Artistic Research Report of the 2nd Intervention Cycle New Explorations of Danzón CODARTS 2016 Name: Daniel Vadillo Nájera Main Subject: Latin Piano Main Subject Teacher: Anna Elis de Jong AR domain: World Music & Cross over AR Coach: Michalis Cholevas Title: New explorations of Danzón Keywords: Danzón, Piano, Performer, Composer, Cuba, México
2 nd INTERVENTION CYCLE Introduction: As the goal of my research is to compose and perform original music based in Danzón style, for my 1 st Intervention Cycle I analyzed one traditional Danzón along with one contemporary Danzón and I compared them to identify the similarities and differences between them. The purpose of this analysis was to clearly identify the Danzón characteristics that can't be lost in order to still identify it as a Danzón. Furthermore, to identify which are the non-traditional characteristics that I could modify, explore and experiment with in order to incorporate them to my new Danzón compositions. I analyzed Gonzalo Rubalcaba s "Mi gran pasión" as the Modern Danzón and I analyzed Tres lindas cubanas by the Cuban composer Guillermo Castillo as the traditional one. The result of the transcription and analysis of two different approaches to Danzón was in my opinion satisfactory. The final result was a composition which has elements both traditional and modern and even though I took some liberties I think the final composition gathers the most important characteristics and the soul of these music. At the end of the 1 st intervention cycle I achieved to have a thorough understanding of the Danzón Form, Instrumentation, use of melody and the rhythmic patterns but I didn t explore the Soloing part which actually is a huge part of Danzón music. Artistic Result of the 1 st Intervention Cycle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlq1zoelxkw Reference Recording: Drume Negrita (Comp. Eliseo Grenet, Arr. Daniel Vadillo) Incompatibilidade de Genios (Joao Bosco) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joj_jl3xfl8 Danzón No.1 (From the 1st master Recital, Comp. Daniel Vadillo)
Asses & Reflect: What did I play? Why? Taking in account the feedback of my 1 st Master recital it was clear for me that the musical aspect which I had to work the most was my soloing. I received in general nice feedback on my compositions, in the selection of the repertoire and the way I organized the concert but all my teachers considered that I had to put more effort on my phrasing and to try to incorporate some elements of my compositions in the way I improvise. 1st Master Recital Feedback: Very nice choice of musicians and repertoire. Abel: Very professional exam, I liked that you didn t take risks and the result was always in control. Stop using so many tricks you know will work on your soloing. Anna Elis: Work on your soloing. Nice compositions, you should make more music with this new ensemble. Connect your ideas, you have nice ones but you are not connecting them between each other. Thomas: You tend to rush, try to control that. We want to hear elements of your compositions in your soloing. After this I decided to change the focus of my research for the 2 nd intervention cycle. Mainly because of my teachers feedback but also because I wasn t satisfied with this part of my playing. I started to work on this aspect in a general way, not focusing in my research goal but more in trying to get more soloing resources. So the first step I took was starting to play some transcriptions of pianists I really like for example Bill Evans, at the same time I started to transcribe some phrases of Chucho Valdés and even from the Cuban saxophonist Paquito D Rivera that is one of my personal musical heroes. Not long after that, my research coach (M.Cholevas) suggested my to transcribe my own solos with the purpose of realizing my own bad habits or good features to understand what is that I want to improve specifically. So, I did. I transcribed some solos of my 1 st master recital and I also transcribed o solo over Incompatibilidade by Joao Bosco which I consider to be a
tune where I can improvise in a comfortable way. I also sent these solos to my teachers and this was some of the feedback obtained. https://dvadilloar.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/incompatibilidade-solo-transcription.pdf https://dvadilloar.