Greetings Summer Friends!
I hope this note is finding you well. We’re super loving summer over here…
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had fun making single video songs from our Live(ish) From SpragueLand Episode 30 — Day Tripper. The show went well and I took each song and made a few fixes and remixes and they now live happily ever after on YouTube. The blendo of Beatlemania, Rebecca Jade singing, killer band navigating, reimaginating (I know this isn’t a real word) arranging, and a more concise duration all lead the dear listener to a potentially pleasing aural dance. She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah…
This week’s Beatles vid contribution is our jazzified take on Lennon and McCartney’s 1965 classic “Drive My Car.” Our version is a mashup of Mile’s “So What” and The Beatles original rock feel.
There’s a great John Coltrane solo on his 1961 Live at the Village Vanguard album. The piece is called “Chasing the Trane” and this 16 minute F blues masterpiece finds Coltrane improvising like nobody’s business. I was so taken by this music that I slowed it down and studied his melodic choices for weeks on end. It was there too that the intro lick to my song “You Make Me Want to Sing” found it’s way.
At a few different spots on Coltrane’s solo he explores the triads for the one, the four, and the five chords and keeps mixing them up in pleasing ways. I took one of those patterns and it came to me, this is a cool way to start a calypso tune. Hah! Coltrane Calypso could of been the title but alas, it got lyrics and instead went the way of a love song where everything is going right.
We recorded this song back in 1977 and it made it’s way to our debut record You Make Me Want to Sing.
Fast forward to now and here’s a new angle on the song with my niece Kate Sprague on vocals.
We’ve got a few concerts coming up and look below for the details.
yours in music, Peter