One more thing to add to this solo analysis - harmonically, melodically and timbrally I always felt it's influenced by the choices Chick Corea would make, especially in the tune Song to the Pharoah Kings. Snarky Puppy is basically millennial Return to Forever with more horns. Great video!
Couldn't agree more about Chick Corea's influence on this. I think there's some influence from Chick's comping while Scott Henderson solos on Silver Temple (Chick Corea Elektrik Band) especially near the end of Cory's solo.
“What do you want to be when you get big?” “I’m gonna eat my food!” Already thinking like a true jazz musician. Mainly focused on just making it to his next meal.
This guy Cory Henry kind of just got out the gate and people already trying to steal his stuff! That's the way it's always been. You music thieves with no real originality, rhythm or talent! Always stealing music from black people. Just like you stole rockin roll, jazz, blues etc. You study, finagle, plot, and copy everything to steal from people you don't want to live next door to or even sit next to on the bus! Just because you want to feel superior! But in reality, black people are the greatest humans to ever walk the earth! Despite the horrific things done to blacks in slavery, and how they are mistreated, criminalized, disinfranchised, purposely miseducated they have excelled and surpassed everything that they have been allowed to participate and compete in! And although blacks are being forced out of urban cities with excuse being gentrification! They are waking up! We near the end of 400 years!
That freeze frame of Corey's face right around 1:36! That's my favorite face ever made by any human being anywhere, ever. I was so psyched to see that you froze that face. So worthy of it.
I actually think that might be a signal to the band. You'll notice he makes the face as he's approaching the climax of the solo - it could be an agreed signal meaning "ok guys this is it, I'm hitting the peak at the end of this cycle of chords, which means we're going to do one more 8-bar cycle after this and then end the solo section". Notice how on-cue they are for that final unison clave right before the horns come in. There definitely was a plan here. Usually this would be a nod or verbal cue, but here the vibe is so hype that it takes the form of the most intense :D face ever lol
i was intending to transcribe and analyze that solo (mostly for that block chords thing) but i kept postponing it for weeks, due to laziness... I would rather watch my favorite RUclipsrs than doing some serious work on my own. Than, one day, just like that, this video showed up and solved that for me. It's a win-win... So, thank you dearly.
Another thing I noticed is that the notes DGAB, often replacing D with E, seems to be an important motif that he comes back to frequently. It's in the top voice of the very first thing he plays, and he often plays them at significant places like around the turnaround. He also gives that big excited smile when he plays it at 7:55 in the original. Timestamps below are all referencing the original video. DGAB 4:23 GABD 4:41 BAGE 4:59 BAGE 6:03 DGAB 6:17 BAGE 6:19 BAGD 7:55 BAGE 8:11
Thoroughly enjoyed your analysis. I majored in Jazz Theory and Composition, and have transcribed many solos too, and followed them up with the analysis, and you nailed the details. a simpler way to break it down is just the standard jazz improvisation technique known as "inside|outside" for the purpose of tension|release The E minor/pentatonic/blues material is the inside, so it can start or finish the phrase in a cozy or familiar way that eases the tension every other technique is just his way of going outside to create tension, before releasing the tension with another inside scale. It almost doesn't matter if the outside is quartal, chromatic, phrygian, diminished or whatever, it's there for tension, so he can just endlessly toy with our emotions by how long he stays outside versus how often he lets us off the rollercoaster to go back inside. The structural stuff is there to build energy, and golden mean proportions tell us about 2/3 is where you want to peak, then you descend back to the normal flow and it seems like you performed a magic trick, but its all premeditated at the macro level. His technique is so virtuosic, that he can zoom out, read the crowd, and hype them up, scare them, and then delight them at will with his choices of when to change up the structure. Chick Corea does tons of this with Minimoog solos across his career. I do however love this particular solo. My favorite part is how the other keyboardist is both loving it, and dismayed simultaneously in his reactions. I understand and concur.
"My favorite part is how the other keyboardist is both loving it, and dismayed simultaneously in his reactions." - Sometimes amazing art makes me a little mad and sad at the same time, because it's like watching someone else reach a plane I know I can only hear about. I'm thankful to listen, but I know I'll never get to see it myself.
Wow, amazing! Definitely another new tool in my musical arsenal, really. Thank you very much for this analysis man; it helped a young music developer his arrangement and improvisation skills, hehe~
Awesome! More of these types of videos! I think the de-mystifying of the playing of masters prevents people from going "welp....I'll never be able to do that." Good stuff my dude.
Lingus was one day randomly recommended to me by youtube and, after listening to two other tracks, I just had to buy the album. This is one of the rare occassions that I have to thank the youtube algorithm!
After much listening of their music I think I have to say that album might be Snarky Puppy's best work and Lingus is the song that puts it over the top for me.
Thank you for analyzing this piece. I love Snarky Puppy, too, so that made it all the more enjoyable. Also, I think Cory summed up the true aspirations of all musicians when he answered the question about what he wanted when he grew up; 'I want to eat my food'; yep! we all just want to eat. Love it!
Love this analysis. I like that you mention some of the pre-explored and semi composed passages in the solo. I was in the audience for this recording and he had been working on this solo over the course of the session taking some of the best bits. When it all came together you could see how happy he was.
You were there when he did this??? I can't tell you how jealous I am LOL 😍 brilliant. I'm just glad it was captured so well and is available to anyone who wants to hear it.
Wow, this was so much helpful jazz knowledge for a lazy pianist like me. Already knew about the quart chords but have to try these block chords in the maj bebop scale. Thank you a lot David!
Wow he was literally a child prodigy, very cool! I think Larnell Lewis was playing Drums from a similar age. I'd imagine most of Snarky Puppy were very capable musicians by the time they hit double digits in age. Massive props
Really interesting analysis, thanks. One thing though is you missed to incorporate the gospel background of Henry in your analysis, the core of his sense of harmony. This is where a standard jazz approach cannot find proper convenient explanation. All the intro section is a good demonstration of the gospel harmonic thinking. And it is very interesting. Look for "gospel reharm" and "walkups", these musicians can do very amazing things.
