John La Barbera on Non-Functional Harmony and Giant Steps

Grammy-nominated composer and arranger John La Barbera explores John Coltrane's Giant Steps to discuss how modern jazz harmonic language breaks away from convention using non-functional harmony. Visit JazzComposersPresent.com to watch full-length livestreams.
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John La Barbera is a Grammy- nominated composer and arranger, and two-time recipient of The National Endowment for The Arts award for Jazz Composition. His works have been recorded and performed by Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Mel Torme, Chaka Khan, Harry James, Bill Watrous, and Phil Woods among countless others. Though his major output has been in jazz, he has had works performed and recorded for symphony orchestra, string chamber orchestra, brass quintet, and other diverse ensembles. Most recently, La Barbera was one of sixteen composers commissioned by the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at UCLA to compose new works that meld jazz and symphonic music. The resulting work, “Morro da Babilonia”, was presented by the American Composers Orchestra in New York City at Columbia University’s Miller Hall. La Barbera’s Grammy-nominated big band album “On The Wild Side“, along with “Fantazm“ and his latest “Caravan” have been met with tremendous artistic and commercial success. As co-producer and arranger for The Glenn Miller Orchestra Christmas recordings (In The Christmas Mood I & II) he has received Gold & Platinum Records and his arrangement of “Jingle Bells” from those recordings can be heard in the Academy Award winning film “La La Land.” La Barbera is a Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Louisville’s School of Music and an international clinician/lecturer whose topics range from composing/arranging to intellectual property and copyright. His Sunday morning big band jazz radio show, "Best Coast Jazz" on WFPK has been a mainstay on public radio for over twenty years and is streamed worldwide.
Website: www.johnlabarbera.com
Facebook: / 1775321386042337
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CREDITS
Intro: “Chance Encounter”, composed by Daniel Jamieson. Performed by Danjam Orchestra, on the album “Sudden Appearance” (2011) OA2 Records. danjam.ca
Referenced Audio: “Giants Steps”, composed by John Coltrane. Performed by John Coltrane on the album "Giant Steps" (1960) Atlantic.
• Giant Steps (Mono)
Referenced Text: Beyond Functional Harmony, written by Wayne J. Naus (Advance Music).
Closing: “Crunchy Peanut Butter”, composed by Daniel Jamieson. Performed by Danjam Orchestra, on the album “Sudden Appearance” (2011) OA2 Records. danjam.ca

[@tommyron]

These are terrific techniques that put a lot of speed in your game. I like nothing more than getting to a place where I have many pages that I can start start pushing around instead of in younger days where it might have been just a few bars. Younger writers sometime say that this feel somehow like "cheating" because, like John says here, it's a mechanical approach. But if you work hard and get to a place where people have expectations of you, it's solid gold.

[@JazzComposersPresent]

Absolutely Tom - like John says, it's about getting something on the page that you might not have thought of through other means, and then using your ear / soul to adjust it to something you really like.
Looking forward to hearing John expand on this at his full-length event -- www.jazzcomposerspresent.com