Thursday, April 23, 2015

Mishigas

I couldn't resist trying my hand at writing an arrangement using the "Birth of the Cool" instrumentation.  I call this one "Mishigas", which is Yiddish for... the craziness of this world (lack of sense and order).

The drums are used to outline the three roots in a blues progression.  The melody over top uses a weird scale that resembles harmonic minor with a raised fourth degree.  If there's an official name for this scale I'm unaware of it.

The song starts off and ends in G.  Each soloist plays in a different key; Dmi for piano, Emi for horn and F#mi for alto saxophone.  I added some simple backgrounds to frame each solo.


Check out Alex Gertner on that French horn!  Go Alex go!