Friends, what many of you who aren't familiar with the black experience, in particular as it relates to music, there is something that we understand that you guys tangle with and that is the simple concept of "feel"/"vibe" , which is guided by "the spirit." Trying to dissect what Corey Henry is doing here is fine and all but it doesn't fit neatly into a schematic because it's guided by feel. I was a fourth year music composition major who watched as my instructors painstakingly dissect music this way and it was like peeling fingernails. Neapolitin 4th this, and chromatic movement that and it literally screwed up the learning process, especially when I came from a church environment where cats know their theory but the feel and execution is much more important. My wife who is also a singer was constantly asked to notate that run here or hey you didn't sing that same riff the exact way that you sang it last time and she'd be like, because, I felt differently yesterday, today I feel this way so I sang it like this. Ray Charles explains this very beautifully in an interview where he says, I can play the same piece differently based on how I feel and you'll never hear the exact same thing. In closing, getting around musicians and getting acclimated to the feel and vibe will not only help you understand what Corey is doing and how he's doing it but also the unspoken things that can't be explained or quantified.
See, the real trick is in the beginning when he looks up all dreamy. That's when the lord came down just for him to show him some sheet music he was working on. Kidding aside, the fact that he was able to pull something like this of with so much passion is great! The only one that could explain the madness is a calm British man :)
Firstly, I will like to say that I love your videos, they are really helpful to help me understand everyday I little bit more about music, now secondly could you please for John Coltrane solo in giant steps, thanks for everything.
I clicked so damn fast. I love the respect you give jazz musicians. A lot of us have chips on our shoulders from the blatant disrespect we’ve received from the classical world.
Allan Holdsworth, pretty much anything. I’m fairly sure history will view him as up there as one of the most important musicians, but sadly the world hasn’t caught up to where he was at yet!
Description of this solo from an Amazon review: "There is a horribly cliched electric piano or Moog solo on the last cut, “ Lingus,” that is nothing but faux heat and a long string of clichés. It goes on forever but has nothing to say. Jan Hammer and Mahavishnu it definitely is not."
That is typical boomer strategy when they encounter brilliance and technical prowess by much younger players: «It has no soul», «it has no feel», «it has no "message"». Shit statements that are easy to make and require no back up. Just makes them feel better about their own inadequacy. I very much doubt Jan Hammer himself would say anything like this about Corey’s solo!
This was great! I would be interested in seeing an analysis of an improvised solo that has to work within a more limited framework, yet still succeeds in creating lots of interest. Drum solos and bass solos in jazz, for instance, are harder for many listeners to make sense of.
I wonder if there's some nod to Hendrix with the 7 #9 chords as well? Clearly not the only use of those chords, but I have a hard time playing them without thinking of Hendrix.
You have this child-like and joyous approach to music as well as (it goes without saying) a deep understanding of theory and your videos are always refreshing, keep up the great work.
Hi David, It's really interesting to see your take on something from the jazz idiom. For me the conceived difference between jazz and classical traditions lies in the different ecological interactions through which creativity is defined (a different set of conditions and expectations). Cory talks of not thinking of anything when he improvises - achieving a neutral state of mind - yet this is impossible, his improvisational response will inevitably be a product of and draw upon the combined influences of his past musical experiences, and react to the musical interplay of the band occurring in the moment. A good improvisation will combine both of these approaches. It is an interesting question to ask where individual expression and sponteneity is left after all this? Improvisation proves dialectic in the sense that its success is often defined by its freedom from any set of preconceived rules and restrictions, yet in reality a sense of inevitability of one phrase flowing into the next is just as vital. Clarke, Doffman and Lim's article 'Distributed Creativity and Ecological Dynamics: A case study of Liza Lim’s ‘Tongue of the Invisible’ makes some interesting points about this. Different notions of creativity, and the idea of music as process and not object are both really important themes to understand in order to understand the mechanism behind this music. Kenny Wheeler's music has a particularly organic sense of flow through improvisation that would be interesting to explore further with these concepts.
A point well observed. Francis Noel-Thomas makes a similar observation in "Clear and Simple as the Truth" regarding the tension between apparent spontaneity, apparent inevitability, and the abstract understanding we have that the performance is a distillation of prior experience, though in regards to writing. I am going to look into the article you described, as well as Kenny Wheeler's music thanks to your pointing them out. Cheers.
One thing that alot of people forget about jazz, given that it is often studied at some academic level now, is that it is traditionally a dance music. Alot of people brush past this as it's not super relevant to more contemporary jazz. Swing bands would play for people to dance to, even jazz's origin, ragtime and 2nd line music was meant for dancing. Alot of jazz musicians talk about improvising as a conversation. Simultaneously listening and playing with each other. Also Kenny Wheeler's big band album is one of my favorites
"Cory talks of not thinking of anything when he improvises - achieving a neutral state of mind - yet this is impossible," Why do you say impossible? You offer no proof. Just because he maybe drawing from previous experience and conditioning doesn't mean any of that is happening on the conscious level. Keith Jarrett talks about "jumping" which is a point in his solos where he ceases to exert conscious control. McCoy Tyner was quoted as saying he doesn't consciously dictate where the notes in his solos will go- he trusts his instinct that they will be correct. So why do you not believe the actual high-level practitioners of the art in favor of some non-practicing scholars? Not trying to troll- I'm genuinely curious.
Grandmaster Blowhole I guess this boils down to whether you think that humans can do something completely spontaneously and randomly, can we ever make a creative choice that is beyond our own conciousness? I personally think not, but I appreciate that this more of a philisophical rather than exclusively musical question, and one that is relavant here and very tricky to arrive at an absolute conclusion with. Thanks for your insight!
@@lukeriedlinger6192 Well I do appreciate your honesty- these things for the moment at least, unknowable and remain philosophical intil science learns more. It seems logical that creativity has to come from somewhere but that source is elusive and still a bit mysterious.. As an improvisor and as a teacher of improvisation myself, subjectively speaking, it seems to me that the less I try to "do" or "control", the better my solos tend to be and I teach my students almost exactly the same doctrine espoused by Henry- practice intensely and mindfully but perform almost as if someone else is doing the playing. Thanks for engaging in this discussion.
