rap became political to people who did not want to hear accounts of daily experiences from African Americans. While it featured two rappers, the record developed the same theme from two perspectives, with the parts held together by a recurring quatrain.
Bruce Bungi adopted the format in his response to the spate of unpunished police shootings of unarmed Black men in 2016. [2] The video featured photographs, lists of names, stills from videos of police brutality, and leaflet art. The musical accompaniment was limited to drums and a rattle with a woman’s voice vocalizing in the upper register.
He began with the disparity in white’s responses to school massacres and to the killing of individual African Americans:
"King Kong can shoot up a school with oh well
That white boy’s crazy right
We need help
But if I’m shot with my baby the unparallel is unnoticed
I must have been a target
Must have had a gun about to shoot with both my arms"
After describing several fatal contacts of Black men with corrupt policemen, he observed
"Everybody got solutions but no action
I don’t know what to do
That’s why I askin’"
All he knew for sure was the official response, summarized as "cry pray kumbaya" at the very end, was inadequate.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: male voice doubled
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: female voice sang "la la"
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums, rattle
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: kum BAH yah
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: not mentioned
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: free form
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: unvarying accompaniment
Singing Style: chanted with strong cadence
Notes on Performers
Rayshawn Lane was born in 1989, seven years after the release of "The Message." He grew up in the Smurf Village section [3] of Bedford-Stuyvesant at the intersection of Utica Avenue and Fulton Street. [4] He began releasing his own material as Bruce Bungi in 2009. He said his inspirations included "Eminem Jay z and the great notorious big who are also former residents of the Bedford Stuyvesant section in Brooklyn." [5]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by 450BuNgi on 8 July 2016.
End Notes
1. Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five. "The Message." Sugar Hill Records SH-584. 1982. (Discogs entry for album.) Rolling Stone listed it as the most influential of "The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time" on its website.
2. His YouTube notes explained: "ALL THESE SHOOTINGS I KEEP TRYING TO IGNORE BUT I CANT I HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING HAD TO PUT IN A SONG."
3. "BrUce BuNgi." Biography posted by Reverb Nation for "Quiet Storm." Also available on other websites.
4. "NYC neighborhood and street nicknames (Bedford, Medina: building, island, venue)." City-Data website. Entry on Smurf Village posted by Seventh Floor on 22 January 2010.
5. Bungi bio. While Jay-Z was from Bedford-Stuyvesant and The Notorious B. I. G. from the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn that bordered Bed-Stuy, Eminem was raised in Missouri and Detroit according to their entries in Wikipedia.
Politics was inherent in early rap. As soon as members of Grandmaster Flash went beyond proclaiming their greatness to describing their physical environment on "The Message" in 1982, [1] rap became political to people who did not want to hear accounts of daily experiences from African Americans. While it featured two rappers, the record developed the same theme from two perspectives, with the parts held together by a recurring quatrain.
Bruce Bungi adopted the format in his response to the spate of unpunished police shootings of unarmed Black men in 2016. [2] The video featured photographs, lists of names, stills from videos of police brutality, and leaflet art. The musical accompaniment was limited to drums and a rattle with a woman’s voice vocalizing in the upper register.
He began with the disparity in white’s responses to school massacres and to the killing of individual African Americans:
"King Kong can shoot up a school with oh well
That white boy’s crazy right
We need help
But if I’m shot with my baby the unparallel is unnoticed
I must have been a target
Must have had a gun about to shoot with both my arms"
After describing several fatal contacts of Black men with corrupt policemen, he observed
"Everybody got solutions but no action
I don’t know what to do
That’s why I askin’"
All he knew for sure was the official response, summarized as "cry pray kumbaya" at the very end, was inadequate.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: male voice doubled
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: female voice sang "la la"
Rhythm Accompaniment: drums, rattle
Credits
None given
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: kum BAH yah
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: not mentioned
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: free form
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: unvarying accompaniment
Singing Style: chanted with strong cadence
Notes on Performers
Rayshawn Lane was born in 1989, seven years after the release of "The Message." He grew up in the Smurf Village section [3] of Bedford-Stuyvesant at the intersection of Utica Avenue and Fulton Street. [4] He began releasing his own material as Bruce Bungi in 2009. He said his inspirations included "Eminem Jay z and the great notorious big who are also former residents of the Bedford Stuyvesant section in Brooklyn." [5]
Availability
YouTube: uploaded by 450BuNgi on 8 July 2016.
End Notes
1. Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five. "The Message." Sugar Hill Records SH-584. 1982. (Discogs entry for album.) Rolling Stone listed it as the most influential of "The 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time" on its website.
2. His YouTube notes explained: "ALL THESE SHOOTINGS I KEEP TRYING TO IGNORE BUT I CANT I HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING HAD TO PUT IN A SONG."
3. "BrUce BuNgi." Biography posted by Reverb Nation for "Quiet Storm." Also available on other websites.
4. "NYC neighborhood and street nicknames (Bedford, Medina: building, island, venue)." City-Data website. Entry on Smurf Village posted by Seventh Floor on 22 January 2010.
5. Bungi bio. While Jay-Z was from Bedford-Stuyvesant and The Notorious B. I. G. from the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn that bordered Bed-Stuy, Eminem was raised in Missouri and Detroit according to their entries in Wikipedia.
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Ether Minded People - Kumbaya
Topic: Rap
Rap began as an African-American genre with roots that penetrated through popular culture into the dozens, an improvisational rhyming game played by adolescents. DJ Hollywood, mentioned in the post for 22 March 2018, remembered their more public manifestations:
"I cannot take nothing away from people like Oscar Brown Jr., Pigmeat Markham, the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, the Watts Prophets, Rudy Ray Moore, I used to listen to all of them." [1]
The dozens provided a shared fame of reference for early fans, before the rap became self-perpetuating. Young men could draw on what they’d done or heard to experiment with the new music form in the late 1970s, and their audiences already had an aesthetic that allowed them to judge skill and appreciate innovation.
More than forty years have passed since Hollywood made his first experiments in rapping. Several generations of young men have come of age since then knowing nothing but rap from their earliest years. Tim Moore, So Nice of Ether Minded People, said he first got interested in rap because his father was a poet who used music to get himself through Vietnam. [2]
Raheem Jaleel, who was a member of the same group in 2016, said when he was five or six his seventeen-year-old uncle was a DJ into hip-hop, break dancing, and spray painting. The house was filled with musicians until his uncle joined the navy when Jaleel was ten or eleven. [3]
Rap became a prism through which all other experiences were seen. "Kumbaya" became just a word with rhythmic properties: any syllable could be stressed without altering its utility.
Ether Minded People’s 2017 version use the verse-chorus format mentioned in the post for 22 March 2018 with three rapped verses that drew on the braggadocio of the dozens ("I don’t never brag or boast/Man I just leave ’em") or used extended rhyme patterns. In one, a word slowly transformed into another as it was pronounced: "say the gifts/I found a glitch inside their prese-dents." In another, one rhyme stream led, by association, into another:
"Out of the smoke, out of the dope
There’s hope for the hood and good
The whole waters the neighborhood"
The chorus repeated "coming in like a kumbaya/with a do my G, my God whatcha talkin’ about?" and ended with "coming in like a kumbaya, kumbaya, kumbaya."
"Whatcha talkin’ about" was an example of the way rap artists digested popular songs and regurgitated them in new forms. It recalled the opening scene in the Broadway musical The Music Man in which a group of salesmen were talking on a train. The changing pace of their speech mirrored the train’s motions as it started and slowed at stations. One salesman periodically introduced the sound of steel wheels on iron rails when he asked: "Whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayataalk." [4]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: at least two men, one with a deeper voice
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum beats
Credits
© 2017 Meant 2 B Made
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: KOOM bah yah
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I, we
Term for Deity: God
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: binary (verse-chorus)
Singing Style: chanted
Instrumental Style: the synthesizer played the down beats, and the drum machine the up beats.
Notes on Performers
Jaleel and Moore formed the group in 2012 in Oceanside, California, with Eric Plascencia. The two African Americans previously had worked together in another group. [5] Jaleel apparently left, and Moore often worked with others, but no third name was permanently associated with Moore and Plascencia in the videos uploaded to YouTube. [6]
Plascencia, who used the name, Ether P, said he first became aware of hip hop when he was about ten years old. [7] He graduated from Oceanside High School in 2009, where he played football. [8] He remembered around 2012, "rhymes just started popping in my head, and I started writing them down." [9] Judging from the YouTube video credits he was the one with knowledge about recording with mechanical music. [10]
Availability
MP3: Gone Ether. 27 July 2017.
End Notes
1. DJ Hollywood [Anthony Holloway]. Quoted by Mark Skillz. "DJ Hollywood: The Original King of New York in 1970s." Cuepoint website. 19 November 2014.
2. So Nice [Tim Moore]. On Chi Bully [Donte Tucker]. "Ether Minded People" segment, My DJ’s Radio Spotlight. Uploaded to Youtube by MYDJs Radio TV on 28 March 2016.
3. Raheem Jaleel. On Chi Bully.
4. Meredith Wilson. "Rock Island." The Music Man. New York: Majestic Theater, 19 December 1957.
5. Jaleel.
6. "The [People]" was performed by So Nice, Ether P, and Ether Child in a video uploaded by Ether Minded People on 4 June 2016. In a video uploaded on 16 October 2016 by Either Minded People, So Nice, Ether P, and Swampstick June performed an untitled rap together.
7. Ether P [Eric Plascencia.] On Chi Bully.
8. "Eric Plascencia." Max Preps website.
9. Ether P.
10. The two videos mentioned in #6 were "Mixed & Recorded by: Eric ‘Ether P.’ Plascencia."
Rap began as an African-American genre with roots that penetrated through popular culture into the dozens, an improvisational rhyming game played by adolescents. DJ Hollywood, mentioned in the post for 22 March 2018, remembered their more public manifestations:
"I cannot take nothing away from people like Oscar Brown Jr., Pigmeat Markham, the Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, the Watts Prophets, Rudy Ray Moore, I used to listen to all of them." [1]
The dozens provided a shared fame of reference for early fans, before the rap became self-perpetuating. Young men could draw on what they’d done or heard to experiment with the new music form in the late 1970s, and their audiences already had an aesthetic that allowed them to judge skill and appreciate innovation.
More than forty years have passed since Hollywood made his first experiments in rapping. Several generations of young men have come of age since then knowing nothing but rap from their earliest years. Tim Moore, So Nice of Ether Minded People, said he first got interested in rap because his father was a poet who used music to get himself through Vietnam. [2]
Raheem Jaleel, who was a member of the same group in 2016, said when he was five or six his seventeen-year-old uncle was a DJ into hip-hop, break dancing, and spray painting. The house was filled with musicians until his uncle joined the navy when Jaleel was ten or eleven. [3]
Rap became a prism through which all other experiences were seen. "Kumbaya" became just a word with rhythmic properties: any syllable could be stressed without altering its utility.
Ether Minded People’s 2017 version use the verse-chorus format mentioned in the post for 22 March 2018 with three rapped verses that drew on the braggadocio of the dozens ("I don’t never brag or boast/Man I just leave ’em") or used extended rhyme patterns. In one, a word slowly transformed into another as it was pronounced: "say the gifts/I found a glitch inside their prese-dents." In another, one rhyme stream led, by association, into another:
"Out of the smoke, out of the dope
There’s hope for the hood and good
The whole waters the neighborhood"
The chorus repeated "coming in like a kumbaya/with a do my G, my God whatcha talkin’ about?" and ended with "coming in like a kumbaya, kumbaya, kumbaya."
"Whatcha talkin’ about" was an example of the way rap artists digested popular songs and regurgitated them in new forms. It recalled the opening scene in the Broadway musical The Music Man in which a group of salesmen were talking on a train. The changing pace of their speech mirrored the train’s motions as it started and slowed at stations. One salesman periodically introduced the sound of steel wheels on iron rails when he asked: "Whatayatalk, whatayatalk, whatayataalk." [4]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: at least two men, one with a deeper voice
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum beats
Credits
© 2017 Meant 2 B Made
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: KOOM bah yah
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I, we
Term for Deity: God
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: binary (verse-chorus)
Singing Style: chanted
Instrumental Style: the synthesizer played the down beats, and the drum machine the up beats.
Notes on Performers
Jaleel and Moore formed the group in 2012 in Oceanside, California, with Eric Plascencia. The two African Americans previously had worked together in another group. [5] Jaleel apparently left, and Moore often worked with others, but no third name was permanently associated with Moore and Plascencia in the videos uploaded to YouTube. [6]
Plascencia, who used the name, Ether P, said he first became aware of hip hop when he was about ten years old. [7] He graduated from Oceanside High School in 2009, where he played football. [8] He remembered around 2012, "rhymes just started popping in my head, and I started writing them down." [9] Judging from the YouTube video credits he was the one with knowledge about recording with mechanical music. [10]
Availability
MP3: Gone Ether. 27 July 2017.
