Arroyo, is a Southwestern American term for a river bed, mostly dry, with sharply sloping walls. The French trumpeter Erik Truffaz composed a tune by the same name and it is a perfect vehicle for introducing a brilliant young jazz guitarist from Turkey, Erdogan Cem Evin (Cem).

We do it quite a bit faster than the recorded version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpXC9B1Xp7o and our performance does not run on one chord the way so many of these modal pieces do.

The bass line has neither a major nor minor third and supports innumerable substitutions. You'll also hear this difference with the recorded version, with Cem taking it way outside and me struggling to follow.

Guitar: Cem
Arrangement, bass, keyboard: Aleck Rand
ReadDrums Artist: Terry Clarke (FusionBusy)

ARROYO https://soundcloud.com/aleckrand/arroyo-a-collaboration-with

Hi, Dean, Erdogan and Terry !:))

This was just simply fantastic !:))
as they say in certain circles:
maravillioso, estupendo !:))
Actually,I am out of superlatives !!:))

I can hear pros at work here.....

Cheers
Dani

Aleck!

What a great an innovative arrangement, with a really great polyrthymic feel. Great playing and a really tight jazz fusion vibe. Well done.

Thanks for sharing.

Trevor

Hi Dean,

I'm impressed. You got a good guitar player here.
My regards to Erdogan.
But you could have done it totally on your own.
Enjoyed listening. Very nice arrangement.

Guenter

Superb mix, Love the guitar work, thanks for sharing. I will not get to compare the original on Youtube as my computer would spit and sputter until I would just give up, but your audio version is outstanding! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Dani!

Thank you, my friend, for the encouraging remarks. This was not the most accessible tune, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Dean

Hi Trevor,

Thanks so much for the perceptive remarks. I hope you got a chance to hear the original recording. I think speeding it up led to a real improvement, at least I hope so.

Dean

Guenter, my friend,

You are quite complimentary to say that I could have done it all myself, however, there are times when you want to hear others' thoughts, concepts, and sounds. For example, I enjoyed our collaboration immensely although I may have gotten a bit carried away.

Cem is an amazing talent. Do you know he's been playing jazz for only six months, having just made the transition from rock into jazz. He's already got sophisticated ideas, technique and is an incredibly fast learner.

I know this won't be our last collaboration and I hope you and I haven't had our last as well.

Dean

Hi PgFantastic,

I hope you do get to hear the original recording at some point. In the meantime, thanks so much for the kind remarks.

Dean

Very nice smooth jazz tune ... what parts are BIAB?

hi aleck love your stuff nice chops great mix well done thanks for sharing eric

Hi Elliott,

Thanks for your positive review. The drum track is a RealTrack by the phenomenal drummer Terry Clarke.

Dean Clark (aka Aleck Rand)

Wow! As usual, your arrangements are fabulous. Just to offer a little more accurate translation of the word "arroyo"; it is actually Spanish for "creek".

Regards

Mike B.

You really play well and put out good stuff!! Keep it coming! Take care. Greg

a real chick corea vibe here.

Love it!

Hey Mike,

Yeh, Arroyo. Thanks for pointing out the meaning. In Spanish it does indeed mean creek or stream. For some reason, it has been adopted into English with special added features that I learned about only by looking up the word in an American dictionary.

Gracias mi talentoso amigo.

Dean

Greg,

I'm flattered and thanks for those encouraging words. I'm glad we have lots of Forum members who appreciate this kind of stuff. But let me emphasize that I'm not playing guitar on this one. That's Cem, the brilliant young jazz guitarist from Istanbul.

Dean Clark (aka Aleck Rand)

Love it! Gruverider, man, that's music to my ears.

Attaching Chick's name to anything I do is high praise indeed. He's always been one of those guys that I see or hear and think, OK, maybe it's time to throw the bass and all the rest of the gear into the fireplace - what's the use? So far, I've always come back to my senses.

Thanks

Dean Clark (aka Aleck Rand)

Hi F.M.M.,

I'm glad you liked Arroyo and look forward to putting out another collaboration with Cem before too long.

Dean Clark (aka Aleck Rand)