Harlem Nocturne Septet

[rrayner]

Hi Herbert,

Thank you for the compliment.

Originally Posted by herbert

I note that you use for the bass a relatively low velocity of 48 and a volume of 100. This is what I usually do with an acoustic bass. It gives the bass a mellow sustained sound.

This is an area that I am pretty shaky in, Herbert. I note that I do have the velocity set to 47, except oddly for the first note. Has to be a mistake. And of course, the bowed Fine is louder. I have not discovered the mysteries of working with loudness, except on a very basic level, and at that, mostly in diminuendi and crescendi. Basically, I set the velocity at what to my ear is a proper balance. I need to get more into the shading between velocity and volume. So far, to me, velocity is much easier to work with.

Originally Posted by herbert

How did you get the vibrato on some of the notes of the tenor sax? You clearly put priority on good notation.

I wish I could claim something special on the sax sound, but depending on which medium you are referring to, the mp3 file was created by going from Composer > export to midi > my Clavinova (which has some very nice sounds) > export to wav file > convert to mp3. The "not" file of course sounds as good as your sound card. However, I do have the Bank Selection customized for the Clavinova with Ctrl 0 = 0 and Ctrl 32 = 126, which may work some magic on your sound card. On the other point, I am now writing for a long-distance friend's dectet, so I want to make certain that the parts look good. I won't be there to hear what the players have to say, so I try to limit the complaints.

Originally Posted by herbert

There is a certain monotony, typical for computer generated music. It relates to the precision and with it, the predictability of where each note falls, whereas real jazz musicians play intuitively around with the timing, perhaps just minutely to create that extra expressive tension, generating a feeling of liberation, recognised as swinging. I have no formula, nor can I give any advice.

I understand. I am caught in a trap of professing to write with Composer with a better more natural swing feel. I could do a much better job of achieving this goal if I were to vary individual attacks and durations, but I am not trying to hit perfection -- just trying to get a little closer. When I play along with these charts on my Clavinova, at least it does not feel quite as stilted as without the attack and duration modifications I make. I am well aware that individuals do not play like machines and would never be as precise as a PC, but I am laying out the framework for some fun play-along and I have rationalized that I would rather have more charts to play along with than to do massive tweaking on the parts of fewer charts. My favorite instrumentalist for "bending time" is the alto man, "Cannonball" Adderly (deceased). I would love to see the variations in attack and duration on some of his solos.

Originally Posted by herbert

I am very keen about modern jazz. This is not at all reflected in my arrangements. All I do is to please a middle aged public.

All we can do is do the best we can and bring pleasure to ourselves, and hopefully to others around us. Keep the faith!

Ralph