End Notes
1. DJ Hollywood [Anthony Holloway]. Quoted by Mark Skillz. "DJ Hollywood: The Original King of New York in 1970s." Cuepoint website. 19 November 2014.
2. So Nice [Tim Moore]. On Chi Bully [Donte Tucker]. "Ether Minded People" segment, My DJ’s Radio Spotlight. Uploaded to Youtube by MYDJs Radio TV on 28 March 2016.
3. Raheem Jaleel. On Chi Bully.
4. Meredith Wilson. "Rock Island." The Music Man. New York: Majestic Theater, 19 December 1957.
5. Jaleel.
6. "The [People]" was performed by So Nice, Ether P, and Ether Child in a video uploaded by Ether Minded People on 4 June 2016. In a video uploaded on 16 October 2016 by Either Minded People, So Nice, Ether P, and Swampstick June performed an untitled rap together.
7. Ether P [Eric Plascencia.] On Chi Bully.
8. "Eric Plascencia." Max Preps website.
9. Ether P.
10. The two videos mentioned in #6 were "Mixed & Recorded by: Eric ‘Ether P.’ Plascencia."
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Questa Beat - No Kum Ba Yah
Topic: Rap
The terms rap and hip hop have been used interchangeably although they referred to different aspects of a performance. Rap usually referred to rhymed texts that were chanted, while hip hop might have referred to the music, the performance, or the life style of the artist.
The immediate origins of rap lay in the clubs of New York City during the disco period. Entrepreneurial disk jockeys played their private caches of records, which they often introduced with rhymed couplets. Some also spoke over the instrumental breaks in songs. DJ Hollywood was the first to chant on the beats of records with a conscious use of vocal intonations in 1975. His most significant innovation was repeating lyrics from an Isaac Hayes song during the break in MFSB’s "Love Is the Message." [1]
Early rap lyrics used end rhyme. Then, according to Masta Ace, "Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme, so you put more than one word in a line that rhymed together, so it didn’t have to be just the last word. Now here comes Big Daddy Kane—instead of going three words, he’s going multiple, seven and eight words in a sentence." [2]
In "No Kum Ba Yah" Questa Beat first set a dark mood by saying "I gotta paranoid like Watts," then added "ain’t in the same class as the Columbine." This was followed by short phrases that ended with front line, lunch line, gun line, and drum line.
Later he used initial repetition to repeat "double to cash," "double to work," and "double to burst." From there he bragged "I’m so good I don’t gotta rehearse" and referred to an ancient curse. Both incremental repetition and end rhyme were used in:
"I coulda been a ruler but I never give a inch
I coulda been a leader but I never give a shit"
Rap developed from Hollywood’s interjected rhymes into independent songs. Questa’s fell into the standard verse-chorus format, with a rapped verse that focused on him. The music was electronic. It began with a long sustained tone that ended with the sounds of a missile ready to strike. Then he began rapping against the sustained tone and a muted drum machine.
The line "’til you understand" and the sound of another missile marked the beginning of the chorus. The electronic instrument began playing a melody while Questa chanted:
"All my N**s like hassan
Tell them no kumbaya"
four times, and ended with one final iteration of the first line. The droned resumed with the rap, and ended with a repetition of the chorus.
"Hassan," according to the Urban Dictionary, referred to an awesome man who attracted all the women. [3] "Kumbaya" seems to have been used here as a synonym for hyperbole. However, the references to Armageddon and the missile sounds implied punning references to Saddam Hussein’s war in Iraq and "Kumbaya" as an opposing peace symbol, or, more simply to his opening theme that physical dangers threatened his tranquility. Rap worked best when meanings were fluid.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: male in tenor range
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: electronic sounds
Rhythm Accompaniment: muted drum machine
Credits
© 2017 Questa Beat
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: he used little rhythm in his accompaniment, and thus his voice had to supply both the melody and the rhythm. This meant he had to make a sound on every single beat, even if it was just an interjection or a loud breath.
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: instrumental drone supported a vocal part
Singing Style: chant
Notes on Performance
Cover: drawing of a young man wearing a black baseball cap with "Danny tha Great" inscribed in white across the front crown.
Notes on Performers
Questa Beat graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2011. [4] While the school had the lowest graduation rate in Atlanta, [5] it also had one of the best marching bands. In 2005 its drum line was the best in the city, and won competitions in 2011. [6]
Lil Jon, the first of the Atlanta rappers to emerge in the late 1990s, graduated from Douglass in 1988. [7] In 2010, he released a new album that Billboard described as "a fusion of hip-hop, rock and electro." [8] While Questa may have borrowed the idea of electronic tones from Lil Jon, he may have been discovered the potentials of the word "cash" from a rapper who graduated from Douglass in 2012, the year after him. Lil Fat was responsible for a "viral hit ‘cash me outside’," according to Wikipedia. [9]
Availability
MP3: Till U Understand. 25 March 2017.
YouTube: uploaded by TuneCore on 24 March 2017.
End Notes
1. Mark Skillz. "DJ Hollywood: The Original King of New York in 1970s." Cuepoint website. 19 November 2014. He was born Anthony Holloway.
2. Masta Ace [Duval Clear]. Quoted by Paul Edwards. How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2009. 105.
3. On 2 May 2008, Xavier Zero said a hussan "usually ends up with all the hot girls.Hussan; is the coolest guy you will ever see." Two years later, on 21 June 2010, YouIsNoob defined a Hussain "as the best type of person around--noble, worthy, respectful, and..... awesomeness." On 18 November 2011, hollieanarray claimed a hasan was "a very good-looking guy," but anti-social because he "a very good-looking guy." However, the "girlsstill give him way too much attention which he pretends turns him off." All from Urban Dictionary website.
4. "About Questa Beat." Facebook.
5. Molly Bloom. "Atlanta’s Douglass High School Gets Another New Principal." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website. 23 March 2016.
6. Wikipedia. "Douglass High School (Atlanta)."
7. Wikipedia, Douglass HS. His name was Jonathan Smith (Wikipedia. "Lil Jon.")
8. Mariel Concepcion. "Old Yeller." Billboard 3 April 2010. 37.
9. Wikipedia, Douglass HS.
The terms rap and hip hop have been used interchangeably although they referred to different aspects of a performance. Rap usually referred to rhymed texts that were chanted, while hip hop might have referred to the music, the performance, or the life style of the artist.
The immediate origins of rap lay in the clubs of New York City during the disco period. Entrepreneurial disk jockeys played their private caches of records, which they often introduced with rhymed couplets. Some also spoke over the instrumental breaks in songs. DJ Hollywood was the first to chant on the beats of records with a conscious use of vocal intonations in 1975. His most significant innovation was repeating lyrics from an Isaac Hayes song during the break in MFSB’s "Love Is the Message." [1]
Early rap lyrics used end rhyme. Then, according to Masta Ace, "Rakim showed us that you could put rhymes within a rhyme, so you put more than one word in a line that rhymed together, so it didn’t have to be just the last word. Now here comes Big Daddy Kane—instead of going three words, he’s going multiple, seven and eight words in a sentence." [2]
In "No Kum Ba Yah" Questa Beat first set a dark mood by saying "I gotta paranoid like Watts," then added "ain’t in the same class as the Columbine." This was followed by short phrases that ended with front line, lunch line, gun line, and drum line.
Later he used initial repetition to repeat "double to cash," "double to work," and "double to burst." From there he bragged "I’m so good I don’t gotta rehearse" and referred to an ancient curse. Both incremental repetition and end rhyme were used in:
"I coulda been a ruler but I never give a inch
I coulda been a leader but I never give a shit"
Rap developed from Hollywood’s interjected rhymes into independent songs. Questa’s fell into the standard verse-chorus format, with a rapped verse that focused on him. The music was electronic. It began with a long sustained tone that ended with the sounds of a missile ready to strike. Then he began rapping against the sustained tone and a muted drum machine.
The line "’til you understand" and the sound of another missile marked the beginning of the chorus. The electronic instrument began playing a melody while Questa chanted:
"All my N**s like hassan
Tell them no kumbaya"
four times, and ended with one final iteration of the first line. The droned resumed with the rap, and ended with a repetition of the chorus.
"Hassan," according to the Urban Dictionary, referred to an awesome man who attracted all the women. [3] "Kumbaya" seems to have been used here as a synonym for hyperbole. However, the references to Armageddon and the missile sounds implied punning references to Saddam Hussein’s war in Iraq and "Kumbaya" as an opposing peace symbol, or, more simply to his opening theme that physical dangers threatened his tranquility. Rap worked best when meanings were fluid.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: male in tenor range
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: electronic sounds
Rhythm Accompaniment: muted drum machine
Credits
© 2017 Questa Beat
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: he used little rhythm in his accompaniment, and thus his voice had to supply both the melody and the rhythm. This meant he had to make a sound on every single beat, even if it was just an interjection or a loud breath.
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Special Terms: street language
Basic Form: verse-chorus
Verse Repetition Pattern: three repetitions of chorus
Ending: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: his own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: instrumental drone supported a vocal part
Singing Style: chant
Notes on Performance
Cover: drawing of a young man wearing a black baseball cap with "Danny tha Great" inscribed in white across the front crown.
Notes on Performers
Questa Beat graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2011. [4] While the school had the lowest graduation rate in Atlanta, [5] it also had one of the best marching bands. In 2005 its drum line was the best in the city, and won competitions in 2011. [6]
Lil Jon, the first of the Atlanta rappers to emerge in the late 1990s, graduated from Douglass in 1988. [7] In 2010, he released a new album that Billboard described as "a fusion of hip-hop, rock and electro." [8] While Questa may have borrowed the idea of electronic tones from Lil Jon, he may have been discovered the potentials of the word "cash" from a rapper who graduated from Douglass in 2012, the year after him. Lil Fat was responsible for a "viral hit ‘cash me outside’," according to Wikipedia. [9]
Availability
MP3: Till U Understand. 25 March 2017.
YouTube: uploaded by TuneCore on 24 March 2017.
End Notes
1. Mark Skillz. "DJ Hollywood: The Original King of New York in 1970s." Cuepoint website. 19 November 2014. He was born Anthony Holloway.
2. Masta Ace [Duval Clear]. Quoted by Paul Edwards. How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2009. 105.
3. On 2 May 2008, Xavier Zero said a hussan "usually ends up with all the hot girls.Hussan; is the coolest guy you will ever see." Two years later, on 21 June 2010, YouIsNoob defined a Hussain "as the best type of person around--noble, worthy, respectful, and..... awesomeness." On 18 November 2011, hollieanarray claimed a hasan was "a very good-looking guy," but anti-social because he "a very good-looking guy." However, the "girlsstill give him way too much attention which he pretends turns him off." All from Urban Dictionary website.
4. "About Questa Beat." Facebook.
5. Molly Bloom. "Atlanta’s Douglass High School Gets Another New Principal." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website. 23 March 2016.
6. Wikipedia. "Douglass High School (Atlanta)."
7. Wikipedia, Douglass HS. His name was Jonathan Smith (Wikipedia. "Lil Jon.")
8. Mariel Concepcion. "Old Yeller." Billboard 3 April 2010. 37.
9. Wikipedia, Douglass HS.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Tino Derado - Kumbaya
Topic: Jazz - Title
Cool jazz musicians in the 1950s minimized the role of rhythm. [1] The next generation rebelled by incorporating Latin meters, usually Cuban or Brazilian. [2] Tino Derado’s six-and-a-half-minute version of "Kumbaya," mentioned in the post for 18 March 2018, opened with a minute long drum solo. When he recorded it with his own group in 2000 he labeled the album "Latin Jazz." [3]
The album’s notes listed two drummers, but did not indicate if they played together or on separate tracks. Neither fit the mold of someone inspired by Gene Krupa. Jamey Haddad wanted a drum after he heard Arabic ones at Lebanese gatherings in Cleveland. [4] Satoshi Takeishi played in a brass band when he was in junior high in Japan. [5]
Derado didn’t use a vocalist like Rigmor Gustafsson. By 2016, when he was playing "Kumbaya" in a Berlin jazz club, he had dispensed with the saxophone as well. Instead, Robby Geerken played the opening drum solo on congas. After forty-five seconds, the string bass joined him. Derado begin playing a few notes on the piano thirty seconds later, but did not start the saxophone theme until another thirty seconds had passed. During the remainder of the performance, the congas took over the role of the piano as the sustaining instrument for the piano, bass and drum set.
