Herbie Hancock Chameleon live 1975
In this performance, we can instrumental arrangement consist of Cabasa, tambourine, synthesizer keyboard, Congo, electric guitar, electric bass guitar, drum set, saxophone and also small gong. The song starts at 0:19. Introduction started with solo drum playing which plays in a very funky kind of rhythm. Then the electric bass guitar slowly gets into the music at the background alongside with the unique kind of sound produced by the tambourine. We can also hear that this unique sound produces by unique way of tambourine playing seems to be syncopated with the electric guitar at the background. This then can be related to the idea of fusion where there are many experiments done to the music during this era. Other than that, the piano playing of the keyboardist is also for me seems to be melodically colorful because we can see some element stride piano at the right hand which plays in a fast rhythm but not for the left hand.
We can listen to some sort of call and response between the lead electric guitarist and also the electric guitar bassist. This is because they seem to alternate to one another during the introduction part. Then, after the call and response between electric guitar and also electric bass guitar, the keyboardist solo started to play his part which still accompanied by the electric bass guitar and also drum.
From the video, we can also listen or hear that the solo keyboard improvisation was played with a simple harmonic chord. We can also see that the keyboardist play such a simple chord for the harmony from the video at the minute of 2:33. Then after the minute of 2:36, we can listen the band gives the sense of slowing down which might be because of the electric bass guitarist stop playing the fast rhythm and continue playing with much cooler rhythmic sense. This suit the keyboard playing style which was being played with the same cool kind of sensation, this might be caused by the synthesized sound itself which has the cool kind of sensation.
At the minute of 4:35, we can hear that the keyboardist did some kind of signaling by using the technique called Glissando on the keyboard to signal the saxophonist to start his solo playing, accompanied by drum and also bass guitar.
At minute of 4:50, we can listen the keyboardist start to play his solo part again, but this time he uses different sound effect which resembles more to an electric guitar sound. We also can listen that the keyboardist seems to play with the tuning, making the sound sometimes to be out of scale. However, this solo still being accompanied by bass guitar soloist and also drum. Then it follows with the keyboardist very unique style of synthesizing keyboard tuning which later sounds like he controlling the wind, it also sounds like they are going to take off. However, the keyboardist, in my opinion, manages to find a relevant transition after he performed some kind of air banding technique. The same technique has been repeated during this period that is by using glissando technique, it also signals the saxophone to start its improvisation. During minute of 7:20 we can listen to the repeating melody that once introduces around the introduction part. This means that this musical piece has its form and not formless like free jazz although they have some sense of experimenting. This might because of Herbie Hancock really influence with the playing style that called “controlled freedom” that introduced by Miles Davis during his time in Miles Davis’s band.
Return to Forever
In this performance, we can see there is also Synthesizer Keyboard which being played by Chick Corea, Bill Conners as a lead electric guitar and also consist of bass guitar and also drum. From the overall observation that was by listening everything thoroughly, we can say that this musical can be categorized as a Rock Jazz. This is because the music is largely covered by the lead guitarist, Bill Conners. Bill Conners seems to play an important role in this musical piece because he is the one who responsible for the guitar improvisation that hugely resembles rock genre. The dominant electric guitar playing also accompanied with the playing style of the bass guitar which help the rock style playing by Bill Conners. In the introduction of the song, we can hear the playing rhythm by the band has some sense of “cool kind of rock”. The band also really presenting the sense of galaxy kind of rhythm which suits with the piece name, Hymn of the 7th Galaxy. This is because the way how the drummer plays the drum in my experience in watching sci fi movies bring the sense of a spaceship that travels through space, evading asteroids and space debris.
What is the most remembered part is during at the minute of 0:30 where we can hear that the band start to descend their tempo which created the cooler sense of melody which I think largely contributed by the bass and the electric guitar playing that really synchronized in terms of tempo and rhythm for few seconds. Then the same sense of galaxy vibe happened again at the minute of 1:05. At the minute of 2:46, Bill Connors uses the growling technique by stretching the guitar string. However, at the end of the musical piece, I can hear something familiar with a television series music ending vibe.
