Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 1:49 pm
There's always the excellent "Time Out" album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet--all odd-meter jazz, and all fantastic. That album rocks my world, and is so interesting rhythmically, but I don't see how one could do anything like its rhythmic adventures in Live, at least not without some mind-numbing workarounds. This is from the Wikipedia article about it:thelocalhost wrote:exactly. It's like a 3+4 type of thing.Tone Deft wrote:Nice post localhost, I needed the refresher. The bassline to Money is a great example.
1 2 and 3
4 5 6 7
If I remember right.
It's good to break 'longer' meters (11, 7, 5, 13, etc..) into piece that help capture the musical phrasing.
Another nice odd time song is 'the becoming' by NIN. it's alternating bars of 7 and 6.
Schism by tool is a nice piece song that is 7 + 5. Or 1+2+d 1+2+3+d.
There's tons of the other songs in odd time.
Name your favorite!
More in the pop world, there are always Beatles songs such as "Good Morning Good Morning," "We Can Work It Out," "She Said She Said," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," "All You Need is Love," "Don't Let Me Down," "Two of Us," "Across the Universe," and "Here Comes the Sun" which employ multiple meters.Wikipedia wrote:Although the theme (and the title) of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, things are not quite so simple. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" starts in 9/8 (the rhythm of the Turkish zeybek, equivalent of the Greek zeibekiko), but alternates with 4/4, while "Strange Meadow Lark" is too flexible to be pinned down to a particular time signature, though there are hints of waltz time. "Take Five" ("supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo", according to Desmond) is in 5/4 throughout. "Three to Get Ready" begins in waltz-time, after which it begins to alternate between two measures of 3/4 (the waltz-time), and two of 4/4. "Kathy's Waltz" (misspelt after Brubeck's daughter, Cathy) starts in 4/4, and only later switches to double-waltz time, before merging the two. "Everybody's Jumpin' " is mainly in a very flexible 6/4, while "Pick Up Sticks" firms that up into a clear and steady 6/4.
Aside from all this, Desmond has a habit of smoothing the time into something nearer 4/4 as he plays. Partly because of this, but mainly because of the skill and jazz sensibilities of the musicians, the complex and non-jazz rhythms don't stop the music from swinging.
Use of multiple meters is relevant to mainstream music--it's not just reserved for the "out there" experimental set. And, as such, it's perfectly reasonable that so many of us are bewildered by the lack of ability to properly employ meter changes in Live at this point of its development. I'm not trying to be arty and clever when I write a meter change--sometimes it's just what needs to happen.