Some might take Derado’s use of drums as the reason he called the piece "Kumbaya." However, that would assume all drums were the same, when in fact congas were not African. They developed in the poor settlements that grew around the cities of western Cuba after the abolition of slavery in 1886. Olavo Alén Rodriguez argued the shapes on some early ones suggested African models, but also said congas served the same function as indigenous wooden sound boxes called cajones. [6] The tall barrel-shaped drums appeared in clubs in this country during Prohibition when Havana casinos were defining the taste of American tourists. [7] Dizzy Gillespie introduced congas into jazz in 1947 as Latin instruments. [8]
Performers
2000
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Billy Drewes, saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado, piano; Ben Street, acoustic bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Satoshi Takeishi, Jamey Haddad, drums
2016
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Robby Geerken, congas
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado piano; Andreas Lang, string bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Diego Pinera, drums
Credits
Composer: Tino Derado
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Tino Derado
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: homophony with solo congas accompanied by rhythm instruments
Notes on Performance
2016
Occasion: 2 September 2016
Location: A-Trane club, Berlin
Microphones: floor mikes for the congas; the video camera did not pick up the other instruments as well
Clothing: the men wore black for dark gray long-sleeved shirts or jackets
Notes on Movement
2016
The conga player moved his head when he was playing, often rotating it, and sometimes throwing it back. The bass player also moved his head as he played, especially when his right hand was particularly active. Derado and the drummer’s heads move up and down toward the end. Derado stood a couple times to adjust his position, while the drummer remained still while he played.
Notes on Performers
The conga player, Robby Geerken, was born in Berlin where he started to play the instrument when he was eleven-years-old. He apprenticed with José Luis Quintana Fuerte, then entered the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. [9]
Derado’s father was a particle physicist from the Croatian city of Split. [10] His mother was a biochemist. [11] They married in the United States in 1965, and returned to Munich in western Germany [12] where Derado was born in 1970. [13] Although he studied classical piano as a child, he believed his family’s mixed cultures made him open to other forms of music. [14]
After his years at Berkee College and the New School, mention in the post for 18 March 2018, he worked as a sideman in New York. [15] He returned to Germay in 2009 to lecture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. In 2014 he became a professor at the Musikhochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover. [16] He called his 2016 band Somnambulist.
Availability
Album: Aguacero. Perun Records. 2000.
YouTube: uploaded by Ralasan o123 on 15 February 2016.
End Notes
1. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "Cool." Jazz in America website.
2. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "The Breakthrough Year into the Contemporary Period: 1959." Jazz in America website.
3. "Aguacero by Tino Derado." CD Baby website.
4. Joanna Connors. "Acclaimed Percussionist Jamey Haddad Shows Us His Basement Studio in Oberlin, Full of 1,000 Drums and Other Instruments." The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer website. 9 December 2012.
5. Nuno Loureiro. "Satoshi Takeishi Interview." Clean Feed website. 10 December 2008.
6. Olavo Alén Rodriguez. "History of the Congas." AfroCuba website. November 2002.
7. Wikipedia. "Havana."
8. Alén.
9. "Stephan Geerken." Global Music Academy website.
10. German Wikipedia. "Ivan Derado."
11. German Wikipedia. "Thea Derado."
12. Wikipedia, Ivan Derado.
13. German Wikipedia. "Tino Derado."
14. "Bio." Tino Derado website.
15. Tino Derado website.
16. Wikipedia, Tino Derado.
Cool jazz musicians in the 1950s minimized the role of rhythm. [1] The next generation rebelled by incorporating Latin meters, usually Cuban or Brazilian. [2] Tino Derado’s six-and-a-half-minute version of "Kumbaya," mentioned in the post for 18 March 2018, opened with a minute long drum solo. When he recorded it with his own group in 2000 he labeled the album "Latin Jazz." [3]
The album’s notes listed two drummers, but did not indicate if they played together or on separate tracks. Neither fit the mold of someone inspired by Gene Krupa. Jamey Haddad wanted a drum after he heard Arabic ones at Lebanese gatherings in Cleveland. [4] Satoshi Takeishi played in a brass band when he was in junior high in Japan. [5]
Derado didn’t use a vocalist like Rigmor Gustafsson. By 2016, when he was playing "Kumbaya" in a Berlin jazz club, he had dispensed with the saxophone as well. Instead, Robby Geerken played the opening drum solo on congas. After forty-five seconds, the string bass joined him. Derado begin playing a few notes on the piano thirty seconds later, but did not start the saxophone theme until another thirty seconds had passed. During the remainder of the performance, the congas took over the role of the piano as the sustaining instrument for the piano, bass and drum set.
Some might take Derado’s use of drums as the reason he called the piece "Kumbaya." However, that would assume all drums were the same, when in fact congas were not African. They developed in the poor settlements that grew around the cities of western Cuba after the abolition of slavery in 1886. Olavo Alén Rodriguez argued the shapes on some early ones suggested African models, but also said congas served the same function as indigenous wooden sound boxes called cajones. [6] The tall barrel-shaped drums appeared in clubs in this country during Prohibition when Havana casinos were defining the taste of American tourists. [7] Dizzy Gillespie introduced congas into jazz in 1947 as Latin instruments. [8]
Performers
2000
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Billy Drewes, saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado, piano; Ben Street, acoustic bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Satoshi Takeishi, Jamey Haddad, drums
2016
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Robby Geerken, congas
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado piano; Andreas Lang, string bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Diego Pinera, drums
Credits
Composer: Tino Derado
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Tino Derado
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: homophony with solo congas accompanied by rhythm instruments
Notes on Performance
2016
Occasion: 2 September 2016
Location: A-Trane club, Berlin
Microphones: floor mikes for the congas; the video camera did not pick up the other instruments as well
Clothing: the men wore black for dark gray long-sleeved shirts or jackets
Notes on Movement
2016
The conga player moved his head when he was playing, often rotating it, and sometimes throwing it back. The bass player also moved his head as he played, especially when his right hand was particularly active. Derado and the drummer’s heads move up and down toward the end. Derado stood a couple times to adjust his position, while the drummer remained still while he played.
Notes on Performers
The conga player, Robby Geerken, was born in Berlin where he started to play the instrument when he was eleven-years-old. He apprenticed with José Luis Quintana Fuerte, then entered the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. [9]
Derado’s father was a particle physicist from the Croatian city of Split. [10] His mother was a biochemist. [11] They married in the United States in 1965, and returned to Munich in western Germany [12] where Derado was born in 1970. [13] Although he studied classical piano as a child, he believed his family’s mixed cultures made him open to other forms of music. [14]
After his years at Berkee College and the New School, mention in the post for 18 March 2018, he worked as a sideman in New York. [15] He returned to Germay in 2009 to lecture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. In 2014 he became a professor at the Musikhochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover. [16] He called his 2016 band Somnambulist.
Availability
Album: Aguacero. Perun Records. 2000.
YouTube: uploaded by Ralasan o123 on 15 February 2016.
End Notes
1. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "Cool." Jazz in America website.
2. Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Style Sheet. "The Breakthrough Year into the Contemporary Period: 1959." Jazz in America website.
3. "Aguacero by Tino Derado." CD Baby website.
4. Joanna Connors. "Acclaimed Percussionist Jamey Haddad Shows Us His Basement Studio in Oberlin, Full of 1,000 Drums and Other Instruments." The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer website. 9 December 2012.
5. Nuno Loureiro. "Satoshi Takeishi Interview." Clean Feed website. 10 December 2008.
6. Olavo Alén Rodriguez. "History of the Congas." AfroCuba website. November 2002.
7. Wikipedia. "Havana."
8. Alén.
9. "Stephan Geerken." Global Music Academy website.
10. German Wikipedia. "Ivan Derado."
11. German Wikipedia. "Thea Derado."
12. Wikipedia, Ivan Derado.
13. German Wikipedia. "Tino Derado."
14. "Bio." Tino Derado website.
15. Tino Derado website.
16. Wikipedia, Tino Derado.
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet - Kumbaya
Topic: Jazz - Title
Tino Derado created a version of "Kumbaya" that made no reference to the original song when he was working with the Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet in 1998. Instead, he used the relentlessly fast pace and instrumentation of Bebop with a piano, string bass, and drums. Gustafsson vocalized with the saxophone.
His version had more thematic unity than most jazz compositions that allowed each instrumentalist to improvise in his or her own style. [1] Derado created two recurring motifs. One was the rhythmic one he played on the piano to signal the beginning of each of the solos. The other was the melodic one, which, because it required Gustafsson and Gabriel Coburger to move in unison, imposed a discipline on both.
Derado’s work entered the jazz repertoire as a virtuoso piece for young vocalists. Karolina Zibkute posted a short segment that featured only the vocal duet with the saxophone in 2015. Her Lithuanian group used an electric keyboard and bass, and supplemented the regular drummer with two small snare drums played with sticks.
Manon Pellicorio performed her own version in a Dublin club in 2016. Her pace was slower, and she did less unison work with the saxophone player. Instead, she treated parts of Gustafsson’s duets as solos. Both women had just completed conservatory training programs.
Performers
Gustafsson [2]
Vocal Soloist: Rigmor Gustafsson
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Gabriel Coburger, saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Roland Schneider, drums
Zibkute
Vocal Soloist: Karolina Zibkute
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set plus two small snare drums
Pellicorio [3]
Vocal Soloist: Manon Pellicorio
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Nick Roth, tenor saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: Cormac Kenny, piano; Barry Rycraft, string bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Brendan Doherty, drums
Credits
Gustafsson
"Composer: Tino Derado." [4]
Zibkute
None given
Pellicorio
"written by Tino Derado (Rigmor Gustafsson)" [5]
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Tino Derado
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: recurring motifs
Singing Style: Gustafsson, Zibkute, and Pellicorio scatted alone or in unison with the saxophones
Notes on Performance
Gustafsson [6]
Occasion: recording session, September 1998.
Location: Systems Two, New York
Zibkute
Location: theater stage
Microphones: Zibkute had a hand-held mike
Clothing: Zibkute had straight blond hair cut in the style of Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary. She wore a yellow dress and matching coat. The men were in the shadows in the video.
Pellicorio [7]
Occasion: 10 June 2016
Location: Dublin, Ireland, club
Microphones: Pellicorio had a hand-held mike; the rest had floor mikes.
Clothing: Pellicorio wore a dress with black tights; the men wore dark long-sleeved shirts and slacks.
Notes on Movement
Zibkute
When she was not singing she stepped from one diagonal to another and let the arm that was not holding the microphone swing freely. When she sang, she bent her knees to keep time and bent her left arm at the elbow. During the staccato section she used that hand to mark the beats.
Pellicorio
The grand piano was between the pianist and Pellicorio, creating a barrier between it and the other musicians who were widely spaced. She kept time with her hands.
Notes on Performers
Gustafsson was raised in Grums, Sweden, where she learned to play guitar in public school when she was eight-years-old. [8] After she moved to New York in 1993 to study at the New School for Jazz, she formed a quintet that played local clubs. [9] The group toured for several years after she graduated in 1995. [10]
Two of the musicians on the "Kumbaya" recording, Derado and Coburger, also had been at the New School in those years. Coburger’s post-school quartet included Gustaffson’s drummer, Roland Schneider. [11] The bass player, Hans Glawischnig, was at the Berkee School when they were at the New School, but moved to New York where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music. [12]
Zibkute’s vocal talent was discovered early, and she was sent to schools that specialized in the arts. While a student at the conservatory in Klaipedos, [13] she placed fourth in the Baltic voice contest. [14] After graduation she moved to Vilnius to continue study at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2017, her Facebook page indicated she had used the name Carolyn Lu when she was in Chicago. [15] Her musicians in 2015 were Leonardas Beksa, Augustas Genutis, Kasparas Petkus, Vilhelmas Rudys, and Paulius Stonkus. [16]
Pellicorio was raised in Zürich, Switzerland, where her father "encouraged me very early to sing songs with him, which he then accompanied on the guitar." [17] She studied at the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich and the Hochschule für Kunst, Design und Populäre Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, before going to Dublin where she earned a degree in jazz performance from the Newpark Music Centre in 2016. [18]
Availability
Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet
Album: Plan #46. Prophone Records PCD 044. 1998.
YouTube: uploaded by NAXOS of America on 13 February 2015.
Karolina Zibkute
YouTube: uploaded by infokarolina on 6 June 2015.
Manon Debora (Pellicorio)
YouTube: uploaded by Manon Debora on 30 November 2016.
End Notes
1. John Wesley Work described this jazz style in the post for 26 February 2018.
2. Gustafsson personnel list from "Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet - Plan #46." Discogs website.
3. Pellicorio personnel list from YouTube.
4. Gustafsson credit from YouTube.
5. Pellicorio credit from YouTube.
6. Gustafsson recording information from Discogs.
7. Pellicorio performance information from YouTube.
8. Wikipedia. "Rigmor Gustafsson."
9. Rigmor Gustafsson website.
10. Wikipedia, Gustafsson.
11. German Wikipedia. "Gabriel Coburger."
12. German Wikipedia. "Hans Glawischnig."
13. "Carolina Lu (Karolina Zibkute)." Facebook.