Is this especially for me David, my favourite band of all time you know, I hope Cory keeps playing with them! The technical stuff is way beyond me but I like the idea that when he is performing he is in the moment... the homework was done beforehand. All the best D
Great video, i would love to see Julian Lage's opening solo on I'll Be Seeing You from his Live in Los Angeles album. Another wold be Chris Thile's solo on In the Cluster Blues from Marc o'Connor's album jam session. Cheers!
I worked with Julian a few years ago, the first time I heard him improvise my jaw hit the ground and I have been a HUGE fan of his ever since. He struck me as one of the finest 'real-time' composers!
Saying Barry Harris major 6th-diminished is the same thing as the major bebop scale... Same notes but not used in the same way at all.. I did a whole video on that. Now I think about it, no-one watched it... I wonder why? :-)
Thanks for the shot of Cory playing at 4 years old. Reminded me of Amadeus. I would have to guess his technique has much to do with being a prodigy and playing constantly. Also as you say building into his brain and muscle memory a catalog of what be enjoys and finally having a great ear and friends to play with.
David that was EXCELLENT. You took what was obviously very beautiful and artistic and explained it very thoroughly. I am a jazz pianist/private educator/arranger. When I 1st heard that solo it blew me away. I literally just took it for what it was and could barely comprehend anything about it. I only knew in fact that I loved it. I've learned in college that if it sounds good, that there is always hard theory underneath to support the sound. I just didn't have much of a clue until watching your EXCELLENT video. I'm 64 years of age and originally a voice major when I was much younger. Went back to college in my 40's and majored in Jazz piano performance so I'm relatively new. Whenever I'm teaching I always tell my students there are 3 stages to learning a concept, lick, solo, song, progression, etc. 1. I don't know what you're doing and I can't do it. 2. I know what you're doing, but I can't do it. 3. I know what you're doing and I can do it. Thanks to you, I'm now closer to stage 2, whereas though I loved what I was hearing before, I was certainly at stage 1. Thank you. You have a new subscriber and a thumbs up from me for sure. Peace to you.
You should take a look at the live version of And the Melody Still Lingers On by Chaka Khan. This version has the Brecker Brothers playing the trumpet and tenor sax parts, which are pretty interesting, but there are also some crazy keyboard licks and solos that would be worth checking out as well.
oh weh. another prodigy, raised in the Church,who i will never even get even close to, cuz i wiz raised on polkas, accordion and Catholic guitar masses. shucks and shit.
I got into RUclips some years ago. I liked jazz and funk etc but hadn't listend to much for a while. As time went on I explored the music I liked and the bands that I saw in my 20s. I remember looking for a bassist called Dil Katz who was in every second band I saw in the 80/90s. Scotts Bass Lessons appereared in my feed, this led to Adam Neely and Rick Beato and then to Michael League and thence to Snarky Puppy. Sometimes the algorithm does GOOD STUFF!
Great stuff! How about an analysis of Howard Levy's mind-bending harmonica solo at the end of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones's Yee-Haw Factor from their 1992 album UFO Tofu?
I love this music and I love this much analysis. Time for Rick Beato and David Bruce to do Poulenc. I like the way he invents singable melodies but keeps changing the harmony. It's so wrong it's right. Explain
David, how long does this kind of video take to make. The transcription alone would take me a month (spread out over 10 years because It takes me so long). This "jazz solo analysis" is the kind of video I'd love to see more of if you have the patience to do it again. Cheers for the hard work!
God, Cory Henry makes me sick. He's just too good - somehow manages to be better than George Duke. And very nice video by the way, it's good to see this very beautiful solo covered in detail.
Good? yes.. no, very good.. no, insanely good.. But better that Duke.. sorry but is not even close yet. The Duke was from a whole other planet, Cory is well on his way there though.. ruclips.net/video/hNICl8RuxLI/видео.html
Not a remark I take lightly, by the way, I share your passion for Duke which is what initially attracted me to CH - but I feel Henry to be significantly contributing to a foundation set by GD, thereby advancing the practice, hence my comment!
Hi David, i love your videos, and this one was especially cool If you could analyse Vijay Iyer's Solo on the first tune of his Tiny Desk appearence it would be great
Great analysis. One thing I'd like to add as a reflection. Since the band, in the loop section, is only playing Roots, why then not just write something like E (nc) A (nc)... something like that. It makes a big difference improvising beetwen playing over series of chords or a series of Roots. 'Cause then you have total control of the color you want to add. In my experience it is more fluid to go wild harmonically. What would be your thoughts on that?
I love that you don't just explain what is going on but why. The structure, the principles and the stacked 3rds and 4ths and where the phrases come from - Peterson, Hancock, Corea - the modal feels, the chromatic movement. Also how he's clearly taken phrases and chunks of harmony and notes he's clearly worked out before and pulls them in to such great effect. Thank you for your analysis.
This is really a well stated and fantastic technical explanation of Henry's playing. I've been mesmerized by the incredible musicianship he provides for this piece, and it's wonderful to see/hear it dissected into such root formulations. Well done, sir. Well done!
Fantastic solo analysis, BUT I can't help myself thinking that I'm watching at well-aged SteveTerreberry, kind of waiting him to do a face or something.
Having been pushed here by the algorithms, I’m a little baffled by the rapt reception of this exploration of a jazz solo.... it comes across like an analysis by someone pretty new to jazz idioms - “chromatic”, “syncopation” , parallel chords, gaps (aka “space”) - yes, jazz pianists do indeed use these techniques. Which is pretty widely known, or easily found in a basic jazz textbook, no? Not to detract from the artist who is clearly a top guy.
You know what a brilliant piece of music this is ,when people who are technically wise to what he was doing and then the people who have no idea what he did technically 🤔, we just know it sounds freaking awesome and we Love it!!🙂👍
This is one of the great keyboard solos in the history of jazz if you ask me. I can only listen to it every few months - too devastatingly amazing... Fun to hear it "explained" but it does go well beyond a logical dissection:) Love it.
Yes and no to the summary you gave: Cory during this performance had probably only seen the song and been performing it for less than a week (maybe even less than a day, but I think this is day 3 or 4 of recording for this session). So I would say it’s not the things he’s learned playing this particular song so many times; it’s the things he’s learned playing so many other songs since before he was four, that have brought his instincts up to the point where if a pop chord progression like this comes in front of him, he knows what to do, even if it’s an unknown known, and he’s just feeling it.
