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Posts Tagged ‘Stolen Moments’
Hexatonic scales
In Scales on December 18, 2013 at 7:09 pmIn music and music theory, a hexatonic scale is a scale with six pitches or notes per octave. Famous examples include the whole tone scale, C D E F♯ G♯ A♯ C; the augmentedscale, C D♯ E G A♭ B C; the Prometheus scale, C D E F♯ A B♭ C; and what some jazz theorists call the “blues scale”, C E♭ F G♭ G B♭ C.
Whole tone scale
The whole tone scale is a series of whole tones. It has two non-enharmonically equivalent positions: C D E F♯ G♯ A♯ C and D♭ E♭ F G A B D♭. It is primarily associated with the French impressionist composer Claude Debussy, who used it in such pieces of his as Voiles and Le vent dans la plaine, both from his first book of piano Préludes.
This whole-tone scale has appeared occasionally and sporadically in jazz at least since Bix Beiderbecke’s impressionistic piano piece In a Mist. Bop pianist Thelonious Monk often interpolated whole-tone scale flourishes into his improvisations and compositions.
Whole tone scale
Augmented scale
The augmented scale, also known in jazz theory as the symmetrical augmented scale, is so called because it can be thought of as an interlocking combination of two augmented triads an augmented second or minor third apart: C E G♯ and E♭ G B. It may also be called the “minor-third half-step scale” due to the series of intervals produced.
Augmented scale
It made one of its most celebrated early appearances in Franz Liszt’s Faust Symphony (Eine Faust Symphonie). Another famous use of the augmented scale (in jazz) is in Oliver Nelson’s solo on “Stolen Moments”. It is also prevalent in 20th century compositions by Alberto Ginastera, Almeida Prado, Béla Bartók, Milton Babbitt, and Arnold Schoenberg, by saxophonists John Coltrane and Oliver Nelson in the late 50s and early 60s, and bandleader Michael Brecker. Alternating E major and C minor triads form the augmented scale in the opening bars of the Finale in Shostakovich’s Second Piano Trio.
Prometheus scale
The Prometheus scale is so called because of its prominent use in Alexander Scriabin’s symphonic poem Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. Scriabin himself called this set of pitches, voiced as the simultaneity (in ascending order) C F♯ B♭ E A D the “mystic chord”. Others have referred to it as the “Promethean chord”.
Prometheus scale
Blues scale
Since blue notes are alternate inflections, strictly speaking there can be no one blues scale, but the scale most commonly called “the blues scale” comprises a flatted seventh blue note, a flatted third blue note, and a flatted fifth blue note along with other pitches derived from the minor pentatonic scale: C E♭ F F♯ G B♭ C
Most common “blues scale”
Tritone scale
The tritone scale, C D♭ E G♭ G(♮) B♭, is enharmonically equivalent to the Petrushka chord, C C♯ E F♯ G A♯.
Tritone scale on C
The two-semitone tritone scale, C D♭ D F♯ G A♭, is a symmetric scale consisting of a repeated pattern of two semitones followed by a major third now used for improvisation and may substitute for any mode of the jazz minor scale. The scale originated in Nicolas Slonimsky’s book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns through the, “equal division of one octave into two parts,” creating a tritone, and the, “interpolation of two notes,” adding two consequent semitones after the two resulting notes.
Two-semitone tritone scale on C
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stolen Moments (Oliver Nelson)
In Stolen Moments on December 18, 2013 at 9:48 am“Stolen Moments” is a jazz standard composed by Oliver Nelson. It is a sixteen-bar piece (in an eight-six-two pattern), though the solos are on a conventional minor key 12-bar blues structure.
The piece first appeared as “The Stolen Moment” on the 1960 album Trane Whistle by Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, which was largely written and co-arranged by Oliver Nelson. It was not marked out as anything special, in fact the cover notes only mention that the trumpet solo is by Bob Bryant and that Eric Dolphy’s bass clarinet can be heard briefly on the closing. However, in the liner notes to Eric Dolphy: The Complete Prestige Recordings, Bill Kirchner states that this incorrectly credits Dolphy with playing what is actually the baritone saxophone of George Barrow, with Dolphy’s contribution to the piece being the second alto behind Nelson. Its first well-known recording was the version on Nelson’s own 1961 album, The Blues and the Abstract Truth. Nelson’s solo on this version contains “possibly the most famous” use of the augmented scale in jazz.[1]
Singer Mark Murphy wrote lyrics for his 1978 version.
Ann Fischer later wrote different lyrics to Nelson’s original melody. They were first recorded on the 1987 album The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets. This vocal version of “Stolen Moments” was given the alternative title “You Belong to Her”.
Recordings
In 1975 Oliver Nelson used the song as the title track for an album (on Inner City Records: IC 6008). “Stolen Moments” has also been recorded by many other musicians. In 1994 the title was used for a compilation album in the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series, which helped popularize this and other jazz standards among a wider audience.
Recorded versions include:
- 1966 by Booker Ervin, album Structurally Sound
- 1968 by Phil Woods and his European Rhythm Machine, album Americans Swinging in Paris
- 1970 by Ahmad Jamal, album The Awakening
- 1975 by Oliver Nelson, album Stolen Moments
- 1978 by Mark Murphy, album Stolen Moments
- 1979 by Jimmy Raney and Doug Raney, a father and son jazz guitar duo, album Stolen Moments
- 1988 by Frank Zappa, album Broadway the Hard Way After the trumpet solo by Walt Fowler, Zappa invites Sting to sit in with the band, and he sings a modified version of thePolice song “Murder by Numbers” over the “Stolen Moments” vamp. The band finishes by returning to the Nelson melody.
- 1990 by Lee Ritenour, album Stolen Moments
- 1991 by Stanley Jordan, album Stolen Moments
- 1991 by New York Voices, album Heart of Fire
- 1994 by United Future Organization, compilation album Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool
- 1996 by Jimmy Smith, album Angel Eyes
- 2002 by Kenny Burrell, album Stolen Moments
- 2003 by Gap Mangione, album Stolen Moments
- 2005 by Telefon Tel Aviv, album Remixes Compiled
- 2009 by Brownman Electryc Trio, album Juggernaut
Other artists who have recorded the piece include: Ray Brown, Caribbean Jazz Project, Betty Carter, Sonny Criss, Booker Ervin, Freddie Hubbard, Milt Jackson, J. J. Johnson,Quincy Jones, Oliver Lake, Andy LaVerne, Lorne Lofsky, Herbie Mann, Jon Mayer, Carmen McRae, One for All, Hilton Ruiz, Snakefinger, Soil & “Pimp” Sessions, Andy Summers,Bill Taylor, Turtle Island String Quartet, Grover Washington, Jr., and Sadao Watanabe.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stolen Moments on Guitar
In Guitarists on October 7, 2012 at 4:26 pmfrom John Basile, more on his web site
from Esteban Bello, also on his web site
Backing track, partition, and solo