Weather Report – Birdland
At the starting part of the music, we can hear keyboardist playing some keys which sound like metallic kind of sound. Then it was accompanied by the drum and also bass playing. Next, something extraordinary happened when we can hear the drummer started to play the drum more intensively and fast in terms rhythmic motion which might functioning as the signal for the clarinet to start playing. At the minute of 1:20, we can hear saxophone playing which seems to be accompanied by the drummer, keyboardist and also the bassist. The keyboardist, in my opinion, uses the similar sampling that has the sense of retro gaming music.
Then, at the minute of 1:34, we somehow can listen that the band had some sort of transitional phase that to make sure the musician who was alternating playing between saxophone and clarinet can change into clarinet playing again. At the minute of 2:10, we can hear the bassist start to use scat singing technique but following the keys and tempo played by the band. Then, later on, we can see that the transitional technique actually not only appear twice but for the third times at which occur again at the minute of 2:25 where the musician change his musical instrument again from clarinet to saxophone.
At the minute of 2:45, we can hear there was an improvisation done by the saxophonist while accompanied by the keyboardist and also bassist which play in a downbeat kind of rhythmic sense. We also can listen there was a solo improvisation by the bass player at the minute of 3:11 which accompanied by the drummer which play in a very steady fast rhythm and also saxophone and keyboard. Then, suddenly after the bass solo playing ended, we somehow unnoticed the sudden transition between saxophone to the clarinet. The bassist then at the minute of 4:22 start to scat singing again. However, the singing by bassist seems to be a lot longer compared to the last part with bassist singing. Lastly, the musical piece end with the dominant sound of the clarinet.
Mahavishnu Orchestra: you know you know
The musical ensemble s consist of typical rock music band instrument. However, later on, we can hear there is an electric violin which I think is not normal for jazz or rock band to have any Violinist. Throughout the performance, we can listen to a familiar melody played by the band which repeated so many times and this somehow brings some sense or vibe of modal jazz and also controlled freedom. At minute of 3:57, we can hear the solo improvisation of electric violinist which at first play the familiar melody that we can notice from the starting of the performance. This solo performance was accompanied by drum and also bass guitar. We also can say that among other instruments, violin acquired the longest solo.
At minute of 7:36, we can listen the keyboardist use his synthesizer to produce a funky kind of sound sampling by tuning them during accompanying the solo part of the drummer. However, still did not make the keyboard playing to overshadowed the drum playing. In my opinion, this musical piece contains many elements such as rock and funk. So we can categorize this musical piece as a fusion jazz because of the presence of those elements.
Comparison Between 4 Performance
There so many aspects that we can compare on when we are comparing those four musical pieces such as in terms of their melodic, rhythm, their genre and in terms of their instrumental ensemble as general. However, we can not deny that during this era of music, the experimentation of music in jazz really circle around the usage of sampling sound that can be seen helped by the creation of synthesizer keyboard. The usage of synthesizer keyboard can be seen as something that was largely used by all the band in all those four performances. In my opinion, the experimentation on jazz in terms of instrument started to bring its fruitful outcome during this era because the experimentation on musical tonality now aided by the synthesizer keyboard, not just by the ordinary instrument like in free jazz era. Next, in terms of differences, we can compare all four performance in terms of their Jazz genre. The first performance, Chameleon by Herbie Hancock and also Weather Report- Birdland are more towards Funky Jazz genre. This is because, in their performance, we can somehow hear some sense of cool sensation that being projected by the synthesizer keyboardist. This also because of their playing which also reminds me of the commercial type of song which has fast and catchy tempo at the same time because they sound so joyful. Other than that, the musical performance of Mahavishnu: You Know, You Know, in my opinion, more resemble Rock Jazz than a fusion jazz. This is because, in terms of their musical instrument ensemble, they remind me of a rock band, but with an electric violin. The reason why I classify it as Rock Jazz more than fusion jazz is also because of the way of their playing which really have the sense of the rock music. This might because of its rhythm and tempo which become faster and faster at some point. Another reason is that if we listen closely to the violin solo which accompanied by drum, guitar and bass guitar become so much intense at the middle of the performance and its intensity covered most of the violin solo part. Lastly, although Return to Forever performance is classified as a rock jazz genre, there is one additional aspect that I think exist that makes this performance to be more than that. This is because in some parts we can hear they also include some cool sensation which we can hear in the synthesizer keyboard. The synthesizer keyboard throughout the musical performance somehow balances the sense of fiery playing of the electric guitarist by selecting the cool and soothing sampling sound.