Mkwaju Ensemble - Hot Air

Mkwaju Ensemble - Hot Air

Mkwaju Ensemble @ discogs.com

A lesser known god defeated in battle secludes to the inside of a terracotta vase. Condensation berries the walls. Humid air hums. Dimly light teases towards insight, flickering hide and seek. Residual dew pools lazily at the bottom center. 

  

  In the beginning, there was E. Low, droning, E to contain the piece. 

  Next there’s a low marimba muffling between D and E, emphasizing the resolution to E, building the importance of that tonal center!

  Background feathered with bowl, or gong, or bell type sounds hovering. Mostly D’s and vanishing anonymous overtones. 

  Then a higher pitched marimba plays: D E F#, D E B.  And it is played over and over with various rhythms, as if with a delay pedal changing the beat division.

  The marimba becomes blurred with other tones. They play notes from B minor pentatonic!  Pretty cool since the tonal center for the whole song is E!  So what’s happening?  B minor pentatonic emphasizes notes B D E F# A. Spelled overtop the E we get 5th, b7th, root, 9th, 11th. COOL!  This creates an overall atmosphere of a suspended chord, perhaps sus2!  Since the 3rd is omitted completely (whether it be G or G#) we are left with a really tricky ambiguous chord. What a special vibe! 

  Then finally there is some flute type vibe whispering far beneath the mix. Long drawn out notes of B minor pentatonic , but adding C# sometimes!  Creating subtle tension, nice 8-). 

  And that is the story of the god held in the vase. 

Tomoko Aran - I'm In Love

 

Tomoko Aran - I'm In Love 

Aran @ discogs.com

 

Intro

               Holy Moly girl!  What is this intro?  The bass plays then A E C D, and the piano sounds like some DENSE A-7.  Cool that’s hearable.  Then the next chord the bass plays A F C# D#.  So IZIT C# major scale with A natural?  Furthermore the piano sounds like some Ab major 7 thingy.  IDK, the parts seem like a jumble that shouldn’t go together but they made it happen.  A13 followed by D and I think E in the bass lead into the chorus!

 

Chorus!

||Bbmajor 7           |                                       | Fmajor 9                            |D7sus4           D7                |

|Bbmajor 7             |                                       | Fmajor 9                            |D-7             Ab13                ||

              

               Her vocal line: F G A, A Bb C A F G A. 

               For the first lead into the verse they smoosh that D-7 Ab13 into the 7^th bar after Fmajor 9.

 

Verse is easy peasy, Bbmajor 7 to Fmajor 9 just like the chorus!  The lead into the prechorus I believe is C13, B13. 

Prechorus does some Bbmajor 7, A-7, G-7, A-7.  Then Bbmajor 7, G-7, A7sus4.  Her vocals slams into the sus note (D.

              

Guitar solo section jams out on F-7, then Ab-7, C7sus, then A7sus. 

               Pretty straight forward and trendy!

 

               Some neato voicings:

                              Bbmajor 7:   xx3335

                              Fmajor 7   :   xx3555     or xx3553 if you want the F major 9

                              A7sus4      :   xx5757

 

               Intro brings us out!  Enjoy!

Mariya Takeuchi – Plastic Love

 

Mariya Takeuchi - Plastic Love

Takeuchi @ discogs.com 

    Intro!

||Bbmaj7    /A        |G-6     Fmaj            | Eb9    Bbmaj  Cmaj             | Dmaj                        ||

              

Triad riff during Bbmaj, Cmaj and Dmaj is:  A F D A, G E C G, F#.

 

              

              

Verse!

||G-7                       |C7b9(13)                  |A-7                                      |D-7                                |

 |G-7                       |C7b9(13)                  |A-7                                      |D-7                                 ||

              

This repeats a few times!  It’s a II V III VI in F major, neat jazz functional harmony!

 

               The segment where a sliding 4^th guitar riff comes in, the chords change up to:

              

||G-7                       |Eb13                  |D-7                                       |G9                                    |

|G-7                       |C7b9(13)                  |A-7                                      |D-7                              | |

              

Still largely in F major, however the chords that don’t “fit” are Eb13 and G9!  The Eb13 could be considered modal interchange from F minor (Aeolian).  Eb13 = bVII.  It’s a little wonky but really I think we’re just looking at Eb13 being a color chord that resolves half step down to D-7.  And G9 is acting as the V chord in a II V, where D-7 is the II chord.  So that’s like a II V from the key of C major, but since D-7 is in both C major and F major, the II V mini progression fits in that way.  Another way to justify throwing in dominant chords where it sounds good LOL.  But then the G9 resolves itself by going to G-7, and then we’re back in normal F major land.  The bass walks us from the D-7 by way of D, E, F, where F is the V to the next section (which starts on Bbmajor).

              

 

Chorus?!

||Bb major                      |C major               |Bb major                 |C major                     |

|E-7             A7               |D-7                        |Bb maj    C maj      |A-          D-                  |

|Bb major                      |C major               |Bb major                 |C major                      |

|Bb maj       C maj        | D major              |                                |                                   ||

              

               The E-7 A7 again is a little II V jazz action thrown in to resolve to the D-7.  E-7 A7 is borrowed from the key of D major, but instead the chords resolve to D minor.  

    The final 4 bars is our triad pal from the intro, wrapping up this city pop delivery evenly!  Enjoy!

Junko Ohashi - Telephone Number

 

Junko Ohashi - Telephone Number 

Ohashi @ discogs.com 

 

Intro has brief C octave Db Octave, leads into:

 

||A-11/ D             |  D7sus                    |A-11/D                      |Gmaj     F13 E13 Eb13 D13||

 

               Guitar palm mutes funky D, E G, over A-11.  D, E, F# over D7sus.

               The 13 chord section is those syncopated full band hits!  Ah Oooooooo!

 

 

Chorus:

 

Ooooooooooooo, five six seven oh niiiine!  The melody (in context of G major Key) is 5, 4, 3, 2, 3!  Is she singing a phone number or shouting her music theory?  The main note she holds over the A-7 chord (the “ah, OOOOooo!” is D, so that colors 11 on the A- chord.

 

||A-7                       |D9                        |Gmaj7                       |E-7                                        |

|A-7                         |D9                        |Gmaj7                       |A-7 B-7  B-7  C#-7   Dmaj  ||

              

Bass plays a funky formula of root, octave sliding up to 9 and back to octave. 

              

 

 

Verse:

Verse mostly is the same as the chorus.  Twice through A-, D7, Gmaj, E-, we get this new bit:

 

||C-7                       |C-7                      |B-7                                 |E7b913                           |

|A-7                         |A-7                      |D7                                  |D7                                 ||

 

                Full band hits on D7, “Loo-vin’, youuu!”  Notes F#, G, A.

 

                E7b913 is rly fun, can voice it as 0x6769 on guitar!  Not too tricky to grab and sounds SUPER sophisticated ;)

 

    Ta-daaa~  Enjoy!