Tanner Jay this guy was basically trying to break down what Cory did he was not trying to say or how long it took him to learn the piece or if he ever learnt it ... just be grateful and appreciate the work
Cory actually performed the song originally with Snarky puppy back in 2013 in a brooklyn concert. That vid is floating around on youtube. So he was definitely performing it for more than a week.
Josh Jones yo! I didn’t know that! Shoot! I just know that Bob Reynolds wasn’t playin all of this music before hand, and I knew his experience with the album. That’s super cool man! Really cool to see how that solo progresses over the years
@@tannerjay606 Basically, Lingus and Shofukan were the two songs that Snarky had been playing for quite a while before this recording. Most other songs, however, were brought in or came together closer to the session (some were finished or even written merely days before). For Bob Reynolds, most things were quite new since he just started to get involved with Snarky.
@@joshjones9749 I found the video you mentioned. ruclips.net/video/6Xtu6hBkSXw/видео.html Wikipedia says the album was recorded October 2013. So that gig predates the recording by 4 months. It's interesting because in the " We Like It Here" DVD they describe learning everything there at the recording session before Larnell Lewis was called in last minute. Maybe Lingus was an exception?
I like how this has been stripped down, so thank you for that However, you, seem to imply that what he is doing is thought out... and in essence, somehow, it is... but it's not planned... it's there just waiting to come out when the moment is there for it to be expressed. But you have to go back to his grounding... Gospel music!!! This music has every form of music within it already. In Gospel music you explore whatever direction you want... as long as it fits!! So, as Cory rightly says you think of nothing when you perform your solos, but try everything possible in your rehearsals. But what you play in your rehearsals is not what you necessarily do in your performance. @lukeRiedlinger, it most definitely is possible to think of nothing while improvising... it's those years and years of instilling music in your soul that makes the difference. improvisation would not be created if everything was "planned out".
One thing to add - I think the biggest thing that people miss is that he's not playing over chords, he's playing over a single bass note all the time, you can basically play anything over a single pitch as long as you have an idea of the color you are going for and have a direction for it
David Bruce, I would say that Chick Coreas synths solos with Return to Forever is a major inspiration for Core Henry. Listen to Duel of the Jester & the Tyrant (Romantic Warrior) at 3:55 and you have a similar start with a Rhodes and some of the same phrasing later on the synth, playing outside and glissandos in the top. Never the less LIngus is the most spectacular synth solo I ever have heard. ruclips.net/video/sa21WPH4_U4/видео.html
This video is excellent! You have a real knack for knowing which information is important to the essence of a piece of music, and that comes through in this superb breakdown of a solo that leaves a lot of people (me included) a little dumbfounded on where to begin understanding it. Loved this style of video, going through a specific piece of music and talking about what makes it tick, and I would definitely want to see more of this kind of thing from you on any music you find fascinating!
One more thing to add to this solo analysis - harmonically, melodically and timbrally I always felt it's influenced by the choices Chick Corea would make, especially in the tune Song to the Pharoah Kings. Snarky Puppy is basically millennial Return to Forever with more horns.
Great video!
Adam Neely NEELYYYYY
OMG. You are so right. 😂
What about BASS?!
Return to Forever with more horns and the funk feel of The Headhunters!
Couldn't agree more about Chick Corea's influence on this. I think there's some influence from Chick's comping while Scott Henderson solos on Silver Temple (Chick Corea Elektrik Band) especially near the end of Cory's solo.
Lol, that moment when you're watching a youtube video and your own comment from two years ago is quoted at the end! Great video David!
Look, everyone! It's RUclips commentator CP25!
Kyle Stoner I’m having mugs and t-shirts made as we speak.
“What do you want to be when you get big?”
“I’m gonna eat my food!”
Already thinking like a true jazz musician. Mainly focused on just making it to his next meal.
lmao why doesn't this have more likes
11:19 THE _L I C C_
_wait, wrong channel_
We need to contain the infestation.
there is no wrong channel for the licc
BASS
Repitition Legitimizes
Nealy commented here too :eyes:
is no one gonna talk about that cute clip at the end? Cory’s really eating his food now ❤️
Not just his, but ours too!
Hahahahhaa
This guy Cory Henry kind of just got out the gate and people already trying to steal his stuff! That's the way it's always been. You music thieves with no real originality, rhythm or talent! Always stealing music from black people. Just like you stole rockin roll, jazz, blues etc. You study, finagle, plot, and copy everything to steal from people you don't want to live next door to or even sit next to on the bus! Just because you want to feel superior! But in reality, black people are the greatest humans to ever walk the earth! Despite the horrific things done to blacks in slavery, and how they are mistreated, criminalized, disinfranchised, purposely miseducated they have excelled and surpassed everything that they have been allowed to participate and compete in! And although blacks are being forced out of urban cities with excuse being gentrification! They are waking up! We near the end of 400 years!
@@shirley9529 check out the video David has one 1 theme with 5 composers.
@@shirley9529 this isn't racist at all
That freeze frame of Corey's face right around 1:36! That's my favorite face ever made by any human being anywhere, ever. I was so psyched to see that you froze that face. So worthy of it.
He looks so happy
I actually think that might be a signal to the band. You'll notice he makes the face as he's approaching the climax of the solo - it could be an agreed signal meaning "ok guys this is it, I'm hitting the peak at the end of this cycle of chords, which means we're going to do one more 8-bar cycle after this and then end the solo section". Notice how on-cue they are for that final unison clave right before the horns come in. There definitely was a plan here. Usually this would be a nod or verbal cue, but here the vibe is so hype that it takes the form of the most intense :D face ever lol
Two years ago i attend to a Q&A with Cory and he said that this wasnt his favorite take of lingus solo (of other 3 takes), imagine that!
*was?
@@ten_centsthe final solo isnt the one that he liked.
@@bdillamusic._ oh.
Those “sliding chromatic chords” are used by gospel musicians every Sunday at church lol
Bruh why... where are those churches near me???!?!
really every single day...i do those in my daily practice because most of our songs are structured that way
Amazing video, thank you!!! 😊
Hey, Nahre!