14. "Baltic Voice 2014 4-th Place/ Karolina Zibkute." Uploaded to YouTube by infokarolina on 14 July 2014.
15. Facebook, Zibkute.
16. Zibkute personnel list from YouTube.
17. Manon Pellicorio. Quoted by Instrumentor website.
18. "Manon Pellicorio." Take Jazz website.
Tino Derado created a version of "Kumbaya" that made no reference to the original song when he was working with the Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet in 1998. Instead, he used the relentlessly fast pace and instrumentation of Bebop with a piano, string bass, and drums. Gustafsson vocalized with the saxophone.
His version had more thematic unity than most jazz compositions that allowed each instrumentalist to improvise in his or her own style. [1] Derado created two recurring motifs. One was the rhythmic one he played on the piano to signal the beginning of each of the solos. The other was the melodic one, which, because it required Gustafsson and Gabriel Coburger to move in unison, imposed a discipline on both.
Derado’s work entered the jazz repertoire as a virtuoso piece for young vocalists. Karolina Zibkute posted a short segment that featured only the vocal duet with the saxophone in 2015. Her Lithuanian group used an electric keyboard and bass, and supplemented the regular drummer with two small snare drums played with sticks.
Manon Pellicorio performed her own version in a Dublin club in 2016. Her pace was slower, and she did less unison work with the saxophone player. Instead, she treated parts of Gustafsson’s duets as solos. Both women had just completed conservatory training programs.
Performers
Gustafsson [2]
Vocal Soloist: Rigmor Gustafsson
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Gabriel Coburger, saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: Tino Derado, piano; Hans Glawischnig, bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Roland Schneider, drums
Zibkute
Vocal Soloist: Karolina Zibkute
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: keyboard, electric bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum set plus two small snare drums
Pellicorio [3]
Vocal Soloist: Manon Pellicorio
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: Nick Roth, tenor saxophone
Instrumental Accompaniment: Cormac Kenny, piano; Barry Rycraft, string bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Brendan Doherty, drums
Credits
Gustafsson
"Composer: Tino Derado." [4]
Zibkute
None given
Pellicorio
"written by Tino Derado (Rigmor Gustafsson)" [5]
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: Tino Derado
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: recurring motifs
Singing Style: Gustafsson, Zibkute, and Pellicorio scatted alone or in unison with the saxophones
Notes on Performance
Gustafsson [6]
Occasion: recording session, September 1998.
Location: Systems Two, New York
Zibkute
Location: theater stage
Microphones: Zibkute had a hand-held mike
Clothing: Zibkute had straight blond hair cut in the style of Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary. She wore a yellow dress and matching coat. The men were in the shadows in the video.
Pellicorio [7]
Occasion: 10 June 2016
Location: Dublin, Ireland, club
Microphones: Pellicorio had a hand-held mike; the rest had floor mikes.
Clothing: Pellicorio wore a dress with black tights; the men wore dark long-sleeved shirts and slacks.
Notes on Movement
Zibkute
When she was not singing she stepped from one diagonal to another and let the arm that was not holding the microphone swing freely. When she sang, she bent her knees to keep time and bent her left arm at the elbow. During the staccato section she used that hand to mark the beats.
Pellicorio
The grand piano was between the pianist and Pellicorio, creating a barrier between it and the other musicians who were widely spaced. She kept time with her hands.
Notes on Performers
Gustafsson was raised in Grums, Sweden, where she learned to play guitar in public school when she was eight-years-old. [8] After she moved to New York in 1993 to study at the New School for Jazz, she formed a quintet that played local clubs. [9] The group toured for several years after she graduated in 1995. [10]
Two of the musicians on the "Kumbaya" recording, Derado and Coburger, also had been at the New School in those years. Coburger’s post-school quartet included Gustaffson’s drummer, Roland Schneider. [11] The bass player, Hans Glawischnig, was at the Berkee School when they were at the New School, but moved to New York where he studied at the Manhattan School of Music. [12]
Zibkute’s vocal talent was discovered early, and she was sent to schools that specialized in the arts. While a student at the conservatory in Klaipedos, [13] she placed fourth in the Baltic voice contest. [14] After graduation she moved to Vilnius to continue study at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. In 2017, her Facebook page indicated she had used the name Carolyn Lu when she was in Chicago. [15] Her musicians in 2015 were Leonardas Beksa, Augustas Genutis, Kasparas Petkus, Vilhelmas Rudys, and Paulius Stonkus. [16]
Pellicorio was raised in Zürich, Switzerland, where her father "encouraged me very early to sing songs with him, which he then accompanied on the guitar." [17] She studied at the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich and the Hochschule für Kunst, Design und Populäre Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, before going to Dublin where she earned a degree in jazz performance from the Newpark Music Centre in 2016. [18]
Availability
Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet
Album: Plan #46. Prophone Records PCD 044. 1998.
YouTube: uploaded by NAXOS of America on 13 February 2015.
Karolina Zibkute
YouTube: uploaded by infokarolina on 6 June 2015.
Manon Debora (Pellicorio)
YouTube: uploaded by Manon Debora on 30 November 2016.
End Notes
1. John Wesley Work described this jazz style in the post for 26 February 2018.
2. Gustafsson personnel list from "Rigmor Gustafsson Quintet - Plan #46." Discogs website.
3. Pellicorio personnel list from YouTube.
4. Gustafsson credit from YouTube.
5. Pellicorio credit from YouTube.
6. Gustafsson recording information from Discogs.
7. Pellicorio performance information from YouTube.
8. Wikipedia. "Rigmor Gustafsson."
9. Rigmor Gustafsson website.
10. Wikipedia, Gustafsson.
11. German Wikipedia. "Gabriel Coburger."
12. German Wikipedia. "Hans Glawischnig."
13. "Carolina Lu (Karolina Zibkute)." Facebook.
14. "Baltic Voice 2014 4-th Place/ Karolina Zibkute." Uploaded to YouTube by infokarolina on 14 July 2014.
15. Facebook, Zibkute.
16. Zibkute personnel list from YouTube.
17. Manon Pellicorio. Quoted by Instrumentor website.
18. "Manon Pellicorio." Take Jazz website.
Friday, March 16, 2018
Ekah Hyunjoong Kim - Kumba Kumbaya
Topic: Jazz - Title
Some jazz musicians have recorded versions of "Kumbaya" that didn’t include even a token reference to the original song. They left their reasons for the use of the word as a title for a jazz performance to their listeners to intuit. Like Carmen Lundy’s juxtaposition of "Kumbaya" with a reference to the esoteric and exoteric codes for Black behavior in Code Noir, it was easy to over-intellectualize their thinking. [1]
Ekah Kim recorded "Kumba Kumbaya" in 2010 with fellow students from the Berkee College of Music. The drummer had formed a quartet in 2009 with Junya Fukumoto on piano and Keisuke Higashino on bass. [2] His preferred instrumental soloist was a saxophonist: on "Kumba Kumbaya" it was an Israeli-born musician, Jonathan Greenstein.
For the MP3 album he produced his senior year, Kim wanted to explore Brazilian jazz. [3] He added a conga player and a Brazilian-born singer. "Kumba Kumbaya" opened and closed with a verse by Tais Alvarenga that made no reference to the original in text or tune. Between her solos, the group reverted to the usual modern jazz format: virtuoso solos by the saxophone and piano over a smooth continuo of piano and congas that replaced the string bass in this role.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Tais Alvarenga
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloists: Jonathan Greenstein, tenor saxophone; Junya Fukumoto, piano
Instrumental Accompaniment: Keisuke Higashino, bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Ekah Hyunjoong Kim, drums; Jorge Pérez González, congas [4]
Credits
(C) 2010 Ekah Hyunjoong Kim
Notes on Lyrics
Language: Portuguese [assumed]
Verses: own
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: upbeat
Basic Structure: medley of instrumental solos, framed by a vocal solo
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Notes on Performers
Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, and lived in various parts of Southeast Asia. He said he began playing drums after a UN Day festival at his school in Singapore. He also learned classical guitar. [5]
After graduation from Berkee, he produced another album of Latin jazz, Ekahsonic, with many of the same musicians. Liutauras Janusaitis played the sax. [6] Kim and Janusaitis continued to work with Junya Fukumoto and Keisuke Higashino as the Boylston Jazz Quartet in Korea, Japan, and Lithuania. Fukumoto had graduated from the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo before he went to Boston, while Higashino graduated from the Osaka University of Arts. [7]
Alvarenga was from Rio Janeiro where she began singing in church when she was seven-years-old. She since returned to Brazil and had a contract with Sony. [8]
The conga player, Jorge Pérez González, was born in Boston and raised in Madrid. Since graduating he remained in Boston where he performed with Patax, a fusion band. [9]
Greenstein was trained in Tel Aviv [10] He recently moved from Brooklyn to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was pursuing a doctorate in music from the University of Wisconsin. [11] He had released a number of albums in the interim, and was working as a sideman and appearing with his own trio.
Availability
MP3: Treasure Hunt. 1 March 2010.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 19 July 2015.
End Notes
1. Carmen Lundy was discussed in the post for 12 March 2018.
2. "Boylston Jazz." Facebook.
3. "Treasure Hunt by Ekah Hyunjoong Kim." CD Baby website.
4. List of performers from CD Baby, Treasure Hunt.
5. "Bio." Ekah Kim website. Translated by Google Translate.
6. "Ekahsonic by Ekah Hyunjoong Kim." CD baby website.
7. "Ekah Kim Latin Jazz Quintet." Korean All That Jazz website.
8. "About Tais Alvarenga." Facebook.
9. "About Jorge Perez Gonzalez." Facebook.
10. "Jonathan Greenstein." Smalls Live website.
11. "DMA Recital: Jonathan Greenstein, Saxophone." University of Wisconsin press release for an event scheduled for 7 December 2017.
Some jazz musicians have recorded versions of "Kumbaya" that didn’t include even a token reference to the original song. They left their reasons for the use of the word as a title for a jazz performance to their listeners to intuit. Like Carmen Lundy’s juxtaposition of "Kumbaya" with a reference to the esoteric and exoteric codes for Black behavior in Code Noir, it was easy to over-intellectualize their thinking. [1]
Ekah Kim recorded "Kumba Kumbaya" in 2010 with fellow students from the Berkee College of Music. The drummer had formed a quartet in 2009 with Junya Fukumoto on piano and Keisuke Higashino on bass. [2] His preferred instrumental soloist was a saxophonist: on "Kumba Kumbaya" it was an Israeli-born musician, Jonathan Greenstein.
For the MP3 album he produced his senior year, Kim wanted to explore Brazilian jazz. [3] He added a conga player and a Brazilian-born singer. "Kumba Kumbaya" opened and closed with a verse by Tais Alvarenga that made no reference to the original in text or tune. Between her solos, the group reverted to the usual modern jazz format: virtuoso solos by the saxophone and piano over a smooth continuo of piano and congas that replaced the string bass in this role.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Tais Alvarenga
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloists: Jonathan Greenstein, tenor saxophone; Junya Fukumoto, piano
Instrumental Accompaniment: Keisuke Higashino, bass
Rhythm Accompaniment: Ekah Hyunjoong Kim, drums; Jorge Pérez González, congas [4]
Credits
(C) 2010 Ekah Hyunjoong Kim
Notes on Lyrics
Language: Portuguese [assumed]
Verses: own
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: upbeat
Basic Structure: medley of instrumental solos, framed by a vocal solo
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Notes on Performers
Kim was born in Seoul, Korea, and lived in various parts of Southeast Asia. He said he began playing drums after a UN Day festival at his school in Singapore. He also learned classical guitar. [5]
After graduation from Berkee, he produced another album of Latin jazz, Ekahsonic, with many of the same musicians. Liutauras Janusaitis played the sax. [6] Kim and Janusaitis continued to work with Junya Fukumoto and Keisuke Higashino as the Boylston Jazz Quartet in Korea, Japan, and Lithuania. Fukumoto had graduated from the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo before he went to Boston, while Higashino graduated from the Osaka University of Arts. [7]
Alvarenga was from Rio Janeiro where she began singing in church when she was seven-years-old. She since returned to Brazil and had a contract with Sony. [8]
The conga player, Jorge Pérez González, was born in Boston and raised in Madrid. Since graduating he remained in Boston where he performed with Patax, a fusion band. [9]
Greenstein was trained in Tel Aviv [10] He recently moved from Brooklyn to Madison, Wisconsin, where he was pursuing a doctorate in music from the University of Wisconsin. [11] He had released a number of albums in the interim, and was working as a sideman and appearing with his own trio.
