Michael Brecker “Suspone”. Seriously man, stop being so friggin talented. It’s making me look bad.

Suspone by Michael Brecker is a piece of jazz-fusion with solos by electric guitar, tenor saxophone, and piano. The rhythm section is comprised of drums and a double bass. For the purposes of this analysis, I will be focussing on Michael Brecker’s tenor saxophone solo from his “Impulse” release, “Don’t Try This At Home”.

 

The piece starts with all of the soloist instruments playing the same melody, and then each solo breaks away while the others are silent. Brecker’s solo is after the electric guitar. The solo is played on a tenor saxophone, at 235 beats per minute. It is also in common (4/4) time, with a rhythm changes chord progression. This progression was taken from George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”, and is a 32 bar A-A-B-A chord structure. The chord progression of rhythm changes is: 1 6|2 5|1 6|2 5|1 1⁷ |4 4⁷ | 1 5|1 1|(A section, played twice), 3⁷  |3⁷  |6⁷  |6⁷  |2⁷  |2⁷  |5⁷  |5⁷  |(B section, played once). (MoneyChords, N.D.)

 

What makes this piece of improvisation truly jazz-rock fusion is the use of long lines of semiquavers and quavers, with at least a few beats rest in between that line and the next (see bar 45 onwards). Using these moments of fast-paced, frantic sounding playing and then suddenly creating silence in the middle of a bar gives the piece a syncopated, experimental sound common in jazz-rock fusion. Brecker also used triplet semiquavers as embellishments in his ‘calmer’ lines (bars 42, 43, etc.) to keep the momentum of the piece when he is not playing crazy semiquaver runs.

 

Use of chromaticism is also obvious in this piece of improvisation. While Brecker doesn’t play long chromatic runs, he uses short bursts of chromaticism in terms of semitone steps to enrich the piece and add interest and dissonance. For example, bar 15 is played: Bb, B, Bb, Ab, A, G, etc. This creates a shape that is like a wave, going up and down and around and keeps the piece interesting whilst still staying within the jazz fusion genre.

 

Overall, this piece of improvisation is a wonderful example of classic jazz-rock fusion. It was a pleasure to listen to, and would have taken immense skill to improvise. Brecker is a musical visionary, and considering his work in this piece is very deserving of the standing he has achieved in the jazz world.

 

Bibliography

MoneyChords. (N.D.). Rhythm Changes. Retrieved 10 6, 2013, from MoneyChords.com: http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/rhythmchanges.html