OMG!!!
i was intending to transcribe and analyze that solo (mostly for that block chords thing) but i kept postponing it for weeks, due to laziness... I would rather watch my favorite RUclipsrs than doing some serious work on my own. Than, one day, just like that, this video showed up and solved that for me. It's a win-win... So, thank you dearly.
Another thing I noticed is that the notes DGAB, often replacing D with E, seems to be an important motif that he comes back to frequently. It's in the top voice of the very first thing he plays, and he often plays them at significant places like around the turnaround. He also gives that big excited smile when he plays it at 7:55 in the original. Timestamps below are all referencing the original video.
DGAB 4:23
GABD 4:41
BAGE 4:59
BAGE 6:03
DGAB 6:17
BAGE 6:19
BAGD 7:55
BAGE 8:11
I know everyone has their own “requests” of video topics, so here’s mine: Whatever you find interesting at a given moment.
I second that request and will add: the further away from the obvious the better
Thoroughly enjoyed your analysis. I majored in Jazz Theory and Composition, and have transcribed many solos too, and followed them up with the analysis, and you nailed the details.
a simpler way to break it down is just the standard jazz improvisation technique known as "inside|outside" for the purpose of tension|release
The E minor/pentatonic/blues material is the inside, so it can start or finish the phrase in a cozy or familiar way that eases the tension
every other technique is just his way of going outside to create tension, before releasing the tension with another inside scale.
It almost doesn't matter if the outside is quartal, chromatic, phrygian, diminished or whatever, it's there for tension, so he can just endlessly toy with our emotions by how long he stays outside versus how often he lets us off the rollercoaster to go back inside.
The structural stuff is there to build energy, and golden mean proportions tell us about 2/3 is where you want to peak, then you descend back to the normal flow and it seems like you performed a magic trick, but its all premeditated at the macro level. His technique is so virtuosic, that he can zoom out, read the crowd, and hype them up, scare them, and then delight them at will with his choices of when to change up the structure.
Chick Corea does tons of this with Minimoog solos across his career. I do however love this particular solo. My favorite part is how the other keyboardist is both loving it, and dismayed simultaneously in his reactions. I understand and concur.
Wow. This is a great analysis, thanks!!
thanks for this, it really helps us laymen and explains how it can invoke certain emotions.
First time I've heard of inside outside and really feel I grokked it from this comment. Thanks!
"My favorite part is how the other keyboardist is both loving it, and dismayed simultaneously in his reactions." - Sometimes amazing art makes me a little mad and sad at the same time, because it's like watching someone else reach a plane I know I can only hear about. I'm thankful to listen, but I know I'll never get to see it myself.
Wow, amazing! Definitely another new tool in my musical arsenal, really. Thank you very much for this analysis man; it helped a young music developer his arrangement and improvisation skills, hehe~
Fantastic idea for a video and masterfully executed 🙏🎹👍🏻
I’m sorry. But mini Cory Henry is so friggen adorable I can’t believe it
Awesome! More of these types of videos! I think the de-mystifying of the playing of masters prevents people from going "welp....I'll never be able to do that." Good stuff my dude.
I remember my general music teacher and the jazz director showing my class Lingus, I loved it from the very beginning, and this was 7 yeas ago!
Lingus was one day randomly recommended to me by youtube and, after listening to two other tracks, I just had to buy the album.
This is one of the rare occassions that I have to thank the youtube algorithm!
After much listening of their music I think I have to say that album might be Snarky Puppy's best work and Lingus is the song that puts it over the top for me.
What were the other two tracks?
@@mrcooper7027 Probably Outlier and either What About Me? or Sleeper
This is definitely the best analysis of this solo, if not any solo I've ever seen. Thanks!
Thank you so much 🙏 You really made it understandable. Now I'm even more inspired to try and get some of these ideas under my fingers
The drumming on this piece is outstanding as well. I love Lingus😋
Watching little 4 year old Cory playing makes me believe that God put music in this man. His soul just shines through those keys.
I am pretty sure god does not like jazz, if god exists. It requires thinking.
@@zawiszaczarnysulima3700 ???
Thank you for analyzing this piece. I love Snarky Puppy, too, so that made it all the more enjoyable. Also, I think Cory summed up the true aspirations of all musicians when he answered the question about what he wanted when he grew up; 'I want to eat my food'; yep! we all just want to eat. Love it!
Love this analysis. I like that you mention some of the pre-explored and semi composed passages in the solo. I was in the audience for this recording and he had been working on this solo over the course of the session taking some of the best bits. When it all came together you could see how happy he was.
genius (near genius? does it matter?) slightly more demystified. Thank you.
You were there when he did this??? I can't tell you how jealous I am LOL 😍 brilliant. I'm just glad it was captured so well and is available to anyone who wants to hear it.
This is one of the most important videos of our times.
Wow, this was so much helpful jazz knowledge for a lazy pianist like me. Already knew about the quart chords but have to try these block chords in the maj bebop scale. Thank you a lot David!
check out Barry Harris on YT, lots of good information on this topic :)
Wow he was literally a child prodigy, very cool! I think Larnell Lewis was playing Drums from a similar age. I'd imagine most of Snarky Puppy were very capable musicians by the time they hit double digits in age. Massive props
Really interesting analysis, thanks. One thing though is you missed to incorporate the gospel background of Henry in your analysis, the core of his sense of harmony. This is where a standard jazz approach cannot find proper convenient explanation. All the intro section is a good demonstration of the gospel harmonic thinking. And it is very interesting. Look for "gospel reharm" and "walkups", these musicians can do very amazing things.
Friends, what many of you who aren't familiar with the black experience, in particular as it relates to music, there is something that we understand that you guys tangle with and that is the simple concept of "feel"/"vibe" , which is guided by "the spirit." Trying to dissect what Corey Henry is doing here is fine and all but it doesn't fit neatly into a schematic because it's guided by feel. I was a fourth year music composition major who watched as my instructors painstakingly dissect music this way and it was like peeling fingernails. Neapolitin 4th this, and chromatic movement that and it literally screwed up the learning process, especially when I came from a church environment where cats know their theory but the feel and execution is much more important. My wife who is also a singer was constantly asked to notate that run here or hey you didn't sing that same riff the exact way that you sang it last time and she'd be like, because, I felt differently yesterday, today I feel this way so I sang it like this. Ray Charles explains this very beautifully in an interview where he says, I can play the same piece differently based on how I feel and you'll never hear the exact same thing. In closing, getting around musicians and getting acclimated to the feel and vibe will not only help you understand what Corey is doing and how he's doing it but also the unspoken things that can't be explained or quantified.