Availability
MP3: Treasure Hunt. 1 March 2010.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 19 July 2015.
End Notes
1. Carmen Lundy was discussed in the post for 12 March 2018.
2. "Boylston Jazz." Facebook.
3. "Treasure Hunt by Ekah Hyunjoong Kim." CD Baby website.
4. List of performers from CD Baby, Treasure Hunt.
5. "Bio." Ekah Kim website. Translated by Google Translate.
6. "Ekahsonic by Ekah Hyunjoong Kim." CD baby website.
7. "Ekah Kim Latin Jazz Quintet." Korean All That Jazz website.
8. "About Tais Alvarenga." Facebook.
9. "About Jorge Perez Gonzalez." Facebook.
10. "Jonathan Greenstein." Smalls Live website.
11. "DMA Recital: Jonathan Greenstein, Saxophone." University of Wisconsin press release for an event scheduled for 7 December 2017.
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
DaPaul - Kumbaya
Topic: Jazz - Word
DaPaul’s version of "Kumbaya" overlaid a jazz-influenced instrumental background with an American soul singing style. The lead performer, David Philips, said he first thought about doing the song after hearing the Escoffery Sisters sing it with their pianist, Paul Gladstone-Reid. [1] Their father was a Seventh-day Adventist who had migrated from Jamaica to London in 1959. [2] He trained them to sing harmony. [3] One sister remembered when they began
"‘We were more expressive vocally and musically than most groups like us from an Adventist background,’ explains Marcia. ‘They wouldn’t normally have a full band and we don’t use drums in our church like the Pentecostals, so to Adventists we were probably quite radical. Yet in the eyes of the Pentecostals we were conservative! Gradually, as we mixed more with people from other backgrounds we got less restrained’." [4]
They were signed by Atlantic Records as jazz artists in 1990, [5] and were credited with introducing modern Black gospel music from the United States into England. [6]
Philips converted "Come by Here" from a song steeped in Biblical references to a lyrical expression of need. Many versions of "Come by Here," including those of Inez Andrews [7] and Doc MacKenzie, [8] drew on an image of Christ as a healer and asked him for something specific, a healing or a blessing. [9] DaPaul’s version was more like Evelyn Turrentine-Agee. [10] He used a generic "it’s broken" that allowed listeners to apply it to their own problems.
Philips’ also did not make his version a narrative of sin and repentance. His protagonist admitted he had done this before, and, like before, needed help. One is left to assume, it, whatever it referred to, would happen again. There was no expectation or demand that he reform. The only constants were the human condition and Christ’s love, and that human condition did not follow from Eve eating an apple.
Philips came from a background like the Escofferys. He said his stage name, DaPaul, came from his "father’s French Guyanese roots." [11] He spent his childhood in a Caribbean church in South London absorbing its aesthetic, then, as a teenager, listened to popular music. [12] He heard everything with naive ears that were unencumbered by the cultural connotations that have developed around specific songs and sounds.
He drew upon the musical vocabulary of Cool jazz, but used a harmonica rather than a horn or saxophone for the solo instrument. More important, he replaced the piano continuo with a vocal one. The background singers sang "la la la" three times, followed by "come by here." Then they sang "la la la" two times, again followed by "come by here." This was used in the introduction, in the transition when he asked God to fix what has been broken, and more often when he recommended others also turn to Him.
Although DaPaul titled its version "Kumbaya," the word was heard only once, in a deep voice, at the end of the transitional "la la la." The melody was entirely his own. What came from "Kumbaya" was the short-shorter-long rhythm of the "la la la." The repetition pattern also matched the basic meter of "Kumbaya": two "la la la" for line one, one "la la la" and "come by here" for line two, two "la la la" for line three, and "come by here" for line four. Phillips usually sang the "come by here" phrase.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: David Philips, tenor
Vocal Group: unidentified
Instrumental Accompaniment: Clive Mellor, harmonica; [13] guitar, keyboard
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum, cymbal
Credits
"‘Kumbaya’ or ‘Come By Here’ is a folk song from Africa/America which the southern slaves used to sing and has been handed down over generations." [14]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: short-shorter-long for "la la la"
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: you, Lord, God
Special Terms: reference to "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," gospel song by Civilla D. Martin and Charles H. Gabriel that was popularized by Mahalia Jackson. [15]
Basic Form: rhymed couplets
Line length: most were 8 syllables, but some were 9 or 10
Line Meter: followed the spoken word
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: little variation in melody or instrumentation once the pattern was set
Singing Style: used melisma and sustained tones
Notes on Performance
Philips produced the record with Michael Collins using Pro Tools, a music-editing software package. [16] They worked on the project for two years. It’s more than likely Collins played the guitar on "Kumbaya" [17] and Philips the keyboard. A drum pattern probably was borrowed from one of the music libraries. More than likely Philips sang the background part. The software probably was used to multiply the effect of his voice in places.
Audience Perceptions
Bill Buckley asked Philips about "Kumbaya" because "everyone’s intrigued by that –thinking it might be the old folk song." He also believed the harmonica part was inspired by Stevie Wonder. [18]
Notes on Performers
Philips said his mother began teaching him to read music and play piano when he was six-years-old, and sang in church. He noted:
"the music that really caught my ear and engaged me was the folk songs from our Caribbean culture. These songs like ‘I’m gonna lay down my burdens’ or ‘Jesus on the mainline’, ‘Glory Glory Hallelujah’ were all handed down aurally to each generation and the musicians who played them at church played by ear and improvised. I found this intriguing and also started to play piano by ear." [19]
When he was older he began
"going to youth clubs and music community projects like Lewisham Music Academy in Deptford and The Basement Music Project in Covent Garden (near to Pineapple Studios). The musical atmosphere then was like a Fame School because there were many opportunities to join groups, bands and to perform." [20]
Once he made his record with Collins, he went from store to store in London trying to get one to carry it. One owner reviewed it on his store website, and that led others to listen. [21] Once one prominent disk jockey made another song his "Track of the Week" in July 20013 DaPaul’s reputation grew. [22] He found a manager [23] who booked him to Qatar and China, and since has produced a second album, London Town. [24]
The Escoffery Sisters made only one album, Opinions. It did not include "Kumbaya" or "Come by Here." [25] So far as I know, no record exists of their version.
Availability
CD: Soulful Spirit. 30 April 2013.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 7 August 2015.
End Notes
1. David Philips. Cited by Bill Buckley. "Soul Spirit ... DaPaul Speaks." Soul and Jazz and Funk website. 29 October 2013.
2. "George Stephenson Escoffery – d. 15 March 2010." Messenger [Journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland]. 28 May 2010. 15.
3. James Attlee. "The Escofferys: British Gospel’s Escoffery Sisters Re-emerge as R&B’s Escofferys." Cross Rhythms website. 1 February 1992.
4. Marcia Escoffery. Quoted by Attlee.
5. Marcia Escoffery. Cited by Attlee.
6. Attlee.
7. See entry dated 27 August 2017 for discussion of Inez Andrews’ version.
8. See entry dated 12 December 2017 for discussion of Doc McKenzie’s version.
9. This was behind Carmen Lundy’s use of the line "people are suffering" mentioned in the post for 12 March 2018.
10. See entry dated 6 August 2017 for discussion of Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s version.
11. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
12. "About DaPaul." DaPaul Music website.
13. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
14. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
15. Wikipedia. "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."
16. Mike Collins. Pro Tools 11: Music Production, Recording, Editing, and Mixing. Waltham, Massachusetts: Focal Press, 2013. ix.
17. Collins. He mentioned he played guitar on some tracks. ix.
18. Buckley. He asked: "there’s also a Stevie Wonder style harmonica going on... are you a big fan?"
19. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
20. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
21. Buckley.
22. DaPaul Music. The DJ was Peter Young, and the song was "She’s So Entertaining."
23. The manager was Gary Parks. ("DaPaul LONDON." Star Now website.)
24. "DaPaul." Rocket Fuel HQ website.
25. The Escoffery’s. Opinions. Atlantic. 7 September 1991. Track list on Amazon listing for CD.
DaPaul’s version of "Kumbaya" overlaid a jazz-influenced instrumental background with an American soul singing style. The lead performer, David Philips, said he first thought about doing the song after hearing the Escoffery Sisters sing it with their pianist, Paul Gladstone-Reid. [1] Their father was a Seventh-day Adventist who had migrated from Jamaica to London in 1959. [2] He trained them to sing harmony. [3] One sister remembered when they began
"‘We were more expressive vocally and musically than most groups like us from an Adventist background,’ explains Marcia. ‘They wouldn’t normally have a full band and we don’t use drums in our church like the Pentecostals, so to Adventists we were probably quite radical. Yet in the eyes of the Pentecostals we were conservative! Gradually, as we mixed more with people from other backgrounds we got less restrained’." [4]
They were signed by Atlantic Records as jazz artists in 1990, [5] and were credited with introducing modern Black gospel music from the United States into England. [6]
Philips converted "Come by Here" from a song steeped in Biblical references to a lyrical expression of need. Many versions of "Come by Here," including those of Inez Andrews [7] and Doc MacKenzie, [8] drew on an image of Christ as a healer and asked him for something specific, a healing or a blessing. [9] DaPaul’s version was more like Evelyn Turrentine-Agee. [10] He used a generic "it’s broken" that allowed listeners to apply it to their own problems.
Philips’ also did not make his version a narrative of sin and repentance. His protagonist admitted he had done this before, and, like before, needed help. One is left to assume, it, whatever it referred to, would happen again. There was no expectation or demand that he reform. The only constants were the human condition and Christ’s love, and that human condition did not follow from Eve eating an apple.
Philips came from a background like the Escofferys. He said his stage name, DaPaul, came from his "father’s French Guyanese roots." [11] He spent his childhood in a Caribbean church in South London absorbing its aesthetic, then, as a teenager, listened to popular music. [12] He heard everything with naive ears that were unencumbered by the cultural connotations that have developed around specific songs and sounds.
He drew upon the musical vocabulary of Cool jazz, but used a harmonica rather than a horn or saxophone for the solo instrument. More important, he replaced the piano continuo with a vocal one. The background singers sang "la la la" three times, followed by "come by here." Then they sang "la la la" two times, again followed by "come by here." This was used in the introduction, in the transition when he asked God to fix what has been broken, and more often when he recommended others also turn to Him.
Although DaPaul titled its version "Kumbaya," the word was heard only once, in a deep voice, at the end of the transitional "la la la." The melody was entirely his own. What came from "Kumbaya" was the short-shorter-long rhythm of the "la la la." The repetition pattern also matched the basic meter of "Kumbaya": two "la la la" for line one, one "la la la" and "come by here" for line two, two "la la la" for line three, and "come by here" for line four. Phillips usually sang the "come by here" phrase.
Performers
Vocal Soloist: David Philips, tenor
Vocal Group: unidentified
Instrumental Accompaniment: Clive Mellor, harmonica; [13] guitar, keyboard
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum, cymbal
Credits
"‘Kumbaya’ or ‘Come By Here’ is a folk song from Africa/America which the southern slaves used to sing and has been handed down over generations." [14]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: short-shorter-long for "la la la"
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: you, Lord, God
Special Terms: reference to "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," gospel song by Civilla D. Martin and Charles H. Gabriel that was popularized by Mahalia Jackson. [15]
Basic Form: rhymed couplets
Line length: most were 8 syllables, but some were 9 or 10
Line Meter: followed the spoken word
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: little variation in melody or instrumentation once the pattern was set
Singing Style: used melisma and sustained tones
Notes on Performance
Philips produced the record with Michael Collins using Pro Tools, a music-editing software package. [16] They worked on the project for two years. It’s more than likely Collins played the guitar on "Kumbaya" [17] and Philips the keyboard. A drum pattern probably was borrowed from one of the music libraries. More than likely Philips sang the background part. The software probably was used to multiply the effect of his voice in places.
Audience Perceptions
Bill Buckley asked Philips about "Kumbaya" because "everyone’s intrigued by that –thinking it might be the old folk song." He also believed the harmonica part was inspired by Stevie Wonder. [18]
Notes on Performers
Philips said his mother began teaching him to read music and play piano when he was six-years-old, and sang in church. He noted:
"the music that really caught my ear and engaged me was the folk songs from our Caribbean culture. These songs like ‘I’m gonna lay down my burdens’ or ‘Jesus on the mainline’, ‘Glory Glory Hallelujah’ were all handed down aurally to each generation and the musicians who played them at church played by ear and improvised. I found this intriguing and also started to play piano by ear." [19]
When he was older he began
"going to youth clubs and music community projects like Lewisham Music Academy in Deptford and The Basement Music Project in Covent Garden (near to Pineapple Studios). The musical atmosphere then was like a Fame School because there were many opportunities to join groups, bands and to perform." [20]
Once he made his record with Collins, he went from store to store in London trying to get one to carry it. One owner reviewed it on his store website, and that led others to listen. [21] Once one prominent disk jockey made another song his "Track of the Week" in July 20013 DaPaul’s reputation grew. [22] He found a manager [23] who booked him to Qatar and China, and since has produced a second album, London Town. [24]
The Escoffery Sisters made only one album, Opinions. It did not include "Kumbaya" or "Come by Here." [25] So far as I know, no record exists of their version.
