Boomshakalaka. This weeks music sundae is a little late, but that couldn’t be helped because the blog was just so recently created. We spent the first big chunk of rehearsal working on a really cool Shostakovich fugue that Greg transcribed directly from the original piano score. We’re almost ready to post a recording, but there’s still some balance and phrasing problems to work on (at least this time I’m drowning out Greg and not the other way around – damn accordion).
Anyway – this post is about the piece we did record, which is Stolen Moments, by Oliver Nelson. I hope the other guys will comment on this post and pitch in their ideas, because this kind of music is far from my specialty. That said, my take on what we’re trying to do here is kind of a mixture between Footprints (the Miles Smiles version) and Li’l Darlin’ (as played by Count Basie). What I’m focusing on the most is blending the tone of the cello to disappear into the trumpet sound, which means not only precisely matching articulation, cutoff, intonation and volume, but also feeling the time without any rhythm section (no downbeats! bah!). It’s enough to focus on that I no longer feel self-conscious making weird facial expressions (which usually yields the best musical results, in my experience).
As far as form goes, this is the kind of tune that everybody wants to solo on, but we didn’t want it to be 15 minutes long so we had an arm-wrestling contest to see who got to solo – Adam and I obviously won (I only beat Greg because his arms were fatigued from playing accordion, and I p0wned Evan by slapping his new forearm tattoo really hard). I think it was Greg’s idea to have one solo over traditional minor blues changes, followed by a free solo, which really adds to the “where the hell am I?” vibe of this arrangement. All in all, I really feel like this piece takes full advantage of the exciting-sweetness-of-sound we’re capable of, sort of like blue velvet charged with static electricity (especially the part where the accompaniment does the chromatic swell).
What we could use the most input on, I think, is the overarching form of the piece: does it keep your attention? does it feel complete? are you left wanting more/less of anything in particular? is the flow of energy natural? what color socks are you wearing, if any? your social security number?
Here’s another link to the tune: Stolen Moments (by Oliver Nelson)
Thank you so much, and I hope you stick around and check in on future ‘New Music Sundaes’ with Lulu’s Playground.
-Cory
Lulu's Playblog 
One Comment
I think Cory is right in describing the type of style that we were after here. A sort of cool, concerted, perfectly blended thing, and with Oliver Nelson’s original 4 part voicing. Its always a challenge to play without a bass player (although our cellist does a damn fine job of filling that roll sometimes) and a drummer. In order to function probably we need to have an internal groove happening as a group that is unmistakable. There are times in the recording where it is clear that we are all on the same page, and there are other times when you can hear that we stray away a bit. Playing a tune like this is arguably more difficult than some of the other things that we play because there is so much already associated with the tune, and trying to play it pretty much like you would have heard it with Oliver Nelson wrote it (minus our ridiculous instrumentation and the free improvisation in the middle) is really tough to do.
I think the free improvisation in the middle was Evan’s idea, actually. I agree that it was a nice addition. I think it adds a Lulu type sound to the tune, which I think is important for us to establish on everything we play. Sort of like when I used to lick my Pizza Puff right after I bought it from the hot lunch line in middle school. That pizza puff is now mine, and everyone knows it. Boomshakalaka.
~Adam