Thank you, i'd almost forgotten about this masterpiece solo !
See, the real trick is in the beginning when he looks up all dreamy. That's when the lord came down just for him to show him some sheet music he was working on.
Kidding aside, the fact that he was able to pull something like this of with so much passion is great! The only one that could explain the madness is a calm British man :)
Everyone figured out how cory henry craft his solo, while the man himself are actually played that solo spontaneously
This is the song that made me fall in love with Snarky Puppy
Excellent stuff. I recently had the privilege of sitting about 3m from Cory Henry through his masterful set.
Firstly, I will like to say that I love your videos, they are really helpful to help me understand everyday I little bit more about music, now secondly could you please for John Coltrane solo in giant steps, thanks for everything.
I clicked so damn fast. I love the respect you give jazz musicians. A lot of us have chips on our shoulders from the blatant disrespect we’ve received from the classical world.
Allan Holdsworth, pretty much anything. I’m fairly sure history will view him as up there as one of the most important musicians, but sadly the world hasn’t caught up to where he was at yet!
Description of this solo from an Amazon review: "There is a horribly cliched electric piano or Moog solo on the last cut, “ Lingus,” that is nothing but faux heat and a long string of clichés. It goes on forever but has nothing to say. Jan Hammer and Mahavishnu it definitely is not."
That is typical boomer strategy when they encounter brilliance and technical prowess by much younger players: «It has no soul», «it has no feel», «it has no "message"».
Shit statements that are easy to make and require no back up. Just makes them feel better about their own inadequacy.
I very much doubt Jan Hammer himself would say anything like this about Corey’s solo!
This was great! I would be interested in seeing an analysis of an improvised solo that has to work within a more limited framework, yet still succeeds in creating lots of interest. Drum solos and bass solos in jazz, for instance, are harder for many listeners to make sense of.
I wonder if there's some nod to Hendrix with the 7 #9 chords as well? Clearly not the only use of those chords, but I have a hard time playing them without thinking of Hendrix.
You have this child-like and joyous approach to music as well as (it goes without saying) a deep understanding of theory and your videos are always refreshing, keep up the great work.
Hi David, It's really interesting to see your take on something from the jazz idiom. For me the conceived difference between jazz and classical traditions lies in the different ecological interactions through which creativity is defined (a different set of conditions and expectations). Cory talks of not thinking of anything when he improvises - achieving a neutral state of mind - yet this is impossible, his improvisational response will inevitably be a product of and draw upon the combined influences of his past musical experiences, and react to the musical interplay of the band occurring in the moment. A good improvisation will combine both of these approaches. It is an interesting question to ask where individual expression and sponteneity is left after all this? Improvisation proves dialectic in the sense that its success is often defined by its freedom from any set of preconceived rules and restrictions, yet in reality a sense of inevitability of one phrase flowing into the next is just as vital. Clarke, Doffman and Lim's article 'Distributed Creativity and Ecological Dynamics: A case study of Liza Lim’s ‘Tongue of the Invisible’ makes some interesting points about this. Different notions of creativity, and the idea of music as process and not object are both really important themes to understand in order to understand the mechanism behind this music. Kenny Wheeler's music has a particularly organic sense of flow through improvisation that would be interesting to explore further with these concepts.
A point well observed. Francis Noel-Thomas makes a similar observation in "Clear and Simple as the Truth" regarding the tension between apparent spontaneity, apparent inevitability, and the abstract understanding we have that the performance is a distillation of prior experience, though in regards to writing. I am going to look into the article you described, as well as Kenny Wheeler's music thanks to your pointing them out. Cheers.
One thing that alot of people forget about jazz, given that it is often studied at some academic level now, is that it is traditionally a dance music. Alot of people brush past this as it's not super relevant to more contemporary jazz. Swing bands would play for people to dance to, even jazz's origin, ragtime and 2nd line music was meant for dancing. Alot of jazz musicians talk about improvising as a conversation. Simultaneously listening and playing with each other. Also Kenny Wheeler's big band album is one of my favorites
"Cory talks of not thinking of anything when he improvises - achieving a neutral state of mind - yet this is impossible," Why do you say impossible? You offer no proof. Just because he maybe drawing from previous experience and conditioning doesn't mean any of that is happening on the conscious level. Keith Jarrett talks about "jumping" which is a point in his solos where he ceases to exert conscious control. McCoy Tyner was quoted as saying he doesn't consciously dictate where the notes in his solos will go- he trusts his instinct that they will be correct. So why do you not believe the actual high-level practitioners of the art in favor of some non-practicing scholars? Not trying to troll- I'm genuinely curious.
Grandmaster Blowhole I guess this boils down to whether you think that humans can do something completely spontaneously and randomly, can we ever make a creative choice that is beyond our own conciousness? I personally think not, but I appreciate that this more of a philisophical rather than exclusively musical question, and one that is relavant here and very tricky to arrive at an absolute conclusion with. Thanks for your insight!
@@lukeriedlinger6192 Well I do appreciate your honesty- these things for the moment at least, unknowable and remain philosophical intil science learns more. It seems logical that creativity has to come from somewhere but that source is elusive and still a bit mysterious.. As an improvisor and as a teacher of improvisation myself, subjectively speaking, it seems to me that the less I try to "do" or "control", the better my solos tend to be and I teach my students almost exactly the same doctrine espoused by Henry- practice intensely and mindfully but perform almost as if someone else is doing the playing. Thanks for engaging in this discussion.
superb! as always
This video is the new bible
Amazing! Any Robert Glasper solo would be great. Cheers!
I CONCUR
This is the only video I've watched that actually gives a reasonable explanation to this solo and his approach to improvising. Thank so much.
