David Kraus: The Listening Room
Gone Today, Here Tomorrow
Gary Gordon ~ soprano saxophoneBuy the Album
David Kraus ~ acoustic steel string guitars
Jamie Masefield ~ mandolin
Mark van Gulden ~ vibraphone
Clyde Stats ~ acoustic bass
Brazil is where the sound and groove of this fusion samba tune comes from. Brazilian music has become a staple part of the jazz repetoire ever since the soft syncopated rhythms of Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Louis Bonfi, Stan Getz, and others burst onto the scene with the Bossa Nova in the late fifties and sixties. The latin rhythmic vocabulary continued to grow in jazz with the music of Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Carlos Santana, and many more gifted artists. My own interest in the music of Brazil and South America grew, and this tune is a statement of my deep connection with Brazil, even if from a distance.
The song's title "Gone Today, Here Tomorrow" is indeed the reverse from the well known saying of "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow." I felt that the latter saying has a negative ring to it, in that good things in life are experienced only for a moment but inevitably disappear quickly. I'm too far along in life to pretend any naivete about the fleeting gifts we may receive during our days on this planet or the futility of trying to hang on to them or own them forever since life itself cannot last forever. So I wanted to give these words a more positive spin by implying that gifts not yet seen or experienced could easily appear at any moment. For me it expresses a sense of hope instead anticipating the loss of what we may have now.
The song is in a 2/2 or "cut-time" rhythm which lends the feeling of a samba movement, the national and cultural music basis of Brazil. The fingerpicked groove of the nylon string guitar, along with the bass and vibes doubling on the tonic in a pedal tone, introduces and establishes the rhythmic underpinning of the piece on an F#min/sus4 chord for eight bars. Soprano sax enters on the "A" section (two bars on F#min/sus4-two bars on Emin/F#bass-4four bars F#min/sus4 played twice) with the almost Asian-like melody which is doubled by the vibes. Strong percussive "hits" by the vibes at the end of each phrase help "kick" the melody into next one. Now the bass explodes with a musical phrase that thrusts the music into the "B" section (four bars on Emin9-four bars on F#min/sus4 played twice) with a muted mandolin playing back beats to help propel the forward motion of the rhythm. The entire "A" section is repeated, but the "B" section on the second time around moves into an ending different from the first, moving into its own coda which completes the form on a suspended C#7alt harmony that is held through four measures of the 2/2 time signature (four bars Emin9-four bars F#min/sus..once..then four bars Cmaj/add9 to four bars C#7alt.) The tension of this C#7alt chord is released back into the first 16 bar melodic phrase but with a heightened energy. Also, after the 16 bars an extra "piece" of "A" melody is added over two bars on F#min/sus4 and four bars on the Emin9/F#bass which is left hanging , sustained over the space. The song returns to four bars of the intro chords and then the solos begin. Steel string guitar takes the first solo on the whole form, followed by the soprano on the same. The melody returns with soprano and vibes to complete the song structure with its forte energy continuing unabated, and is propelled into the last Emin/F#bass chord held in suspension and fading. In the wide space following, an unexpected solo melodic voice is heard played by the nylon string guitar. The phrase is played rubato, freed from the driving rhythm of the piece. With a pianissimo and upward arching movement, the guitar line brings the tune to a poignant ending with a high F# tone doubled with a lower octave to keep the sound rich. This final tone is joined by the vibraphone, so that what we hear last is four tones, an F# note doubled in octaves, and leaving the listener with the reverberating memory of a small soft bell.
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