Jazzy little number - comments welcome

[jaco815]

This is my band's new jazz interlude which will be featured on our upcoming EP, to be released at the end of October.

EXP1 by On Impact on SoundCloud

This is our first ever jazz composition, and as such this song went through numerous revisions concerning the overall structure and arrangement. We couldn't agree at first on what type of jazz we really wanted to do. We tried an electric piano and a Farfisa organ before settling on the Grand Piano for the main instrument of the song. We tried numerous electronic drums as well, but felt the composition was best served as a more straight-ahead jazz trio. We cut out a lot of the weird runs and scales that had been in there to make the song a little more listenable. Before it was chaotic. As a final note, we have talked about layering in some guitar which would just be comping the chords with a few licks here and there. This could possibly happen later down the road.

Is this cool or is it a bunch of crap? Love to hear some feedback.

 

[Hammy]

Wicked! I always enjoy Jazz, no matter if it's more classical or fusion. Very clean played, and nice to hear some acoustic drums for once

Props!

 

[jaco815]

^ Thanks! We had a lot of fun writing this one. It's going to make for an interesting break sandwiched between two prog-metal songs on our album.

 

[TimothyLeary]

really nice!! loved the intro. drums seem a little low, though.

 

[JamesM]

As a jazz piece it is incomplete. You have a rhythm section and a progression, until the piano lead comes in. The piano lead needs some real work though! It is neither played like a piano player or a jazz player.

That said, that is the only weak point here. Fix the compositional elements in the piano and you'll be good to go. Good work.

 

[jaco815]

really nice!! loved the intro. drums seem a little low, though.

We thought the same thing. Those will definitely come up. Gonna bring out the bass drum more as well.

As a jazz piece it is incomplete. You have a rhythm section and a progression, until the piano lead comes in. The piano lead needs some real work though! It is neither played like a piano player or a jazz player.

That said, that is the only weak point here. Fix the compositional elements in the piano and you'll be good to go. Good work.

I guess a more jazz approach would be to have the piano comping chords through the solo. We should probably add a few more flourishes in there and loosen the feel a bit more as well. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Icecold]

I dig it!

 

[Knutern]

That was pretty cool!

 

[Asterix]

Sounds awesome already but if it was up to me I would change that piano lead to a saxophone or guitar.

 

[jaco815]

Sounds awesome already but if it was up to me I would change that piano lead to a saxophone or guitar.

Thanks, but just so this is out there in the universe, I hate the sound of a saxophone. It's like a dying sea lion

 

[rythmic_pulses]

Very nice, I like the composition and the way the piano part flows together but the starting part of the intro I feel doesn't quite fit with the movement into the piano part to me.

That's just my personal opinion though so don't take it to heart.

 

[JamesM]

We thought the same thing. Those will definitely come up. Gonna bring out the bass drum more as well.




I guess a more jazz approach would be to have the piano comping chords through the solo. We should probably add a few more flourishes in there and loosen the feel a bit more as well. Thanks for the tip.

Listen to some Ellington for inspiration.