"It takes much more than wild courage
Or you'll hit just the tattered clouds
You must have just the right bullets
And the first one's always free."
~Tom Waits
1. The Plum Blossom by Yuseef Lateef (1961)
2. Karuna Supreme by Ali Akbar Khan/John Handy (1975)
3. Bernie’s Tune by Bernie Miller (1953)
4. Nature Boy by Eden Ahbez (c1948)
Players:
Dipak Topiwala, baritone and soprano saxophone
Dan Cantrell, accordion and harmonium
Notes:
My arrangement of The Plum Blossom sets the meter in ryupak taal or a rhythmic cycle of 7/8. The harmonium and soprano sax each echo the beginning of the seven beat cycle as the other plays solo.
Karuna Supreme was a duet written by Ali Akbar Khan and John Handy during years of collaboration in the 1970s. The tune is set to a meter in dadra taal, or a rhythmic cycle of 6/4. The accordion echoes the drone throughout like a traditional tanbura.
Bernie’s Tune is one of my favorite bouncy melodies, which can easily be interpreted with Indian traditional performance techniques. Essentially this entire tune is set in a meter of fast tin taal, or a rhythmic cycle of 16. The head is played in eight cycles of 16/4 and then a solo is played by both players. I ended the piece without repeating the A section, as the tune has a happy quality throughout and a nice minor ending note reflected with a tango style.
Nature Boy also garners interpretation using Indian techniques, especially in regards to the triplet form known as a tihai which signals the ending of a melodic phrase within a solo. Any phrase can be extended into a triplet repetition, with the ending note falling on the beginning beat of the next cyclical pattern. In this song, the cycle is in a slow tin taal (16/4) and you will find that the solo patterns fall within such a meter, and the melody closing with the tihai pattern.
copyright 2004
