David Kraus: The Listening Room
All This and More
Gary Gordon ~ alto saxophoneBuy the Album
David Kraus ~ acoustic nylon string guitar
Mark vanGulden ~ vibraphone
Jamie Masefield ~ mandolin
Clyde Stats ~ acoustic bass
This piece is composed right from the jazz ballad tradition of the Tin Pan Alley song writers such as Jerome Kern, Jimmy van Heusen, and Johnny Mercer...not to mention of course Duke Ellington. "All This and More..." though starting and ending in the key of Gmajor, traverses through key changes that seen totally unrelated yet work musically thanks to the craft of "voice leading", that is having the right bass note and melody note move logically into the next succeeding chord in such a way that the harmonic progression feels natural even when the chord change is unusual. This happens right from the start as the key moves from Gmajor right into C#minor which is a tri-tone away, then moves to Amajor, then back to C#minor, before continuing into G#minor, Emajor, Bmajor, F#major, Dbmajor, back to Amajor, and finally starting this "A" section again on Gmajor. In addition to 'voice leading' the all important IImin7 to Vdom7 chord sequence is used to help move the ear through the key shifts, but not always. The "B" section moves into Bminor and alternates quickly between Bminor and Gmajor with the Gmajor then taking over as the tonic intro chord to the last "A" section. It is also obvious in my explanation here that the tune also follows the traditional AABA song form. Players love soloing through this tune because of the melodic and harmonic challenges it presents. Personally, ballads are my favorite kind of tune to play and solo through; there is so much room for expression over the slower moving tempo. There is a much wider space for rhythmic and harmonic variation because you don't feel "pushed" or "confined" by a faster tempo or groove. The ledgendary tenor saxophonist Lester Young was famous for his playing of ballads, and many players of all instruments are influenced by his work. Another who comes to mind is the great pianist Bill Evans. Take a listen if you are curious, and take a listen to some of the famous song writers from the 20's through the 50's to get a better idea of this musical idiom which influenced modern song writers like The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Steely Dan, and countless others. Enjoy:)
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