Here’s the third in my ongoing series of jazz demos. I’ve been enjoying doing these as a vehicle to present new songs to my jazz group. I haven’t had much time for recording lately, and the last two songs of my Buzzy Tonic album Elixr are sitting there half done. But it can take months to produce a rock song, while I can whip off one of these in just a few hours.
My previous songs Dark Skies and Your Dancing Shoes are now in regular rotation in our jazz group. One is a ballad and the other a funk/soul number. I figured it’s time for an uptempo swing number. We’ve been doing alot of hard bob in the group, Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon and that kind of thing, and this song is in the zone. Well, maybe more Sonny Rollins or Cannonball Adderly. I’ve never written anything in cut time before, and this one is around 200 bpm. The main riff is something I’ve had in my bag for a long time, it was just a matter of giving it some structure. It’s funny how a good bridge can really make a song. It’s like a commentary on the A section. You have to decide what aspects to contrast or change up, what to keep as-is, and what to take further. In doing so you come to understand the essence of the song. The song begins and ends with a drum solo, since this kind of groove is right in our drummer Mike’s bag. I can hardly wait to get some recordings of the group performing these.