The Beatles - Let It Be (Piano Cover)

Fri, 9 Oct 2009 20:02:23 +0000

George Harrison and Classical Indian Music

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:31:17 +0000

George Harrison was an important part of Beatles sound. Besides being the Beatles lead guitarist he was an influence on guitarists to pick up the Ricky guitar in which in effect helped innovate jangle pop, and also using backward guitar parts in rock music. One of his most innovations in Rock was the merging of Classical Indian with pop music. This was a huge influence on the start of World Music in rock and progressive rock though not the kind that became Yes or King Crimson.

George was a proficient practitioner in the theory of Indian music, and this was reflected in the way he used certain chord voicing (I’m thinking in particular of diminished chords here), and melodies that to western ears skirt towards dissonance. In fact they are reflecting of the “microtones” of Indian music scales – a good example of this is “Blue Jay Way”, which was directly based on an Indian raga, and is a very advanced example of cross-cultural musical synthesis.

George Harrison was working at a sophisticated level of extrapolating Indian scales to the Western setting, something no one else had done in rock music at the time. "Love You To", which is certainly derived from classical Indian, "Within You Without You", “The Inner Light", and even "Norwegian Wood" follows the raga khamaj avarohana is an unaltered raga were in the Indo/Prog category. In "Love You To" could be rock music first example of using classical Indian music in terms of instrumentation, mode, rhythm, and structure.

One more song “Blue Jay Way,” was conceived on the harmonium but is more significant in that it reveals the depth of Harrison understanding of Indian music, as well as his ability to express it in a pop context. The opening sequence of notes imposes part of the scale from an Indian raga called “Marwa” onto a basic C-major chord. He uses notes that are dissonant in the C-major setting (E-flat and F-sharp), pivoting them around a C-diminished chord. It certainly was not rock ‘n’ roll, and the quality of his work was now to be found in the details-not in the immediate impact. Perhaps this is why this example of Harrison radically pushing the songwriting envelope is rarely discussed in such terms.

Some Other Sgt Pepper

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:05:08 +0000

My new album is a jazz re-working of all the tracks on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles. I've covered all the tracks plus I've added a bonus track 'Mrs. Dalloway' at the end. All tracks are available for streaming and for free download from: http://www.last.fm/music/Speculativism/Some+Other+Sgt+Pepper
enjoy!

40 anos de Abbey Road

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:17:04 +0000

Em setembro de 2009, Abbey Road, o último álbum gravado pelos Beatles fará 40 anos. No entanto, neste de mês de abril de 2009 podemos comemorar os 40 anos do início das gravações desta obra prima. Obra prima que surgiu após o fracasso do projeto Let It Be (resgatado posteriormente pelo produtor Phil Spector).

Apesar dos 40 anos, Abbey Road parece nunca envelhecer e continua a inspirar muitas pessoas, seja com suas músicas, seja com a sua capa original...

Last.fm Group Journal: The Beatles

The Beatles - Let It Be (Piano Cover)

George Harrison and Classical Indian Music

Some Other Sgt Pepper

40 anos de Abbey Road