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Composer, Arranger, Percussionist
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Transcription * 05/31/24
Bill Evans on "My Funny Valentine"
So I'm thinking this would be a good place to put transcriptions when
I do them. Could be solos, could be big band solis, or whatever I feel
like doing. This week I transcribed a chorus of Bill Evans' solo on My
Funny Valentine, off of the record Undercurrent, with Jim Hall
on guitar. I find this version of MFV so fun: The pair take it up
in tempo, and at least in the head, forego traditional comping for a
bouncy interplay between melody and countermelody, played by Evans and
Hall respectively. There're good textural changes during the solos too,
like after Evans' first chorus when Hall starts filling out every quarter
note with palm-muted chords. It's pretty impressive to have a duo with no bass
or drums sound this dynamic and rhythmic. All this to say, I highly recommend
listening to the full recording and the full album if you like what you hear.
Moving onto the section I actually transcribed. Some things to note here are:
This is a piano transcription, so the slurs are purely my interpretation of the
phrasing, particularly in dense eighth note runs that might look indistinguishable
otherwise. Also, most of the accents in this solo are fairly subtle. Because of
that, I treated them like classical accents, marking any notes I feel are
emphasized and using them kind of to show phrasing as well. If I made any mistakes,
let me know through my contacts! I'm trying to get a better ear for dense runs without
relying on slowing down the recording, so I didn't use speed manipulation while
transcribing this solo.
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VGM Jams and Dragon Quest
Hiya! A year later, and I'm finally coming back to work on this
website! So, here's another test blog, mostly to see if I can
even manage multiple entries with my lackluster HTML skills. :P
I will say, my foundation seems pretty good. Even coming back a year
later, it feels easy to add new things to this framework. Not that
it's at all an impressive website, but it is surprisingly functional
so far!
So, I'm a drummer, and recently I've been going to video game jam
sessions in my area. It's a pretty active scene these days, and I'm
glad it is as a fan of improvisational music and video game music!
I will say though, that my taste in VGM tends to skew niche and I do
wish that I could call tunes from the soundtracks *I* love. With Akira
Toriyama's death this past month, I've been replaying the work of his
closest to my heart: Dragon Quest IX on the DS. I used to play this game
all the time as a kid, and even just hearing this music again has been
very emotional for me. I don't know many people who played this or any
Dragon Quest game, and it's a weird feeling to be so alone in that
rediscovery of something. If you want to listen to the OST, the
Observatory theme "Heaven's Prayer" is a nice track. It's DS hardware
but Koichi Sugiyama does some truly outstanding work with it.
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Test Blog * 04/16/23
This'll be a quick test blog while I work on my website :0. I just
want to see if this is something I can and would like to keep up
with doing since the site is mostly just a place to host my music
and whatever else I may need to link to. But I also enjoy talking
when no one is listening, and this appeals to that urge, lol.
...So I don't know about you but I've been really getting into Ace
Attorney recently; I used to play Dual Destinies as a wee one and
am going back to play the DS games. Haven't gotten to Ema's case
but I hear it's quite good. I know all of the story beats of the
first game except for that case, so no spoilers, you imaginary
rascal! I've got my eye on you. ;)