The album Coltrane’s Sound begins explosively. There’s a single-note saxophone pickup, and then bang, straight into the full band playing a big, bright latin tune. A few seconds in, the feel changes to swing, then back to latin. Sometimes the chords are pedaled, floating and modal; other times they seem like regular functional circle-of-fifths changes, …
Category Archives: Key Musicians
More people should be listening to Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine
Most of the music I write about ranges from well known to iconic. I am not one of these people who takes pleasure in knowing about obscurities that other people don’t. However, I do have one intense fandom for a couple of guys who you are likely not to have heard of: Tim Eriksen and …
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That one weird chord in “Sir Duke”
You can feel it all over by Dr. Ethan Hein You can feel it all over people Read on Substack We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Songs in the Key of Life’s release, and I plan to put in some quality musicology on it. I’m starting now, with a look at a single …
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
I have mentioned the Beatles on the podcast before, but this is the first episode entirely about one of their songs. It will probably be the first of many. Blackbird singing in the dead of night by Dr. Ethan Hein Take these broken wings and learn to fly Read on Substack
The Gospel According To Aretha
Aretha Franklin’s Gospel Blues by Dr. Ethan Hein Singing the song vs channeling the ancestors Read on Substack It’s blues melody week in theory and aural skills. That doesn’t just mean we’re looking at the blues genre, though; we’re covering all the genres that use what Richard Ripani calls “the blues system”: the characteristic pitches, …
Angine de Poitrine on MusicRadar
My most recent column for MusicRadar is an explainer on Quebec’s hottest microtonal prog-techno sensation.
Satisfaction
I am normally resistant to writing about this kind of overexposed Boomer anthem, but it occurred to me that it would be an interesting tune to analyze on the first day of pop aural skills class, because it’s both simple and harmonically interesting.
It Takes Two
In 1972, James Brown produced a single for one of his backup singers, Lyn Collins, called “Think (About It)”. If you listen to this without any context, it sounds like a perfectly fine funk song with an unusual rubato introduction. But then, at 1:22, there’s suddenly that break, followed immediately by that hook. Sing it …
Bob Weir tribute on MusicRadar
I drew on some of my previous Grateful Dead analyses for my newest MusicRader column, Bob Weir in Five Songs and a Jam.
RIP Bob Weir
Bob Weir’s organically quirky songwriting is one of the central building blocks of my musical understanding. Here’s a solo guitar rendition of my favorite of his tunes.