Yes, you heard correctly, this is both jazzy and 'experimental' to boot!
So you're in for some pretty Avant Garde snuff here, and I'm not going to be the least surprised or miffed in the slightest if this one gets a pass from most if not all of you

But just in the off chance someone here takes that trippy trip, here's some outline of what you are about to get yourselves into by giving this one a shot, and for a change I'll start with the fundamentals, for some sense of familiarity if nothing else:

****** Song Summary ******

Title: Dim the Nights

Key: Cm , Tempo: 90
Style: WlzModal.STY
Melody harmony: Miles + Tenor in Octaves(90)
Soloist: Ballad1 Sw. Ballad - Tenor (280)
Style MIDI Instruments: Acoustic Bass (33), Acoustic Piano (1),
MIDI Drums: 33 Jazz Drums (33)
Plugins: EZ Drummer, PG's own Acoustic Bass & some quality soundfonts for the Mtd Trumpet, Ten. Sax & Piano.
*******************

Now, the original idea for this little weirdness comes from a simple complaint my dad made about his little keyboard where he said "I just wish I could do dim chords on it" - and that tiny seed gave me the idea to outright base an entire song from the dim chord concept. This in turn lead me to look up the only 7-note scale I knew to include a dim, which is the "locrian" scale of white notes from B-B on a keyboard (genuinely had to look all of this up myself, btw). From that I now built a chord set of 7 chords, all using only notes of that particular scale, and presto - a chord sheet started to form (the A-part if you notice is simply all those 7 chords in descending order, btw).
Next was to figure out what on earth to actually play over this weirdness, and for this I turned to the Melodist - firmly expecting the outcome would be something utterly hilarious! - but to my surprise, the program somehow managed to come up with a melody that genuinely makes sense, if not weirdly pretty, even. And that's why I'm sharing this little 'experiment'


YT link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMH4Nxm9ZG0

SC link: https://soundcloud.com/eddie-icelander/dim-the-nights


p.s. I have to hand it to the makers of BBox, I never in a million years would've made a thing like this before I got this program

Wow, has a real modern jazz vibe to it. Those drums and bass, really something.

The melody is not bad, it makes me think of 3 views of a Secret. The melodist could do with a more “human” feel: more dynamics, soft and loud playing. But as a melody in itself: great stuff.

The sax solo misses out on most of the chords and sounds rather bad.

The point that it’s a locrian progression, or Ebm6 (which is the same) is wasted on the sax player. Fire him.

But for the rest, reminds me of Kenny Wheeler!

Really great experiment.

Hello Eddie ...

That was very interesting! I think there's a lot of room for some more "tinkering". But using that scale does have its limits for doing so. But it gave me a few ideas... but I would have to go outside the parameters of that scale. I appreciate your creativity and "out of the box" approach.

Best to you ...

Alan

Yeah, I was really jumping for joy when I discovered that style as it fit my intentions just perfectly! And to think, it's one of PG's oldest "All-Midi" styles, which are so often overlooked & underestimated now days in our times of RTs. Come to think of it, there isn't a single RT in this whole piece at all, not something I deliberately set out as premise, I just didn't feel there really was any need to add anything to the style as designed.
I just might have to agree on your core sentiment there, the sax is indeed a bit "all over the place"... I just hoped because of the fast runs and the high obscurity of the whole thing in general that nobody would really notice

In fact, I'm genuinely surprised I'm getting feedback to this one at all, and this soon after release at that

Well, that was a very happy side-effect that I absolutely wasn't expecting!

Much obliged, as always.

This is good. Some very cool lines in it. The midi gives the song a very different feel. Well done

It does? And here I was deluding myself into thinking nobody had noticed until after I had pointed it out

Anyway, happy to see yet another comment to this li'l obscurity

The mode and key are fine.
I did something punkish in that mode recently.
I was accused of recording something unplayable which was odd as I played all but the drums at that stage.
The melodic instrument before and after the sax is stilted in a very MIDI way but it describes a decent melody over the chords. The sax does fluff about a bit.
I enjoyed the chords and the rhythmic backing & I didn't expect a traditional "resolution" but the piece seemed to peter out at the end.
Nice work with older MIDI PG stuff.

Well, now I'm invested - did you submit it to here someplace?

Thanks for your feedback & analysis otherwise... you're not the first to niggle about the less than stellar sax, btw, and have a feeling you won't be the last

Eddie, this is outstanding. I grew up on Mingus, and he's definitely in there. Love your explanation. Good writer, too. Really cool approach to this crafty creation. I liked Dzjang's nod to Three Views Of A Secret. The way it seems to keep coming around again reminds me of Goodbye Porkpie Hat.

Wow, a lot of references there... and here I thought I was being so original & unique!

I'm just messing about, pay no attention, heh... thanks for the highly complimentary feedback


p.s. One interesting thing, I've been here almost a decade and I do think you're the first to remark on my "writing"...

Interesting piece Eddie!! I enjoy trippy jazz! Well done!! Take care. Greg

Much obliged, Greg, Any kind of trippy isn't worth having unless you're enjoying it

This is really a great song! I liked the fact that the song starts out very structured then jumps into a free form jazz portion with the sax then returns to the structured form. BRILLIANT!

This is fantastic!

Well, you're quite at odds with the other comments on that one!

... but of course I'll absolutely take it, thank you

I like it. Keep pushing the envelope, Eddie.

I liked it, I listened more than once. Definitely has its own unique mood. Good work!

Not sure I can promise you anything on that front. me being usually quite the "easy listening" kind, but thanks for the encouragement all the same

You brave soul, you!

Much obliged, I'm sure, for this one certainly is one of them "acquired taste" pieces... even to me

Eddie,

Very nice and cool!
Yes, it is pretty Avant Garde.
But the melody is very smooth.
I feel a trick in the chord progression.
The song's tonality you specified is Cm, but if you shift the chords by one measure, the chord progression will be in Bbm as follows.

Bbm7 - Ab6 - Gbmaj7 - Fm7 - Ebm6 - Dbmaj7 - Cm7b5 - F7b9(=Cdim/F)

Transposing them to Cm gives the following.

Cm7 - Bb6 - Abmaj7 - Gm7 - Fm6 - Ebmaj7 - Dm7b5 - G7b9(=Ddim/G)

Above chord progression is also commonly used in pops.
Perhaps I think this trick made the melody very smooth.
Enjoyed my listen a lot.

Best regards.

Shigeki Adachi

Well yes, you are correct in that the Cm I've set as the key signature isn't strictly speaking 100% accurate. But since the key signature of any score in BBox can only be set to either a conventional major or minor, I chose the minor, since my actual scale as intended (Locrian) has more in common with the traditional minor scale than the traditional major scale.

Good observation, thanks for the feedback.