Availability
CD: Soulful Spirit. 30 April 2013.
YouTube: uploaded by CDBaby on 7 August 2015.
End Notes
1. David Philips. Cited by Bill Buckley. "Soul Spirit ... DaPaul Speaks." Soul and Jazz and Funk website. 29 October 2013.
2. "George Stephenson Escoffery – d. 15 March 2010." Messenger [Journal of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United Kingdom and Ireland]. 28 May 2010. 15.
3. James Attlee. "The Escofferys: British Gospel’s Escoffery Sisters Re-emerge as R&B’s Escofferys." Cross Rhythms website. 1 February 1992.
4. Marcia Escoffery. Quoted by Attlee.
5. Marcia Escoffery. Cited by Attlee.
6. Attlee.
7. See entry dated 27 August 2017 for discussion of Inez Andrews’ version.
8. See entry dated 12 December 2017 for discussion of Doc McKenzie’s version.
9. This was behind Carmen Lundy’s use of the line "people are suffering" mentioned in the post for 12 March 2018.
10. See entry dated 6 August 2017 for discussion of Evelyn Turrentine-Agee’s version.
11. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
12. "About DaPaul." DaPaul Music website.
13. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
14. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
15. Wikipedia. "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."
16. Mike Collins. Pro Tools 11: Music Production, Recording, Editing, and Mixing. Waltham, Massachusetts: Focal Press, 2013. ix.
17. Collins. He mentioned he played guitar on some tracks. ix.
18. Buckley. He asked: "there’s also a Stevie Wonder style harmonica going on... are you a big fan?"
19. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
20. Philips. Quoted by Buckley.
21. Buckley.
22. DaPaul Music. The DJ was Peter Young, and the song was "She’s So Entertaining."
23. The manager was Gary Parks. ("DaPaul LONDON." Star Now website.)
24. "DaPaul." Rocket Fuel HQ website.
25. The Escoffery’s. Opinions. Atlantic. 7 September 1991. Track list on Amazon listing for CD.
Monday, March 12, 2018
Carmen Lundy - Kumbaya!
Topic: Jazz - Word
Jazz musicians who used the word "kumbaya" in other songs often did so in recurring choruses. Carmen Lundy’s basic quatrain began "Mother kumbaya" and continued with substitutions of other family members known by a child. One repetition used "come by here" and the family members important to a single mother.
Lundy’s lyric structure was more complex than most. The kumbaya verse usually was followed by backup voices singing a chorus that included allusions to Ecclesiastes with a "time to heal." Lundy repeated the verse-chorus five times.
The lyric iterations were divided into three sections by another melodic line that introduced a narrative element drawn from the original "Come by Here." In the first Lundy sang "people are suffering and need some understanding." The second time she added an injunction for action that included "yes we can make a better life."
After the second imperative, she shortened the verse by combining lines into "Oh mother, father come by here." Her singing style became melismatic. Before she usually had devoted one tone to each syllable, although she did scat the end of "kumbaya" in the final line of the first repetition.
The third imperative repeated a line from many versions of "Come by Here" that directly asked the Lord for help: "I don’t know if I can make it without you." She sang the second-section verse one more time, then began singing "my my my" and scatted to the end.
These segments were dramatized in the video she uploaded to YouTube. It began by showing stylized black stick-figures against white squares framed by black borders with the lyrics flashed across the screen. For the second imperative, it changed to footage of a dark-skinned drummer playing an African goblet drum with a hand drum at his or her side.
The video returned to the stick figures until she began the jazzier "mother, father" lines. Then it changed to footage from a concert. The video began and ended with a spinning circle of striped colors dominated by red that was formed like the bottom of a round basket. This motif also appeared during the third imperative.
She used the basic modern jazz ensemble of a piano, drums, and electric bass. An electric guitar played some solo lines in the introduction and added occasional accents thereafter. The melody used a single note for "mother" and went up slightly on "ba."
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Carmen Lundy, contralto
Vocal Group: Elisabeth Oei, background vocals
Instrumental Accompaniment: Patrice Rushen, piano; Ben Williams, electric bass; Jeff Parker, electric guitar; Carmen Lundy, acoustic guitar [1]
Rhythm Accompaniment: Kendrick Scott, drums
Credits
Written and arranged by Carmen Lundy
Copyright: (C) 2017 Afrasia Productions
"‘Kumbaya,’ originally spoken as ‘Come By Here’ in the south, ‘perhaps in the Gullah language of slaves from Angola brought to the Carolinas, to my understanding,’ says Carmen" on her website. [2]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom-bah-yah. "Here" sometimes had a broader vowel sound.
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I, names for family members
Term for Deity: You
Special Terms: suffering, healing
Basic Form: "kumbaya" used in a repeated quatrain with other text
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: her own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: simple repetition with little variation
Singing Style: scat in places
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: the voice was dominant. R. J. Frometa wrote:
"The album’s finale ‘Kumbaya’ brings out some real musical firepower but uses the same relaxed approach that’s characterized so many of these songs. It opens with a bright sheen of keyboards and incorporates guitar in generous doses. The backing vocals are understated and underscore Lundy’s own." [3]
Notes on Performance
Occasion: concert
Location: indoor platform
Microphones: floor mikes for the musicians; Lundy used a corded hand mike.
Clothing: Lundy wore white slacks with wide black stripes and a sheer black jacket. Her hair was cropped. The men were dressed in long-sleeved black shirts and slacks. The pianist wore a yellow dress with her hair loose to the waist.
Notes on Movement
Lundy stepped around as she sang, but stayed within a small circle. Her knees were bent, so her feet barely left the ground, and her body was tilted forward from the waist. She used her left hand to gesture and occasionally stood erect, before leaning forward again.
Audience Perceptions
The album titled Code Noir was released soon after Trump was inaugurated in 2017. Lundy said her selection of songs "also encompass the many emotions that are prevalent in this country right now. We are going through tough times with a country that is sorely divided and many of these tracks reflect the feelings that we as human beings are going through on an individual level." She added "Kumbaya" was "a song to my family. A plea to humanity." [4]
Many critics used those words in their own comments on "Kumbaya." Frometa wrote:
"The song might have a wide social scope, but it is quite personal in some ways – Lundy is clearly singing from the heart." [5]
In Jazz Weekly, George Harris wrote:
"Even her own ‘Kumbaya’ mixes the red African earth with a third world grove, taking the title of the tune back to its equatorial home." [6]
Notes on Performers
Lundy’s grandfather started a gospel group, which her mother was continuing when she was a child in the 1950s. Her brother Curtis [7] remembered their mother "was a powerful, beautiful singer." [8] Lundy herself recalled the rehearsals in their home and
"how the singers worked out harmonies and how they were transported to ‘a whole new dimension’ when they performed." [9]
She majored in music at the University of Miami. It had had a conservatory since its founding, but had only desegregated in 1961 [10] and was still incorporating African-American music forms. One of Lundy’s friends from high school, David Roitstein, [11] enticed her to join his jazz group that was playing at the Eden Roc hotel. She remembered
"We would come out of the classroom and take those ideas to our gigs. And I think that’s where I really began to hone a sense of whatever it was to do jazz singing." [12]
She moved to New York after she had created a demonstration record for Columbia. When it was turned down, she sent it to Herbert Wong who released it in 1985. [13] Lundy later moved to California and formed her own production company with Elisabeth Oei [14] in 2005. [15]
When she made an album released before Code Noir, Lundy played and recorded all the parts in her home studio "to get a working ‘feel’ for how the music might sound." [16] When she was ready to make the final recording, the musicians had to learn their parts by ear, rather than by readying sheet music.
Availability
CD: Code Noir. 17 February 2017.
YouTube: uploaded by Carmen Lundy on 17 July 2017.
End Notes
1. On the video, Andrew Renfroe played guitar and James Genus played bass.
2. "Code Noir" tab. Carmen Lundy website.
3. R. J. Frometa. "Code Noir by Carmen Lundy." Vents Magazine website. 2 March 2017.
4. Carmen Lundy, Code Noir.
5. Frometa.
6. George Harris. "CODE NOIR, the New Album from Vocalist/Composer CARMEN LUNDY." Jazz Weekly website. "Grove" probably was "groove" in the original.
7. Curtis Lundy played string bass in jazz groups. He was a year younger. (Wikipedia. "Curtis Lundy.")
8. Curtis Lundy. Quoted by Christopher Loudon. "Carmen Lundy: Freedom in Music Personified." Jazz Times website. 25 September 2012.
9. Carmen Lundy. Quoted by Bob Weinberg. "Jazz Great Carmen Lundy Reflects on Her Miami Roots." [Deerfield Beach, Florida] Sun-Sentinel. 13 April 2008.
10. Wikipedia. "University of Miami" and "Frost School of Music."
11. David Roitstein became chairman of the Jazz Program at the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts. He played piano. (School website.)
12. Carmen Lundy. Quoted by Weinberg.
13. Loudon.
14. Elisabeth Oei graduated from high school in Rye, New York, in 1974 and studied voice at the SUNY Fredonia. In 1989 she became the U. S. agent for Sonoton, a German library of music available for use by films and other media. (Her Facebook page).
15. Wikipedia. "Carmen Lundy."
16. "Carmen Lundy." Kuumbwa Jazz Center website. Announcement for concert scheduled on 9 October 2014.
Jazz musicians who used the word "kumbaya" in other songs often did so in recurring choruses. Carmen Lundy’s basic quatrain began "Mother kumbaya" and continued with substitutions of other family members known by a child. One repetition used "come by here" and the family members important to a single mother.
Lundy’s lyric structure was more complex than most. The kumbaya verse usually was followed by backup voices singing a chorus that included allusions to Ecclesiastes with a "time to heal." Lundy repeated the verse-chorus five times.
The lyric iterations were divided into three sections by another melodic line that introduced a narrative element drawn from the original "Come by Here." In the first Lundy sang "people are suffering and need some understanding." The second time she added an injunction for action that included "yes we can make a better life."
After the second imperative, she shortened the verse by combining lines into "Oh mother, father come by here." Her singing style became melismatic. Before she usually had devoted one tone to each syllable, although she did scat the end of "kumbaya" in the final line of the first repetition.
The third imperative repeated a line from many versions of "Come by Here" that directly asked the Lord for help: "I don’t know if I can make it without you." She sang the second-section verse one more time, then began singing "my my my" and scatted to the end.
These segments were dramatized in the video she uploaded to YouTube. It began by showing stylized black stick-figures against white squares framed by black borders with the lyrics flashed across the screen. For the second imperative, it changed to footage of a dark-skinned drummer playing an African goblet drum with a hand drum at his or her side.
The video returned to the stick figures until she began the jazzier "mother, father" lines. Then it changed to footage from a concert. The video began and ended with a spinning circle of striped colors dominated by red that was formed like the bottom of a round basket. This motif also appeared during the third imperative.
She used the basic modern jazz ensemble of a piano, drums, and electric bass. An electric guitar played some solo lines in the introduction and added occasional accents thereafter. The melody used a single note for "mother" and went up slightly on "ba."
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Carmen Lundy, contralto
Vocal Group: Elisabeth Oei, background vocals
Instrumental Accompaniment: Patrice Rushen, piano; Ben Williams, electric bass; Jeff Parker, electric guitar; Carmen Lundy, acoustic guitar [1]
Rhythm Accompaniment: Kendrick Scott, drums
Credits
Written and arranged by Carmen Lundy
Copyright: (C) 2017 Afrasia Productions
"‘Kumbaya,’ originally spoken as ‘Come By Here’ in the south, ‘perhaps in the Gullah language of slaves from Angola brought to the Carolinas, to my understanding,’ says Carmen" on her website. [2]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: koom-bah-yah. "Here" sometimes had a broader vowel sound.
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I, names for family members
Term for Deity: You
Special Terms: suffering, healing
Basic Form: "kumbaya" used in a repeated quatrain with other text
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: her own
Tempo: moderate
Basic Structure: simple repetition with little variation
Singing Style: scat in places
Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: the voice was dominant. R. J. Frometa wrote:
"The album’s finale ‘Kumbaya’ brings out some real musical firepower but uses the same relaxed approach that’s characterized so many of these songs. It opens with a bright sheen of keyboards and incorporates guitar in generous doses. The backing vocals are understated and underscore Lundy’s own." [3]
Notes on Performance
Occasion: concert
Location: indoor platform
Microphones: floor mikes for the musicians; Lundy used a corded hand mike.
