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Topic: Arranging Early Autumn |
Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 26 Sep 2023 5:40 am |
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It's early Autumn so time again for "Early Autumn", a beautiful big band tune I've loved for years. Stan Getz made his early reputation from his solo on this tune and artists like Jo Stafford have recorded lovely vocal versions.
Stafford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMzRr9faOR0
Getz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I7P0rXX7NY
About ten years ago, began to try to arrange it for steel guitar. I took a number of shots at it in various tunings and finally settled on a Dmaj7 acoustic version. But the bridge was a musical spiderweb! After a lot of time and effort, it still wasn't coming together as I wanted so I put it aside for a long time. A few years ago, I returned to it again and arranged it for C6th electric lap steel and it came together very well (That arrangement is on my book site).
Recently, I reverse engineered the arrangement back to my original tuning of Dmaj7 - same as Open D with string #1 flatted from D to C#. Low to High: D, A, D, F#, A, C#. Here's that new arrangement for Weissenborn or other acoustic steel. The steel guitar can play any style of music but sometimes it takes a bit of creative thinking to make it practical. Hope you enjoy it. (note: the 17 in bar 26 is a typo). Hats off to Mike Neer, Bill Hatcher and Doug Beaumier for their inspiration over the years in finding new ways to engage with non-typical steel guitar arranging.
MIDI of arrangement: http://sndup.net/shmx
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 27 Sep 2023 5:33 am
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| That is a wonderful and very challenging song. One that you don’t hear played much. Great job. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Joe A. Roberts
From:
Seoul, South Korea
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 28 Sep 2023 2:59 am
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Great idea, Joe! That's why I love Open D. You can change one string and completely change the character of the tuning. You only get better at arranging through practice. It takes a while but progress does come and you start to see more and more patterns. One’s own taste is a big factor.
Haunted Heart is one of my favorite obscure standards. The Jo Stafford recording is beautiful as is a version on YouTube by the opera singer Rene' Flemming. My favorite version is by Bill Evans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-yLbd4O2Ls
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Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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