C Blues Jam E x p l a i n e d: Jacob Collier and Cory Henry Go Crazy

remember this video Cory Henry hashtag this duet with Jacob Collier the blues it is also known as C blues on this YouTube video that contains the same upload of the original Instagram video you might be thinking huh I thought the Blues was not yeah it's crazy right it's arguably to the best jazz keyboardist improvisers to rise up into Fame this past decade they've collided and highly abstracted an abstraction of some blues ideas all in real-time at 138 BPM yeah so let's look at several elements from this mini Jam to see how Jacob and Corey interact and also how they're just going with the vibe you're probably wondering how how do you just go with the how do you how do you go with the yeah but let's look at the full transcription first and then we can discuss several interesting areas [Music] I spent maybe about two hours pondering what time signature this whole thing was in especially that first chunk for example was this bar a seven eight bar or is it all in four-four and Jacobs just being Jacob and throwing us off I mean it confused me I started tapping in quarters eighths sixteenths one version with that one seven eight bar and then the rest for four and another version with just straight four four I mean I kept alternating between the two because I would get different results every run-through I figured that the two bars before 18 would be two four four bars with quarter note chords being played by Jacob to lead into a section that was most definitely in for fun but some run throughs ended up with me tapping on the downbeat to those quarters and others tapping on the upbeat so in the end I figured that maybe I can just transcribe Corey's line of essentially consistent sixteen note runs and synchronize Jacob hits and lines with it so that's what I did all right so let's look at the first three or so bars we start off with a collection of modes and scales that vaguely circle around AC minor sound we have C mixolydian C harmonic minor and C Dorian all with elements of court or peji Asian enclosures and neighboring approach tones Bart three is where we start seeing some blues lines with the e-flat note leading to an E natural to open up and suggest more of the C Blues consisting of a minor pentatonic blues and C minor pentatonic blues meanwhile Jacob space lines and chords suggest a C minor sound with the collection of chords from the flatter side of the circle of fifths or the fourth side or the more playable side if you want to call it that but here's where it gets interesting core goes from this figure that can be said to come from these scales to a completely different tonal area near F sharp and look how he did it he mixes the whole tone half tone scale or the AH katatak scale with f-sharp mixolydian we then touch on a little bit of B major [Music] now let's look at how Jacob leads us into the section we start off with C major then we go to this e something chord let's call it G Phrygian / e the next chord is a d9 sus chord or AC major / D now remember there are technically vibing off each other so it's interesting to note that Jacob changed his harmony right as Corey did remember that Corey is an f-sharp major and now Jacob is playing AC sharp 9 sus chord which itself comes from f-sharp major so after playing around in this territory he's now in this territory on the other side of the circle of fifths accordingly he jumps 1/4 to f-sharp and gradually turns the dial of brightness back to C minor C blues with the 813 sus chord and a G g 7sus4 bar six sounds a contemporary arrival back at home jacobs jamming on CNF for the wonky backbeat and corey is playing g minor blues mixed in with enclosures and chromatic approach don't get em plays an ascending line mixing C Dorian sounds with C blues and under that Jacob plays his signature soul blues grace note chords okay this section full alright Cory starts off with an ascending F mixolydian line mixed in with an e Lydian line F major chord and neighboring steps and then e flat he starts playing some lines related to a tonality Jacob introduced two bars [Music] this tonality is known as super Lydian okay but how how do you know that this is super lidded and not just some other chord well take a look at this interview it was filmed in early 2015 and this is arguably one of the first instances in which Jacob publicly shares about his idea of super Lydian here you can see a similar chord so this is the first of all the second chord I think is this it's kind of fun chord this one you could say that's a super ultra Lydian which is like my own invention but it's not really it's kind of like C sharp major 7 of it but it's made up of fits so that's kind of like going yeah let's do a brief overview on how to derive a super living chord the kind that Jacob might use take an E major nine chord it can be interpreted as a poly chord B major over E major with a B note being shared between the two chords what's important to note here is that