Clothing: Lundy wore white slacks with wide black stripes and a sheer black jacket. Her hair was cropped. The men were dressed in long-sleeved black shirts and slacks. The pianist wore a yellow dress with her hair loose to the waist.
Notes on Movement
Lundy stepped around as she sang, but stayed within a small circle. Her knees were bent, so her feet barely left the ground, and her body was tilted forward from the waist. She used her left hand to gesture and occasionally stood erect, before leaning forward again.
Audience Perceptions
The album titled Code Noir was released soon after Trump was inaugurated in 2017. Lundy said her selection of songs "also encompass the many emotions that are prevalent in this country right now. We are going through tough times with a country that is sorely divided and many of these tracks reflect the feelings that we as human beings are going through on an individual level." She added "Kumbaya" was "a song to my family. A plea to humanity." [4]
Many critics used those words in their own comments on "Kumbaya." Frometa wrote:
"The song might have a wide social scope, but it is quite personal in some ways – Lundy is clearly singing from the heart." [5]
In Jazz Weekly, George Harris wrote:
"Even her own ‘Kumbaya’ mixes the red African earth with a third world grove, taking the title of the tune back to its equatorial home." [6]
Notes on Performers
Lundy’s grandfather started a gospel group, which her mother was continuing when she was a child in the 1950s. Her brother Curtis [7] remembered their mother "was a powerful, beautiful singer." [8] Lundy herself recalled the rehearsals in their home and
"how the singers worked out harmonies and how they were transported to ‘a whole new dimension’ when they performed." [9]
She majored in music at the University of Miami. It had had a conservatory since its founding, but had only desegregated in 1961 [10] and was still incorporating African-American music forms. One of Lundy’s friends from high school, David Roitstein, [11] enticed her to join his jazz group that was playing at the Eden Roc hotel. She remembered
"We would come out of the classroom and take those ideas to our gigs. And I think that’s where I really began to hone a sense of whatever it was to do jazz singing." [12]
She moved to New York after she had created a demonstration record for Columbia. When it was turned down, she sent it to Herbert Wong who released it in 1985. [13] Lundy later moved to California and formed her own production company with Elisabeth Oei [14] in 2005. [15]
When she made an album released before Code Noir, Lundy played and recorded all the parts in her home studio "to get a working ‘feel’ for how the music might sound." [16] When she was ready to make the final recording, the musicians had to learn their parts by ear, rather than by readying sheet music.
Availability
CD: Code Noir. 17 February 2017.
YouTube: uploaded by Carmen Lundy on 17 July 2017.
End Notes
1. On the video, Andrew Renfroe played guitar and James Genus played bass.
2. "Code Noir" tab. Carmen Lundy website.
3. R. J. Frometa. "Code Noir by Carmen Lundy." Vents Magazine website. 2 March 2017.
4. Carmen Lundy, Code Noir.
5. Frometa.
6. George Harris. "CODE NOIR, the New Album from Vocalist/Composer CARMEN LUNDY." Jazz Weekly website. "Grove" probably was "groove" in the original.
7. Curtis Lundy played string bass in jazz groups. He was a year younger. (Wikipedia. "Curtis Lundy.")
8. Curtis Lundy. Quoted by Christopher Loudon. "Carmen Lundy: Freedom in Music Personified." Jazz Times website. 25 September 2012.
9. Carmen Lundy. Quoted by Bob Weinberg. "Jazz Great Carmen Lundy Reflects on Her Miami Roots." [Deerfield Beach, Florida] Sun-Sentinel. 13 April 2008.
10. Wikipedia. "University of Miami" and "Frost School of Music."
11. David Roitstein became chairman of the Jazz Program at the Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts. He played piano. (School website.)
12. Carmen Lundy. Quoted by Weinberg.
13. Loudon.
14. Elisabeth Oei graduated from high school in Rye, New York, in 1974 and studied voice at the SUNY Fredonia. In 1989 she became the U. S. agent for Sonoton, a German library of music available for use by films and other media. (Her Facebook page).
15. Wikipedia. "Carmen Lundy."
16. "Carmen Lundy." Kuumbwa Jazz Center website. Announcement for concert scheduled on 9 October 2014.
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Eva Vea - Kumbaya
Topic: Jazz - Word
The vocal analog to jazz musicians who use "Kumbaya" as the pretext for a display of musical skill are the singers who use the word "kumbaya" with different tunes and lyrics. Eva Vea changed the pronoun to "I" and ended with supplications to "Oh Lord" in her 2014 version.
Vea had begun singing in choirs in Stavanger, Norway, when she was 15, [1] and had begun offering her services for meetings, weddings and other events. She said she sang "everything from jazz / fusion to soul / gospel and hymns" and played piano. [2]
She met Sammy Sylvester "on one of her choir’s tours." [3] He was a free-lance producer from Trinidad who, apparently, promoted his services to the more talented individuals he saw in gospel music concerts. Stephen John said he made his album in 2011 "only after I met producer Sammy Sylvester who was impressed with my vocals he heard on my previous album." [4]
Isaac Agyeman listed Sylvester in the credits for his I’m on My Way album. Sylvester played keys, guitar, bass, and drums; programmed the drum machine, and hired others to play other instruments and sing backup vocals. In addition, Sylvester rented time in recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and paid someone to do the mixing. [5]
Vea said "she decided to do songs she knew from Sunday school and make them into songs for all ages, because of the song’s great lyrics and meaning beyond childhood." [6] She was probably a second soprano. Her melody for "Kumbaya" had the characteristics of that part, sometimes going high on a word.
She preferred singing slowly; none of the videos she uploaded to YouTube had a quick beat. Sylvester took her tempo and added instrumentation pioneered by Cool jazz musicians in the 1950s. He used the basic piano and minimalist drums, with a wailing trumpet soloist who played in the interludes between verses.
After Vea had sung the three verses of "Kumbaya" she began repeating "Oh Lord" or humming while a background voice or voices sang "kumbaya my lord" very softly. Sylvester may have dubbed her voice into the support part. The equipment available for rent in Nashville would have been the most sophisticated available. [7]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Eva Vea
Vocal Group: may be Eva Vea
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano, horn
Rhythm Accompaniment: block, drum set
Credits
Copyright: 2015 Eva Vea [8]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: first two syllables of "kumbaya" very short, and last extended, but without any emphasis
Verses: kumbaya, praying, crying, own; references to singing
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: four-verse song with extended ending and partial recapitulation
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: repeated "oh Lord" many times, with "kumbaya," "I’m singing," and "I’m praying" as isolated phrases
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: AB with A using strophic alternation of verse and instrument.
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Instrumental Style: Cool jazz
Notes on Performance
Occasion: summer 2014 [9]
Location: Nashville [10]
Notes on Performers
Stavanger’s prosperity during Vea’s childhood came from the North Sea oil industry. [11] After she returned from Nashville, she posted videos of herself playing a keyboard, rather than piano. [12] She often used the name Eva Irene Vea.
Sylvester moved to the United States in 1992. [13] On LinkedIn he indicated he began Leumas Music in 1995. Most recently it suggested he specialized in production, artist development, and concert organization. [14]
Stephen John said he discovered "his gift of music when he won the" Full Gospel Song festival in 1998. After making his record his Sylvester, he released other singles in Trinidad. [15]
Isaac Agyeman earned a master’s degree in music from California State University Long Beach, but also studied law at Pepperdine. The African American practiced law, and played "saxophone and keyboards for a local church" in San Diego. [16]
Availability
MP3: Angels. 12 September 2014.
YouTube: uploaded by Eva Irene Vea on 3 December 2014.
End Notes
1. "Eva Vea." Presskit website.
2. "Eva Vea - Sanger og låtskriver." Facebook.
3. "Eva Vea." KlickTrack website.
4. Bobie-lee Dixon. "Gospel Singer Ready To Soar." Trinidad and Tobago Guardian website. 7 May 2011.
5. "Agyeman, Isaac." Indie-Pool website.
6. KlickTrack.
7. Agyeman’s record was recorded in the Bonus Room of the Sound Stage Studios in Nashville. (Indie-Pool)
8. Amazon listing for Vea’s Angels.
9. Notes for YouTube video of "Kumbaya."
10. YouTube, Kumbaya.
11. Wikipedia. "Stavanger."
12. "Medley Jul Eva Vea." Medley of Christmas songs uploaded by Eva Irene Vea to YouTube on 29 November 2015.
13. "Soming ’bout Me." Sammy Sylvester website.
14. "Sammy Sylvester." LinkedIn.
15. "Biography" Stephen John Music website.
16. "Bio." Isaac Agyeman Music website.
The vocal analog to jazz musicians who use "Kumbaya" as the pretext for a display of musical skill are the singers who use the word "kumbaya" with different tunes and lyrics. Eva Vea changed the pronoun to "I" and ended with supplications to "Oh Lord" in her 2014 version.
Vea had begun singing in choirs in Stavanger, Norway, when she was 15, [1] and had begun offering her services for meetings, weddings and other events. She said she sang "everything from jazz / fusion to soul / gospel and hymns" and played piano. [2]
She met Sammy Sylvester "on one of her choir’s tours." [3] He was a free-lance producer from Trinidad who, apparently, promoted his services to the more talented individuals he saw in gospel music concerts. Stephen John said he made his album in 2011 "only after I met producer Sammy Sylvester who was impressed with my vocals he heard on my previous album." [4]
Isaac Agyeman listed Sylvester in the credits for his I’m on My Way album. Sylvester played keys, guitar, bass, and drums; programmed the drum machine, and hired others to play other instruments and sing backup vocals. In addition, Sylvester rented time in recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and paid someone to do the mixing. [5]
Vea said "she decided to do songs she knew from Sunday school and make them into songs for all ages, because of the song’s great lyrics and meaning beyond childhood." [6] She was probably a second soprano. Her melody for "Kumbaya" had the characteristics of that part, sometimes going high on a word.
She preferred singing slowly; none of the videos she uploaded to YouTube had a quick beat. Sylvester took her tempo and added instrumentation pioneered by Cool jazz musicians in the 1950s. He used the basic piano and minimalist drums, with a wailing trumpet soloist who played in the interludes between verses.
After Vea had sung the three verses of "Kumbaya" she began repeating "Oh Lord" or humming while a background voice or voices sang "kumbaya my lord" very softly. Sylvester may have dubbed her voice into the support part. The equipment available for rent in Nashville would have been the most sophisticated available. [7]
Performers
Vocal Soloist: Eva Vea
Vocal Group: may be Eva Vea
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano, horn
Rhythm Accompaniment: block, drum set
Credits
Copyright: 2015 Eva Vea [8]
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: first two syllables of "kumbaya" very short, and last extended, but without any emphasis
Verses: kumbaya, praying, crying, own; references to singing
Vocabulary
Pronoun: I
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: four-verse song with extended ending and partial recapitulation
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: repeated "oh Lord" many times, with "kumbaya," "I’m singing," and "I’m praying" as isolated phrases
Unique Features: none
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: slow
Basic Structure: AB with A using strophic alternation of verse and instrument.
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Instrumental Style: Cool jazz
Notes on Performance
Occasion: summer 2014 [9]
Location: Nashville [10]
Notes on Performers
Stavanger’s prosperity during Vea’s childhood came from the North Sea oil industry. [11] After she returned from Nashville, she posted videos of herself playing a keyboard, rather than piano. [12] She often used the name Eva Irene Vea.
Sylvester moved to the United States in 1992. [13] On LinkedIn he indicated he began Leumas Music in 1995. Most recently it suggested he specialized in production, artist development, and concert organization. [14]
Stephen John said he discovered "his gift of music when he won the" Full Gospel Song festival in 1998. After making his record his Sylvester, he released other singles in Trinidad. [15]
Isaac Agyeman earned a master’s degree in music from California State University Long Beach, but also studied law at Pepperdine. The African American practiced law, and played "saxophone and keyboards for a local church" in San Diego. [16]
Availability
MP3: Angels. 12 September 2014.
YouTube: uploaded by Eva Irene Vea on 3 December 2014.
End Notes
1. "Eva Vea." Presskit website.
2. "Eva Vea - Sanger og låtskriver." Facebook.
3. "Eva Vea." KlickTrack website.
4. Bobie-lee Dixon. "Gospel Singer Ready To Soar." Trinidad and Tobago Guardian website. 7 May 2011.
5. "Agyeman, Isaac." Indie-Pool website.
6. KlickTrack.
7. Agyeman’s record was recorded in the Bonus Room of the Sound Stage Studios in Nashville. (Indie-Pool)
8. Amazon listing for Vea’s Angels.
9. Notes for YouTube video of "Kumbaya."
10. YouTube, Kumbaya.
11. Wikipedia. "Stavanger."
12. "Medley Jul Eva Vea." Medley of Christmas songs uploaded by Eva Irene Vea to YouTube on 29 November 2015.