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/solo-danzocc81n-1st-master-exam.pdf Feedback: Anna Elis de Jong (About Drume Negrita s solo): (About Drume Negrita s solo): You are doubting about your solo Try to be secure when you play Swing is not your strong point as a pianist, it s not your way of playing naturally. If you don't phrase with the right timing it will not swing. If you do it you have to convince everybody and it is not convincing now. As far as notes are concerned they are not out of style. You need more consistency in your playing. You have to stick on what your message would be. Make variations on the melody, think in re-harmonization. Licks are nice to study not to play in something that you will record or play on stage. A lick is a lick until the moment it becomes your language. What you need to do with a lick is to make a variation every time that you play it, don't play it never the same. Start or finish different ways, make the rhythm different, play it in more keys. Put it every time that you see the opportunity to play it. Rhythmic consciousness will improve by working on your phrasing. Thomas Böttcher (About Drume Negrita s solo): First of all, I feel a bit reluctant to comment on someone's solo, since in a solo you express what you feel at that moment, and who am I to say, whether that is good or bad, as long as it really reflects what you had to say at that moment. You play this piece as a feeling /ballad, I see no problem using jazz language here, if that s what you want to do. Maybe there is a bit of a clash between you giving many lines a bit of a swing feel while the accompaniment is straight. Adjusting the timing towards a more syncopated Latin time could smooth that discrepancy. I find nothing wrong with the lines by themselves, the only thing I ask myself is, whether they always really fit into the context of the song (lullaby), you could also have said a lot with less
notes, playing with the lyrical qualities of the song (and without the listener falling asleep :)). Generally, I like the mood you set at the beginning of the piece with the other musicians. I was surprised by the sudden ending after the B which I found a bit abrupt. Maybe it would have been possible to shorten the piece somewhere before in order to not make it seem tedious to come back to a last A and really take it down there. Franz von Chossy (About Incompatibilidade) Nice playing What do you think about the phrasing? Nice phrasing, there could be more dynamic variation though (between accents and soft notes) Is there any melodic development? I can hear melodic development in the choice of register (low to high, narrow range to wide range), you could work more with development of single motives. There could be more space between melodic statements (like in the beginning of the solo). Is there a rhythmic consciousness? I feel certainly rhythmic consciousness. Maybe you could use also some groupings/polyrhythms. How is the use of harmony? Good, some nice parallel harmony movement, more variation possible. I feel I repeat myself a lot, how can I work on this? I think leaving more space in between musical ideas could help. Work with your breathing, only play when you breath out, use the breathing in time to think of a new idea. After getting this feedback I analyzed my own solos and this is what I got from them. I noticed a lot of repetition of rhythmic patterns, specifically this one:
I use almost all the time just chord notes and scale movements up and down. Repetition of licks without modifying them, though the incorporation of licks is good taking in account some that months ago I didn t use any. Use of arpeggios and broken chords are working well. I always put the octatonic scale on the Gb7 chord, no variation (Lack of language). No space between phrases I could work more in chord substitutions I start my phrases almost always in the first beat of the bar. I realized I like more my phrases when I don t start there. After taking in account my teacher s feedback and the analysis of my solos I decided to pick Gonzalo Rubalcaba s solos in the album Mi gran pasión as the focus of my 2 nd Intervention. Why? All the solos of this album are played over a Danzón form, over really simple rhythm and harmonies which will allow me to understand his re-harmonizations and will give me a lot of resources to play in a Latin music context but also in a jazz environment. In my opinion all the solos in this album are great examples to demonstrate how can you merge or incorporate Cuban music with Jazz in a very organic way. Study Case strategy will allow me to get a wide understanding on Gonzalo Rubalcaba s Danzón soloing playing through transcribing the solos, analyzing them, playing them and finally putting these new elements in my own language. I will use the triangulation method by transcribing 3 solos, one interview with Mark Bischoff/Hector Infanzón and desk research. Data Collection: Case Study Transcription and Analysis of Mi gran pasión Solo Transcription and Analysis of Concierto en Varsovia Trancription and Analysis of Príncipe Nino
Note Analysis Criteria Colors BLUE-------------- Chord Notes/Arpeggios/ RED -------------- Melodic Minor YELLOW--------- Quartal chords or Sonority GREEN----------- Octatonic Scale or Sonority/Whole Tone PURPLE---------- Be-bop Lick BROWN ---------- Chromatic ORANGE--------- Chord Substitution PINK-----------------Ornament Effect This is not the complete analysis. I will digitalize the complete one for the Final report.