Is this especially for me David, my favourite band of all time you know, I hope Cory keeps playing with them! The technical stuff is way beyond me but I like the idea that when he is performing he is in the moment... the homework was done beforehand. All the best D
I imagine that approach applies to your tennis as well? (-:
Its meant too...although with all the coaching I've had over the past few years your mind can seriously get in the way!@@DBruce
*CAN'T BELIEVE YOU MADE A VIDEO ON SNARKY PUPPY. MORE SNARKY PUPPY PLEASE!*
Great video, i would love to see Julian Lage's opening solo on I'll Be Seeing You from his Live in Los Angeles album. Another wold be Chris Thile's solo on In the Cluster Blues from Marc o'Connor's album jam session. Cheers!
I worked with Julian a few years ago, the first time I heard him improvise my jaw hit the ground and I have been a HUGE fan of his ever since. He struck me as one of the finest 'real-time' composers!
Julian is the greatest!
Yes, please do the I'll be seeing you solo!
You should have mentioned Chick Corea, his influence is all over this solo.
Specially here: ruclips.net/video/YOm34SVz2K8/видео.html
I agree-it reminds me of Chick’s moog solo on Dual of Tyrant and Jester. Another one to analyse?
@@fstraccia I gave a thumbs up, but felt the need to also write: "Yes!" :-)
Thanks for this David. Incredible video about an incredible track.
Saying Barry Harris major 6th-diminished is the same thing as the major bebop scale... Same notes but not used in the same way at all.. I did a whole video on that. Now I think about it, no-one watched it... I wonder why? :-)
Your channel is amazing you got a new subscriber
As one of your sub, I saw your video and thought the same when I heard that the 6dim scale is bebop major...
Just wanted to say, big fan of your videos 👍
Thanks for the shot of Cory playing at 4 years old. Reminded me of Amadeus. I would have to guess his technique has much to do with being a prodigy and playing constantly. Also as you say building into his brain and muscle memory a catalog of what be enjoys and finally having a great ear and friends to play with.
Maybe an analysis of "Blue in Green" off Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album. I've always loved that song.
I love how this is going down in history as the solo of a whole generation of musicians (not just keyboard players).
This is really awesome! I love being surprised by the topics you choose to make videos about.
David that was EXCELLENT. You took what was obviously very beautiful and artistic and explained it very thoroughly. I am a jazz pianist/private educator/arranger. When I 1st heard that solo it blew me away. I literally just took it for what it was and could barely comprehend anything about it. I only knew in fact that I loved it. I've learned in college that if it sounds good, that there is always hard theory underneath to support the sound. I just didn't have much of a clue until watching your EXCELLENT video. I'm 64 years of age and originally a voice major when I was much younger. Went back to college in my 40's and majored in Jazz piano performance so I'm relatively new. Whenever I'm teaching I always tell my students there are 3 stages to learning a concept, lick, solo, song, progression, etc. 1. I don't know what you're doing and I can't do it. 2. I know what you're doing, but I can't do it. 3. I know what you're doing and I can do it. Thanks to you, I'm now closer to stage 2, whereas though I loved what I was hearing before, I was certainly at stage 1. Thank you. You have a new subscriber and a thumbs up from me for sure. Peace to you.
7:24 Hearing this out of context sounds like I'm In The Mood For Love! The line "simply because you're near me."
You should take a look at the live version of And the Melody Still Lingers On by Chaka Khan. This version has the Brecker Brothers playing the trumpet and tenor sax parts, which are pretty interesting, but there are also some crazy keyboard licks and solos that would be worth checking out as well.
Ok cool i understand better :D
Si now you need to do the same for God Larnell Lewis
420th like, I am now blessed. I know not where my fingers go from now on but I know they're going to the right keys. Somehow.
oh weh. another prodigy, raised in the Church,who i will never even get even close to, cuz i wiz raised on polkas, accordion and Catholic guitar masses. shucks and shit.
I got into RUclips some years ago. I liked jazz and funk etc but hadn't listend to much for a while. As time went on I explored the music I liked and the bands that I saw in my 20s. I remember looking for a bassist called Dil Katz who was in every second band I saw in the 80/90s. Scotts Bass Lessons appereared in my feed, this led to Adam Neely and Rick Beato and then to Michael League and thence to Snarky Puppy. Sometimes the algorithm does GOOD STUFF!
Great stuff! How about an analysis of Howard Levy's mind-bending harmonica solo at the end of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones's Yee-Haw Factor from their 1992 album UFO Tofu?
I love this music and I love this much analysis. Time for Rick Beato and David Bruce to do Poulenc. I like the way he invents singable melodies but keeps changing the harmony. It's so wrong it's right. Explain
I'm a big fan of jazz funk too. But not those eyebrows. Good God, man. Trim them. They are frightening.
David, how long does this kind of video take to make. The transcription alone would take me a month (spread out over 10 years because It takes me so long).
This "jazz solo analysis" is the kind of video I'd love to see more of if you have the patience to do it again.
Cheers for the hard work!
I watch joyfully your videos even though I know almost nothing about music theory. Great work!
Cory Henry at the end of the video.... " I'm going to eat my food "...... lol ! He is providing a lot of musical food for these days....thanks , Cory
God, Cory Henry makes me sick. He's just too good - somehow manages to be better than George Duke.
And very nice video by the way, it's good to see this very beautiful solo covered in detail.
Good? yes.. no, very good.. no, insanely good.. But better that Duke.. sorry but is not even close yet. The Duke was from a whole other planet, Cory is well on his way there though.. ruclips.net/video/hNICl8RuxLI/видео.html
Not a remark I take lightly, by the way, I share your passion for Duke which is what initially attracted me to CH - but I feel Henry to be significantly contributing to a foundation set by GD, thereby advancing the practice, hence my comment!
Blazemonger - Both of them are phenomenal. At that level it becomes about thee emotion each of them creates inside of you rather than who is “better”.
Hi David, i love your videos, and this one was especially cool
If you could analyse Vijay Iyer's Solo on the first tune of his Tiny Desk appearence it would be great
Great analysis.
One thing I'd like to add as a reflection. Since the band, in the loop section, is only playing Roots, why then not just write something like E (nc) A (nc)... something like that. It makes a big difference improvising beetwen playing over series of chords or a series of Roots. 'Cause then you have total control of the color you want to add. In my experience it is more fluid to go wild harmonically.
What would be your thoughts on that?
