The album, Bossa Blues, is a collection of songs that I've been developing since 2016. During this 10 year stretch, I have been facinated with the idea of developing small motifs into a larger piece of work. While most of the tracks are short motifs, the practice of motivic development via the guittar is the underlying theme of the album. Originally, I did not set out to become a guitar player with some songs with lyrics. My original goal, back in 2016, was to use the guitar as a vehicle for the voice. Now, my guitar playing is much more prominent.
The main concept can be seen in the track, Feeling Mode-y. Feeling Mode-y is about using the idea of motivic development of a single phrase over the blues.
Much of the album focusing on this concept of motivic development through bass and treble voices found on the guitar. This style of guitar playing is a combination of country blues via Big Bill Broonzy and Blind Blake and Bossa Nova via Joao Gilberto. This combination is the genre center with Peixe and Beer acting as a middle ground between the two.
The bossa nova portion of the album contains three songs: O Pato, Eu Luxo So, and Voce E Eu. Each of these songs represent an application of my mapping system, Cartesian Mapping of Chords and Scales, as well as my approach to improvisation and motivic development.
The best track on the album would be Feeling Dizzy in my opinion. This track expresses the concepts mentioned above but in one track. Improvisation, motivic development, application of the visual system, and arrangement of a vocal melody all in one track.
It is my hope that this project brings together my different realms of study into one project. Additionally, this project is meant to show the connection between classical and modern approaches to music composition and the modern musician practice.