MMoM 007 - Fusion

Originally posted on June 3, 2012In this episode, I talk about my jazz fusion piece “Fusion” composed in 1994. I also talk about extended major and extended minor chords.I started by reading an email from Steve Snively and a comment from Viv Black.My favorite chords are the extended major and minor chords that are built by stacking alternative major and minor thirds.For major:C-E-G is a major chordC-E-G-B is a major 7th. This is a melancholy sound. I play short clips from Tin Man and Ventura Highway by America that use a lot of major 7th chords. Late Day Storm uses 2 major 7th chords for the second half of the chord progression.C-E-G-B-D is a major 9th. It sounds like the major 7th, with the addition of the 9th which is a color note.C-E-G-B-D-F# is C maj9#11. I played Tell Me A Bedtime Story by Herbie Hancock that starts with the major 9th, and has a nice sequence ending with a maj9#11. (Bmaj7, Gmaj7, Emaj9, Cmaj9#11 – all the F# in the melody)C-E-G-B-D-F#-A is Cmaj13#11C-E-G-B-D-F#-A-C# is actually Dmaj7 / Cmaj7. This is used at the end of Colour My World by ChicagoFor minor:A-C-E is a minor chordA-C-E-G is a minor 7thA-C-E-G-B is a minor 9th – my favorite chord. Zanzibar by Billy Joel uses this chord. My song Fusion uses only minor 9th chords.A-C-E-G-B-D is a minor 11th. Funk (for solo piano) and Sleepy use minor 11th chords.A-C-E-G-B-D-F# is a minor 13thThe chord progression is simple: Dm9 for 2 measures, and Gm9 for 2 measures.When I created this in 1994, I was only using MIDI and the sounds that were built in to the PC. I didn’t have any good way to record and mix audio.I use layering, where each time through the chord progression, a new part comes in, while all the other parts repeat their part from before.The first time is just the bass guitar and the cymbalsThe second time is the high electric piano partThe third time is an electric guitarThe fourth time is the mid-range electric piano and the bass drum and snare drumThe fifth time is two shaker partsThe sixth time is where the saxophone comes inI played the 1994 version of Fusion.I then talked about how I re-sequenced the piece in Cubase in 2011. I was able to get better synthesizer sounds, and record myself on the saxophone. I then played the 2011 version.I came up with an idea of how I can get a better recording of my jazz band arrangements. I can try to play all the saxophone parts, and try to get a trumpet and trombone player to play all the trumpet and trombone parts. Then I can mix the whole jazz band from my computer. If this works, I will publish my arrangement of Miles Davis’s Four, as well as re-recording Powerhouse.