the B major is a fifth above a major and that it comes from a slightly brighter key in a circle of fifths let's add to this court now let's do F sharp major over B major over E major that is an E major 13 sharp 11 or an alidium chord if you continue this pattern just one more key of v above and no don't worry I'm not gonna go all the way like I did on my largest chord video you would end up with C sharp major over F sharp major over B major over E major [Music] this is where we start to get into the super Lydian territory at least the way Jacob thinks about it so don't worry if you don't really get it completely just yet I'll do future videos on this topic so this e super lien is interesting in that the D flat major chord or the C sharp major chord is play gali to E flat minor or D sharp minor and sometimes to G flat major like a one to impart movement and major or a one four chord movement and major look how it goes back and forth between the two when the a natural bass note is under the two or the four chord it's essentially a Lydia with Corey it's not until bar eleven which is two bars after Jacob played a superlative that he responds to that tonality he plays f-sharp major with displaced and chopped sixteenth note climbs and Falls then with f-sharp mixolydian this part is amazing because they sync up on their accents [Music] and yet another core was super Laden nice Corey does this amazing thing that brings us from f-sharp major E flat minor to C blues and under that Jacob plays some more recognizable jazz chord now we sound like we're building and Cayden Singh somewhere but judging from Cory's lines alone is sounds like he's outlining a typical jazz cadence of three six [Music] but that's not exactly how it happens remember that it could be argued that he's thinking of these turnarounds and is just extending them while reacting in real time or that he's doing something completely different and going with the flow [Music] I mean could this I be his realization that he was not going to land on one after all and that he starts to come up with one bar to land on one is this too deep meanwhile Jacob is building these eighth-note lines that eventually build up to bar 18 look at these chords C major over D D major over ee g major over F F major over F sharp F sharp major over G sharp a flat major over a flat a flat 9 sus and B flat D tonight we could spend days and days analyzing why this could work or we can just call it good voice leading that takes us somewhere builds tension and lands back home [Music] I mean you could look at this as a two five one where the two section starts with two and the five section is filled with tension from the darker side of the circle of fifths in relation to where our anticipated home is which is C major in other words these are some chords you would have mined over AG dominant seven chord the five of C major [Music] you and here we are Bart 18 is clearly an arrival point Corey's going crazy with his B melodic minor line plus E flat and his and Jakob is laying down a solid backbeat and C as Jacob transitions to F minor seven ish Cori plays this nice - setting C blue slime with nicely placed inflections Jacob plays in East seven chord and an a7 chord which sound like he's Caden sing on three and six approaching two in the key of C which is deep hits D is a bass note but clearly lines out C blues in his right hand while Corey plays some more tasty sea booze as you may already know Jacob loves playing fives and holding a top note above a changing harmony by themselves these chords are pretty tasty but superimposing Corey's wack constant 16 note lines over that man that's that's something else see blues c-sharp octatonic F sharp diminished B melodic minor C after tonic emajor C Blues F blues C Blues F major C Dorian C 7 sharp 9 there's so much borrowing from nearby related Keys as well as distant ones and it's the seamless lines that Corey has in his fingers and Jacobs filthy chords that make this jam mind-blowing it's even crazier to note that Jacobs cores tend to be four to five notes max since this is all happening in real time they might occasionally create some clashing harmonies for a beat or two but that's okay because the groove is happening and the lines connect well with the next marker phases it's those weird unexpectedly placed crunch moments that give us the exciting feeling from this do it to help you further understand the C blues jam even further I've created several digital goodies that break it down for you in terms of chords and licks or a full analysis whatever works best for you thanks so much for watching this transcription breakdown if you'd like to see more of this genre please let me know down in the comments stay tuned for further channel announcements and content and we'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Leon Waves

Views: 603,245

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Id: vrzEq1wphmg

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Sun May 31 2020