Keep On Truckin’

Eddie Kendricks only topped the charts once after leaving The Temptations, but when he did, it was with a doozy of a track. Tom Breihan makes the case that “Keep On Truckin’” was the first disco song to top the charts, which may well be true. He also says that it’s more of a groove than a song, which is definitely true. There’s a radio edit, but who cares? You want the full eight minute experience.

This track has been important for hip-hop for two reasons. First, it’s been sampled by Mr Cheeks, J-Lo, EPMD, Raheem, Lil’ Kim, and many other artists. Second, Eddie Kendricks is the namesake of Kendrick Lamar.

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You Are What I’m All About

I fell down a WhoSampled rabbit hole and landed on “You Are What I’m All About” by The New Birth, produced by the great Harvey Fuqua. The album cover might suggest some kind of goth techno, but the actual music is gospel-inflected R&B.

This track has been sampled many times, mostly the clave part from the beginning. For me, though, the real magic comes when the vocals enter at 0:22. Then it suddenly becomes the most outrageous groove you’ve ever heard.

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Who is Heinrich Schenker and why should you care?

Everyone’s favorite music theorist is back in the news. If you are curious about the controversy surrounding him and don’t have a music theory background, I wrote a Twitter thread for you:

However, maybe you don’t feel like wading through a long Twitter stream of consciousness, and would rather read a coherent blog post instead. Read on!

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Swing primer

“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah” – Duke Ellington

Hear a seamless collage of several varieties of swing:

Hear a track where the timefeel gradually changes from straight to swing and back. Here’s an explanation of what you’re hearing.

Aside from the blues, swing is the United States’ most significant musical innovation. People typically associate its rubbery, sensual feel with jazz, but swing is everywhere in the musics descended from the African diaspora: ragtime, blues, musical theater, country, R&B, rock, funk, reggae, hip-hop, electronic dance music, and so on. The best way to learn about swing is through aural and hands-on experience. The Groove Pizza is a good way to get started.

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Miles Davis – In a Silent Way

In a Silent Way is my favorite Miles Davis album, possibly my favorite jazz album, and one of my favorite works of music generally. Most of Miles’ music of this era is ornery and angular, but In a Silent Way is like slipping into a warm bath. The music hardly sounds like “jazz” at all. It has elements of rock and funk, but it doesn’t really sound like those either. With its three keyboard players, ultra-minimal drums and static harmonies, the album sounds more like ambient electronic music than anything else. Two of the three “songs” were built from tape editing in postproduction, effectively making them remixes of themselves. And while the music as performed was largely improvised, the album has clear large-scale organization.

How great is this album cover? Like the music itself, it’s deceptively simple and minimal, but bottomless in its implications.
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The Roots, “Don’t See Us”

I advocate for the study of hip-hop because it shows that harmony is not the only aspect of music worth studying. However, hip-hop is also underappreciated as a source of harmonic ideas in and of itself. The Roots’ “Don’t See Us” is a fascinating example of groove harmony.

The live version has an amazing acapella “turntablism” solo by Scratch:

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The NYU Music Education Popular Music Practicum

This year, for the first time, I’m co-teaching the NYU Steinhardt Music Education Popular Music Practicum with Dr Kimberly McCord. Kimberly is doing the first half of the semester, and I’m doing the second half. She’s covering live performance and improvisation in the rock and “modern band” idioms, and I’m doing songwriting and remixing in the hip-hop and dance music idioms. This is an opportunity to put some my long-standing theories into practice, so I am excited.

Here’s a summary of what we’re doing.

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The Roots – “The Lesson Part III (It’s Over Now)”

This is my favorite song by the Roots, and one of my favorite songs by anyone ever.

I got curious about it the last time it came up in iTunes shuffle, and did some searching. I was surprised to find out that, so far as I can tell, no one has ever written anything about this song, not in the blogosphere, and not in academic sources.

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Thelonius

If, like me, you are a Thelonious Monk fan, you will be sad to learn that this song has very little to do with Thelonious Monk. J Dilla compares his greatness as an emcee to Monk’s greatness as a pianist, and “Thelonious” kind of rhymes with “microphonist.” That’s the extent of the connection. Regardless, “Thelonius” is a pretty amazing track.

Common tells the story of its creation here:

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