By Bob Hurwitz
In a few hours, I will be having lunch with my close friend and colleague Peter Clancy. It will be the 22nd straight Tuesday after Labor Day that Pete and I have gone out to lunch; we have never gone to the same restaurant twice. It is our anniversary lunch: Peter and I began working at Nonesuch on Tuesday, September 4, 1984. Our first office was in the Rolex Building at 52nd and Fifth Avenue; we shared a large room, which had been recently vacated by Bruce Lundvall, when he left Elektra to go to Capitol Records. Bruce, of course, is the legendary President of Blue Note; that day, Ron Goldstein, who is now the President of Verve, sent us a giant basket of food. About 4 in the afternoon, Peter said, “There doesn’t seem that much to do.”
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By David Byrne
Duisburg, Germany
I’m over here for a part of the RuhrTriennale called A Century Of Song. The Ruhr valley was the former Germen rust belt, and in recent decades became Germany’s poorest, most depressed area — so a fair amount of money was poured in for revitalization, including arts budgets. Former factories were converted into venues and industrial ruin parks. Bassist and arranger Greg Cohen has been curating a performance series and I was invited to join him and his friends as well as the Duisburg Symphony for two shows. To prepare we have almost a week of rehearsal.
We had dinner last night and Greg talked about the roots of popular song structures. Most standards are AABA form, and many jazz pieces, being adaptations of the chord changes of standards, follow that pattern. (A lot of rock and roll and R&B is ABABCB — B being the chorus, A being the verses and C the middle 8 or bridge.)
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