13. "Soming ’bout Me." Sammy Sylvester website.
14. "Sammy Sylvester." LinkedIn.
15. "Biography" Stephen John Music website.
16. "Bio." Isaac Agyeman Music website.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
DaJubilus - Kum Ba Yah
Topic: Jazz - Modern
Music is more than virtuosity. Repertoire and technique can be taught, but the aesthetic that allows an individual to perpetuate a tradition - be it jazz, Southern gospel, or girls’ camp songs - is absorbed through exposure and participation. The post for 26 February 2018 suggested how colleges were providing the rudiments for musicians like those who played with Terell Stafford; if they attracted a talented group of students, the youthful interactions replicated the sort of music sessions at Minton’s Playhouse that gave birth to Bebop in the 1940s. [1] But, as Derrick Lewis discovered, absent that peer group one could graduate and still not be fully initiated. [2]
Carlos Alexis Caraballo was exposed to a musical instrument when he was eight-years-old in Puerto Rico, [3] and "grew up listening and playing music among his friends and family." [4] He said he wanted formal training, but "life and parents brought me through a totally different path and professional career not related to music." He finally got some training as an adult at Miami Dade College in south Florida. [5]
When an interviewer asked Caraballo what songs first influenced him, his list didn’t include the founders of Bebop and other forms of modern jazz. Instead, he said they were:
"The version of ‘A Night in Tunisia’ the musical composition written by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli in 1942, performed by Papo Lucca and La Sonora Poncena [6] and ‘Watermelon Man’ by Mongo Santamaria a 1962 arrangement [7] of Herbie Hancock’s 1961 original composition of the same name." [8]
Caraballo had heard enough music to recognize his own limitations. He remembered the time he had spent in Miami Dade’s Commercial Music Ensemble had "built confidence in me, self-assurance during on stage performance and musical projection." However, instead of making a record of his own playing, he used his entrepreneurial instincts to apply the classes that taught the skills needed to produce a recording with modern equipment [9] to hire more skilled musicians to realize his vision.
He took some songs from David Arivett’s Jazz in Church series to Puerto Rico. He didn’t say if the men in DaJubilus read the sheet music or listened to the tape that came with the score. What was clear was they Hispanicized Arivett’s "Latin jazz arrangement" of "Kum Ba Yah."
Arivett’s arrangement was rooted in the modern jazz tradition that employed a piano as the backbone instrument and saxophones as soloists. Instead of the usual drum and string bass, Arivett used percussion instruments associated with Latin music, and augmented the piano with a low drone played by the electric bass. Among the exotic instruments he suggested was the Puerto Rican güiro, a ridged gourd rubbed by a stick. [10]
Like Lucca and Santamaria, Caraballo found the common areas in the African-American jazz style and his own taste, and modified the rest. [11] Arivett’s piano had the timbre of ragtime, but the Puerto Rican keyboard had a more piercing sound like that of a harpsichord. DaJubilus made the rhythm obvious with a steadily beaten cymbal. Caraballo used drums in the instrumental interlude, then added a whistle in the final iterations.
Like Lewis, Averitt devoted more time to iterations of the basic "Kumbaya" melody than to pure instrumental music in his arrangement than did Stafford. This may be one of the compromises artists make who try to perform jazz for conservative religious audiences. His main variations were giving little time to "my" and extending "yah" in the first three lines with staccato tonguing of "by" each time. In the final line, he used a turn on "kum."
While Dancing in the Spirit was described as "Christian" on Amazon, [12] Caraballo said the record of gospel songs was intended to honor his parents and "it encompassed a number of songs from his childhood." [13]
Performers
Averitt
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: alto and tenor saxophones
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: electric bass guitar, drum set, side stick, guiro, congas, timbales, cowbells, shakere
DaJubilus
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: two saxophones
Instrumental Accompaniment: primarily keyboard; accents by trumpet, whistle
Rhythm Accompaniment: primarily cymbals
Credits
Arivett
Negro spiritual
Arranged by David Arivett
© Copyright 2009 Songs Of David Music
DaJubilus
(C) 2011 DaJubilus Latin Ensemble
"Music composed and arranged by the David Arivett" [14]
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Arivett
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: Latin beat, quarter note = 75 beats per minute
DaJubilus
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: ABA, with A the melody
Notes on Performance
Location: Puerto Rico
Notes on Performers
Arivett was raised in Ontario, California, [15] where he began playing violin and viola. He started mastering the piano as a teenager, [16] then majored in music at California State University-Fresno. [17] After graduation, he directed church choirs and bands, eventually becoming a clinician. [18]
He said he was first exposed to jazz in church, [19] and has written: "My main goal is to celebrate the miracle of existence as well as savor and enjoy the beautiful gift of music...Celebrate today!" [20]
Caraballo rarely used his full name, preferring his given names. However, his production company was his name spelled backwards, OllabaraC.
Availability
Arivett
Sheet Music: "Kum Ba Yah." Songs of David website. The PDF came with an MP3 file. The website included a sample from it.
DaJubilus
Album: Dancing in the Spirit. MP3. 6 October 2011.
YouTube: DaJubilus version uploaded by CDBaby on 23 August 2015.
End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Thelonious Monk."
2. Derrick Lewis was discussed in the post for 4 March 2018.
3. "Dajubilus." Radio Swiss Jazz website.
4. "DaJubilus Latin Ensemble." Facebook.
5. Radio Swiss Jazz.
6. Sonora Ponceña. New Heights. Inca Records JMIS 1074. 1980. (Discogs entry for album).
7. Mongo Santamaria and His Orchestra. Watermelon Man. Battle BM 6120. 1963. (Discogs entry for album).
8. Radio Swiss Jazz.
9. Radio Swiss Jazz.
10. Wikipedia. "Güiro."
11. In an interview, Hancock said he had created the rhythm for "Watermelon Man" from the sound of horse-drawn wagon wheels on cobblestones in Chicago. He added, when he first played it for Sanatamaria, the Cuban-born Congo player said "that’s a Guajira." ("Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man." Unidentified tape of televised concert with British interviewer uploaded to YouTube by path0610 on 7 January 2012.)
12. Amazon page for Dancing in the Spirit.
13. Facebook, DaJubilus.
14. Facebook, DaJubilus.
15. "About David Arivett." Facebook.
16. "Bio." Songs of David website.
17. "David Arivett." LinkedIn.
18. Songs of David.
19. Songs of David.
20. LinkedIn.
Music is more than virtuosity. Repertoire and technique can be taught, but the aesthetic that allows an individual to perpetuate a tradition - be it jazz, Southern gospel, or girls’ camp songs - is absorbed through exposure and participation. The post for 26 February 2018 suggested how colleges were providing the rudiments for musicians like those who played with Terell Stafford; if they attracted a talented group of students, the youthful interactions replicated the sort of music sessions at Minton’s Playhouse that gave birth to Bebop in the 1940s. [1] But, as Derrick Lewis discovered, absent that peer group one could graduate and still not be fully initiated. [2]
Carlos Alexis Caraballo was exposed to a musical instrument when he was eight-years-old in Puerto Rico, [3] and "grew up listening and playing music among his friends and family." [4] He said he wanted formal training, but "life and parents brought me through a totally different path and professional career not related to music." He finally got some training as an adult at Miami Dade College in south Florida. [5]
When an interviewer asked Caraballo what songs first influenced him, his list didn’t include the founders of Bebop and other forms of modern jazz. Instead, he said they were:
"The version of ‘A Night in Tunisia’ the musical composition written by Dizzy Gillespie and Frank Paparelli in 1942, performed by Papo Lucca and La Sonora Poncena [6] and ‘Watermelon Man’ by Mongo Santamaria a 1962 arrangement [7] of Herbie Hancock’s 1961 original composition of the same name." [8]
Caraballo had heard enough music to recognize his own limitations. He remembered the time he had spent in Miami Dade’s Commercial Music Ensemble had "built confidence in me, self-assurance during on stage performance and musical projection." However, instead of making a record of his own playing, he used his entrepreneurial instincts to apply the classes that taught the skills needed to produce a recording with modern equipment [9] to hire more skilled musicians to realize his vision.
He took some songs from David Arivett’s Jazz in Church series to Puerto Rico. He didn’t say if the men in DaJubilus read the sheet music or listened to the tape that came with the score. What was clear was they Hispanicized Arivett’s "Latin jazz arrangement" of "Kum Ba Yah."
Arivett’s arrangement was rooted in the modern jazz tradition that employed a piano as the backbone instrument and saxophones as soloists. Instead of the usual drum and string bass, Arivett used percussion instruments associated with Latin music, and augmented the piano with a low drone played by the electric bass. Among the exotic instruments he suggested was the Puerto Rican güiro, a ridged gourd rubbed by a stick. [10]
Like Lucca and Santamaria, Caraballo found the common areas in the African-American jazz style and his own taste, and modified the rest. [11] Arivett’s piano had the timbre of ragtime, but the Puerto Rican keyboard had a more piercing sound like that of a harpsichord. DaJubilus made the rhythm obvious with a steadily beaten cymbal. Caraballo used drums in the instrumental interlude, then added a whistle in the final iterations.
Like Lewis, Averitt devoted more time to iterations of the basic "Kumbaya" melody than to pure instrumental music in his arrangement than did Stafford. This may be one of the compromises artists make who try to perform jazz for conservative religious audiences. His main variations were giving little time to "my" and extending "yah" in the first three lines with staccato tonguing of "by" each time. In the final line, he used a turn on "kum."
While Dancing in the Spirit was described as "Christian" on Amazon, [12] Caraballo said the record of gospel songs was intended to honor his parents and "it encompassed a number of songs from his childhood." [13]
Performers
Averitt
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: alto and tenor saxophones
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: electric bass guitar, drum set, side stick, guiro, congas, timbales, cowbells, shakere
DaJubilus
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Soloist: two saxophones
Instrumental Accompaniment: primarily keyboard; accents by trumpet, whistle
Rhythm Accompaniment: primarily cymbals
Credits
Arivett
Negro spiritual
Arranged by David Arivett
© Copyright 2009 Songs Of David Music
DaJubilus
(C) 2011 DaJubilus Latin Ensemble
"Music composed and arranged by the David Arivett" [14]
Notes on Lyrics
There were none
Notes on Music
Arivett
Time Signature: 3/4
Tempo: Latin beat, quarter note = 75 beats per minute
DaJubilus
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: fast
Basic Structure: ABA, with A the melody
Notes on Performance
Location: Puerto Rico
Notes on Performers
Arivett was raised in Ontario, California, [15] where he began playing violin and viola. He started mastering the piano as a teenager, [16] then majored in music at California State University-Fresno. [17] After graduation, he directed church choirs and bands, eventually becoming a clinician. [18]
He said he was first exposed to jazz in church, [19] and has written: "My main goal is to celebrate the miracle of existence as well as savor and enjoy the beautiful gift of music...Celebrate today!" [20]
Caraballo rarely used his full name, preferring his given names. However, his production company was his name spelled backwards, OllabaraC.
Availability
Arivett
Sheet Music: "Kum Ba Yah." Songs of David website. The PDF came with an MP3 file. The website included a sample from it.
DaJubilus
Album: Dancing in the Spirit. MP3. 6 October 2011.
YouTube: DaJubilus version uploaded by CDBaby on 23 August 2015.
End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Thelonious Monk."
2. Derrick Lewis was discussed in the post for 4 March 2018.
3. "Dajubilus." Radio Swiss Jazz website.
4. "DaJubilus Latin Ensemble." Facebook.
5. Radio Swiss Jazz.
6. Sonora Ponceña. New Heights. Inca Records JMIS 1074. 1980. (Discogs entry for album).
7. Mongo Santamaria and His Orchestra. Watermelon Man. Battle BM 6120. 1963. (Discogs entry for album).
8. Radio Swiss Jazz.
9. Radio Swiss Jazz.
10. Wikipedia. "Güiro."
11. In an interview, Hancock said he had created the rhythm for "Watermelon Man" from the sound of horse-drawn wagon wheels on cobblestones in Chicago. He added, when he first played it for Sanatamaria, the Cuban-born Congo player said "that’s a Guajira." ("Herbie Hancock - Watermelon Man." Unidentified tape of televised concert with British interviewer uploaded to YouTube by path0610 on 7 January 2012.)
12. Amazon page for Dancing in the Spirit.
13. Facebook, DaJubilus.
14. Facebook, DaJubilus.
15. "About David Arivett." Facebook.
16. "Bio." Songs of David website.
17. "David Arivett." LinkedIn.
18. Songs of David.
19. Songs of David.
20. LinkedIn.
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