I love that you don't just explain what is going on but why. The structure, the principles and the stacked 3rds and 4ths and where the phrases come from - Peterson, Hancock, Corea - the modal feels, the chromatic movement. Also how he's clearly taken phrases and chunks of harmony and notes he's clearly worked out before and pulls them in to such great effect. Thank you for your analysis.
The funny thing is that this solo was done in 2014 and people are only figuring it out in 2019. Like for Cory the genius
I don't think Cory plans these improvisations. It just happens from the soul , without thinking.
What's crazy is that the entire band, including Cory, had 3 days to learn all the song on the album.
That's only true for a few of the band members, like Lewis and Reynolds. Others (including Henry) had been playing the song for a few years.
@@emmettmeehan3331 , no, actually there is a documentary. Michael League started writing these pieces in the studio 4 days prior.
This is really a well stated and fantastic technical explanation of Henry's playing. I've been mesmerized by the incredible musicianship he provides for this piece, and it's wonderful to see/hear it dissected into such root formulations. Well done, sir. Well done!
Fantastic solo analysis, BUT I can't help myself thinking that I'm watching at well-aged SteveTerreberry, kind of waiting him to do a face or something.
Having been pushed here by the algorithms, I’m a little baffled by the rapt reception of this exploration of a jazz solo.... it comes across like an analysis by someone pretty new to jazz idioms - “chromatic”, “syncopation” , parallel chords, gaps (aka “space”) - yes, jazz pianists do indeed use these techniques. Which is pretty widely known, or easily found in a basic jazz textbook, no? Not to detract from the artist who is clearly a top guy.
Agree, it's like they've never heard jazz before
Excellent vid, David! The insight and depth of analysis makes it such an interesting watch
learning so much! are you from Sheffield Dude?
You know what a brilliant piece of music this is ,when people who are technically wise to what he was doing and then the people who have no idea what he did technically 🤔, we just know it sounds freaking awesome and we Love it!!🙂👍
I love you!!
This is one of the great keyboard solos in the history of jazz if you ask me. I can only listen to it every few months - too devastatingly amazing... Fun to hear it "explained" but it does go well beyond a logical dissection:) Love it.
Yes and no to the summary you gave: Cory during this performance had probably only seen the song and been performing it for less than a week (maybe even less than a day, but I think this is day 3 or 4 of recording for this session). So I would say it’s not the things he’s learned playing this particular song so many times; it’s the things he’s learned playing so many other songs since before he was four, that have brought his instincts up to the point where if a pop chord progression like this comes in front of him, he knows what to do, even if it’s an unknown known, and he’s just feeling it.
Tanner Jay this guy was basically trying to break down what Cory did he was not trying to say or how long it took him to learn the piece or if he ever learnt it ... just be grateful and appreciate the work
Cory actually performed the song originally with Snarky puppy back in 2013 in a brooklyn concert. That vid is floating around on youtube. So he was definitely performing it for more than a week.
Josh Jones yo! I didn’t know that! Shoot! I just know that Bob Reynolds wasn’t playin all of this music before hand, and I knew his experience with the album. That’s super cool man! Really cool to see how that solo progresses over the years
@@tannerjay606 Basically, Lingus and Shofukan were the two songs that Snarky had been playing for quite a while before this recording. Most other songs, however, were brought in or came together closer to the session (some were finished or even written merely days before). For Bob Reynolds, most things were quite new since he just started to get involved with Snarky.
@@joshjones9749 I found the video you mentioned. ruclips.net/video/6Xtu6hBkSXw/видео.html Wikipedia says the album was recorded October 2013. So that gig predates the recording by 4 months. It's interesting because in the " We Like It Here" DVD they describe learning everything there at the recording session before Larnell Lewis was called in last minute. Maybe Lingus was an exception?
Minute 4:17 .. the right way to call that scale is, mixolydian b9 b13.
Your explanation of the chromatic chordal movement in Cory's solo was so illuminating. Thank you so much for breaking that down!
I like how this has been stripped down, so thank you for that
However, you, seem to imply that what he is doing is thought out... and in essence, somehow, it is... but it's not planned... it's there just waiting to come out when the moment is there for it to be expressed.
But you have to go back to his grounding... Gospel music!!! This music has every form of music within it already. In Gospel music you explore whatever direction you want... as long as it fits!! So, as Cory rightly says you think of nothing when you perform your solos, but try everything possible in your rehearsals. But what you play in your rehearsals is not what you necessarily do in your performance.
@lukeRiedlinger, it most definitely is possible to think of nothing while improvising... it's those years and years of instilling music in your soul that makes the difference. improvisation would not be created if everything was "planned out".
This solo is a landmark....I have held it in awe since my first(of many!) listens! Not to mention the solo sound used on the Korg!
One thing to add - I think the biggest thing that people miss is that he's not playing over chords, he's playing over a single bass note all the time, you can basically play anything over a single pitch as long as you have an idea of the color you are going for and have a direction for it
Great analysis! Surely this must be one of the greatest solos in jazz ever?!
I can’t read music and I have no clue what you just said. But I watched the entire video 😁.
David Bruce, I would say that Chick Coreas synths solos with Return to Forever is a major inspiration for Core Henry. Listen to Duel of the Jester & the Tyrant (Romantic Warrior) at 3:55 and you have a similar start with a Rhodes and some of the same phrasing later on the synth, playing outside and glissandos in the top. Never the less LIngus is the most spectacular synth solo I ever have heard. ruclips.net/video/sa21WPH4_U4/видео.html
Awesome, just awesome! Thank you!
I'm too dumb to understand this
Sorry, fine player and all but I cannot hear one single passage or phrase that is comparable to Oscar Peterson.
This video is excellent! You have a real knack for knowing which information is important to the essence of a piece of music, and that comes through in this superb breakdown of a solo that leaves a lot of people (me included) a little dumbfounded on where to begin understanding it. Loved this style of video, going through a specific piece of music and talking about what makes it tick, and I would definitely want to see more of this kind of thing from you on any music you find fascinating!
9:27-9:38 blew my mind! This is an amazing explanation of everything!
how did I just find out about this video? Great analysis and thanks for the shoutout, David! :)
Thanks June! Really enjoy your transcriptions and your latest video!
I don’t know if he’ll ever top this moment. Magic moment.