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This is very cool but also very challenging for some of us white boys / girls / non binaries

My favorites in this general direction of music are some of the old Al di Meola songs like

and of course all the Jobim, Airto etc stuff that I have been trying to wrap my head around for 50+ years.

There is a great band here in town, Nube Nueve, the trumpet, bass and percussion players are very good personal friends

And of course, not to forget Horace Silver

And then there are the Latin adaptations of other songs:

 

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This feels like cheating having this tune already in the can. I was working with a Latin band where I was the only non-Latinx (I'm from Wyoming). This is a song I wrote but there isn't any sax or flute on this. I'm busy playing keyboards

This was a band that sounded really good live but just couldn't seem to work well in a studio environment. After two or three failed studio attempts (expensive wasted days) I decided to record the band myself - I had to learn on the job. I used creative mic placement because we were in a practice room without any sound treatment - in fact we were near the airport and frequently had to stop and wait for a plane to land before we could record - kind of hilarious really. But it worked because the band relaxed being in their own space and not feeling the pressure of studio. I recorded the band pretty much exactly as we play live and used minimal EQ/effects etc. BTW the picture of the band is the actual room where we recorded this.

I'll have to write something Latin this month with some sax or flute but in the meantime here is this sort of Latin thing I wrote:
https://soundcloud.com/user-460666353%2Facercate
EDIT: Oh ... if the voice at the intro sounds familiar (I stole it from this track to tack on to the TOTM October) this is the track that actually started out with that voice. It's our Conga/Timbale player who loved to do Mister Haney voice from the Green Acres TV series and I thought it was hilarious to stick in front of this tune

This is very cool!

 

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holy cow that was awesome! Great recording, too and funny about having to deal with the airplane noise. I often have that with my mini schnauzer chiming in at the worst times when I'm trying to record something at home. Horn lines and a flute solo would have been a great addition to that already great tune. The groove is perfect.

I don't know how many times I've found my phone going off in the other room or my Pyrenees barking when I listen to the playback. Now, unless it is completely disturbing, I'll just leave it in, sort of a personal signature.

 

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Here's a lighthearted Bossa with sopranino:

Reminds me a bit of Havana Moonlight, one of my uber-favorites. Please take that as a compliment!

 

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I've done several songs inspired by Jobim in the last year, really love his stuff.

Love it!

 

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what?

 

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Many thanks. Nice to know it's got a few listens.

Hey man, it's a great tune, very lively and "butterflyish" or something like that. Maybe with more coffee I can find a better word

I am still struggling with this month's challenge, I'm just too much of a homeboy

 

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Another guitar song on my classical Yamaha.

Very soothing

 

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When I sing the outro (just chorus repeating over and over) should I overlay flute or sax with the vocals? And how polite do I need to be? Seems like I can intrude over the vocals a bit more with a horn or flute since it's just repeating the same lyrics over and over - thoughts on that?

Change the lyrics

Occasionally I drop into an Arabic tonality on a flute fills - is that off putting, out of character too much or does it work?
https://soundcloud.com/user-460666353%2Fvoce-e-gata-take-two-second-verse-and-bridge-chords-added

I think that's fine, I mean there is Arabic, there is Afro, there is Afro-Cuban there is ... Brazilian. Unless you are trying to make a science project out of it for analysis by Adam Neely, it doesn't matter if you transgress between different elements. As long as you stick with the key of Db, which is the native key of all Latin singers in the favela, LOL.

Puns aside, music genres reflect different ethnicities and South (Latin) America is a melting pot, starting with the conquistadores to African slaves and everything in between so a bit of Arabic, Persian, Hijaz etc will just add a bit of flavor. That's just my opinion, though

 

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Regarding the discussion on Arabic, Latin, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban- all of these styles- a man I know from Puerto Rico turned me on to this duo- Turkish twins who combine their music with flamenco I love it! 💘

Even Mozart did it, sort of

 

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Not an original of course, but I just finished up an arrangement of Joe Henderson's No Me Esqueça for Big Band; only my third full big band arrangement so go easy! 😄

Score - No_Me_Esqueca.pdf

Playback - No Me Esqueca - Session Horns.mp3

It's gotta be Saturday morning and I stayed up too late, the pdf just didn't play

 

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You mean reading the score didn't just play it all back inside your head?!?!? 🤣

No, I am not that smart, I am dyslexic enough that sheet music is my equivalent of a Rohrschach test. I tried clicking on the pdf and nothing happened. That was before the coffee, though 🤪

And BTW, awesome piece!

 

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OK, time to throw in another track. This one is also a combo type mixing Tango and Flamenco...I called it Flamingo (close enough). This is a collaboration with a long time associate from Malaga Spain who plays bass and rhythm on this. Only the first half has tenor sax. The second half was supposed to be filled out by someone else, but showcases my friend Mario's fine playing.

Very nice! The sax is a bit loud in the mix, at least when you wear closed headphones but that's just my listening setup. Now you need to get that other guy to fill in the second part on violin

 

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Here's a piece for concert band called summer breeze in modest cuban/bossa style. It's the last of my 4 movement piece "4 winds" - and I could thankfully link two of them in the odd meter OOTM.
The sounds are sibelius/noteperformer. I wrote this for a composition contest for junior concert band, which I did not win But without the contest I wouldn't have invested the time and work and I learned a lot on the way. So if you run a ensemble like this - drop me a line and I'd be glad to send the parts.
All the best!

4winds_Summer Breeze

Listen to 4winds_Summer Breeze by Taragot on hearthis.at | Other

hearthis.at

As always, outstanding!

 

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The forum software doesn't work correctly with private Soundcloud links (I made it private so only people with the link can see it - the band is still selling this so I didn't want it public on Soundcloud - just sharing with people in this thread) --- I had to Edit the post to trick the forum software by removing the "https://" from the link. If you refresh the page you should see my edited link and hopefully it'll work?

Here's the working link: soundcloud.com/user-460666353/como-chingas-ruckatan-latin-tribe

Awesome!!!

 

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So much good stuff in this thread!

Here is a little contribution: Corazon.wav

 

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Most unusual! Very different harmonies and a melodic line that is a nomad. Thanks for sharing this.

Thank you!

 

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One more? Why not?

Exactly!
Happy Thanksgiving to all contributors! Even if you are down under!

 

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Send it over to Sting, maybe he'll invite you to play along to "Fragile".
That was my first reaction to your recording and by no means meant to belittle your work, on the contrary.