Introduction
For my final project, I would like to create a repertoire made up of a mixture of jazz arrangements and standards as well as potentially my own compositions. In order to develop my basic final project idea, I will need to explore a few aspects including the musicians I will be working with, what our individual sound as a group will be like, how to arrange jazz covers in an interesting way, my target audience and how I will build up to the final performance.
Target Audience
A major part of my decision making at this point was whether I should follow a commercial route or a more experimental route.
A commercial route would see me aiming for a larger audience and I would achieve this by creating jazz arrangements of popular songs that would be very accessible for people to listen to and that would focus on being more upbeat than being harmonically explorative. Dancing at a concert is often a large part of why someone would go out and see a band and if I could tap into that market by creating some very exciting arrangements that were great to dance to, I would potentially be able to create a large fan base and secure further commercial ventures including functions. There is currently a huge market for function bands and this project could allow me to establish a repertoire within a band to take forward into this profitable market.
Alternatively, approaching these arrangements in an experimental way would hugely challenge my harmonic and rhythmic knowledge as well as largely improve certain aspects of my performance skill set. In terms of the way that I play piano and the artists that I listen to, I feel that I would have a stronger affinity with a more experimental project as it would allow me to explore some of my current ideas and make similar music to the bands that I currently follow. It would also allow me to try out the use of other aspects such as technology and synths as well as letting me focus more on the musical side rather than promotion and marketing. There is currently a growing scene in Leeds for experimental jazz as well as there being a monthly jazz concert in bradford at Glyde house which often features experimental music, therefore there is still a large scene for the music I would want to create.
Musician Lineup
My ideal lineup would consist of a rhythm section with myself on the piano as well as a bassist and a drummer. A solo instrument on top of this would add an interesting aspect to the overall sound as it would mean that the melody would no longer be my focus and that I could explore different voicing’s.
I currently have a violinist in mind for this solo instrument and we plan to have a jam on February the 13th in order to discover how our ideas will work out. I will document our meeting and the developments that it creates.
I am currently unsure about wether I want to include a singer in the lineup, I think this will become clear as the project goes on and I made potentially ask a singer to collaborate with the band on a few tracks but not all of them. This could potentially add an interesting contrast to the performance , however this will require a process of trial and error.
An artist that I have been looking at who has covered a range of pieces in a jazz style is Brad Mehldau.
He uses a variety of collaborations in order to create the perfect sound for that piece and what I’ve found by studying some of these videos is that some songs strongly benefit from the addition of a singer.
For example, his cover of paranoid android is flawless and he does an amazing job to create a solo arrangement for it.
However with his version of Don’t think twice by Bob Dylan probably wouldn’t sound very good in the same style and therefore with the addition of Chris Thile, he is able to take a back seat and therefore feed into Dylan’s casual folky style.
Individual Sound
I am hoping that we will be able to develop an individual sound throughout this project and be able to create some really special arrangements by exploring different aspects and outlooks. A large aspect of this this that I will be looking at is the use of space within the band, as if we do set up as a 4 piece , I will play a pivotal role in wether the sound is very busy or more spaced out and I might be able to discover some very interesting ways to use this.
The major part of our sound will of course come from the final instrumentation we decide upon, however we might be able to experiment with certain technological techniques such as synths, ambient sounds and effects such as reverb.
Arrangements
The structure of our pieces that we will be performing will affect the bands sound as depending on how strict or free it is, our improvisational element as a group will be completely different. This will be an element of my project that will be explored through primary research consisting of band practices and my reaction to those.
Live Performance
For my final performance, I thought that it would be interesting to look into developing a theme to set the performance around. For example the theme could follow a journey or an idea such as growing up as explained in my concept ep idea. The songs could therefore reflect this theme and follow that idea throughout the performance, which would allow me to explore different harmonic and structural ideas. I could also look into different ways to create an iconic themed performance through different art and stylistic influences.