The Blues Can Sneak Up on You
Max R.
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“The Blues Can Sneak Up on You” began as a rhythmic experiment: I wanted to shift between a funky, even-eighths feel (in the ‘A’ section) and a buoyant, swing feel (in the ‘B’ section). The title refers to how the “A” section is a 12-bar minor blues, but so intensely reharmonized that the bluesiness of it is hidden and easy to miss. Inspired by Miles Davis and Gil Evans’s Birth of the Cool, I arranged the piece for nonet, but then expanded it when I joined a musically advanced big band this fall. For the big band version, I added more texture and complexity to the harmonies, added a sax soli and a trumpet soli, modified the sax backgrounds so that they generated more excitement, and extended the coda so that the last minute of the piece opens up a new horizon for the listener. Enjoy!
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Creativity for me is about embracing a state of potential, a sense that everything is unfinished and can be improvised upon. When Duke Ellington was asked what his favorite song was, he always said that it was the next one, the one he hadn’t yet composed.
