Here’s a close-to-finished mix of my new song Bluezebub (The Devil You Don’t Know). This is a last song to complete my new album of computer jazz songs. I’ve already turned to corner to doing final mixes and mastering, and am close to done on three other songs. So more on that soon. But for now let me tell you about Bluezebub.
It’s a rather long and complicated song, but for what it is, it came together pretty quickly and organically. The general vibe is 60’s spy jazz meets prog rock madness.
It started with the drum pattern that introduces the song, which I came up practicing various swing and shuffle beats, and seeing if could make 5/4 time swing. Next came the bass line. I became fascinated by the idea of a 10-bar blues, and that pattern forms the basis of the arrangement. I also came up with 5- and 15-bar blues patterns that are used in different places. Since I don’t have the constraints of playing live, I double tracked the bass part with a synth and fender bass guitar. There’s also a piano part played on fender rhodes to outline the chords and give it some tastiness.
The first part of the song is a slow, easy, kinda groovy mysterioso feel. I brought in the melody on bari sax. The song suggested a building feel, so the next chorus I added a tenor sax, then a lead synth the chorus after that, and before I knew it I had three melodies in a fugue-like interlock over the rhythm section. To bring some resolution from there, I wrote a bridge where the horns and synth all play in harmony, mostly on whole notes, while the bass and piano come forward. Then it’s a restatement of the fugue theme, but elaborated and embellished with drum breaks.
The solo section echoes the structure of the head somewhat. The bari sax has a nice long chance to stretch out, then the tenor and finally the synth, keeping the groove relaxed and building to a simmer.
Then things get crazy. The time shifts from 5/4 to 15/8, with the feel on the triplet. This is superimposed over the old pulse, to there’s a 5-against-6 feel that comes around every few bars. The blues bass line is now sped up, and everyone blows over it, increasingly dissonant and intense, culminating in a climactic burst of silence. This is followed by a skewed, condensed and embellished recapitulation of the head, with the rhythmic tension retained and a bit of Cowboy Bebop style riffing thrown in for good measure.
Believe it or not, there wasn’t alot mixing to do once I dialed in the basic setup, cuz most of the dynamics are in the playing.
I shared a rough with Martin last week, and he called me up to tell me it evoked a story to him, where Bluezebub is this supernatural blue cat demon, identified with the bari sax, and is emceeing some kind of show or parade of friendly monsters, but then it all turns scary and you have to run away. I think that sums it up pretty well.
Anyway here it is. Enjoy!
https://zingman.com/music/mp3/bziv/Bluzebub41c.mp3