I sat with them for a few minutes before our show together at the venerable Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, California to discuss how they approach arranging for their group. With four voices: Andrew Pipers solid bass/baritone, Trish Delaney-Browns top soprano and filled in by tenor Nick Begbie and alto Naomi Crellin, you could say that they dont have voices to spare when it comes to voicing complex jazz chords. We start with how they meet that challenge. Of course, this text transcription doesnt give the flavor of their Aussie accents, but you can imagine that part.
SDS: You make really efficient use of the four voices you have and you get really colorful chords.
Naomi: I think the art is in the implication of more than four. If you have the right chord extensions and leave out the right ones, you can actually still hear all of them because of what youre used to hearing in the progressions.
So in a sharp five chord, if youve got the seven and the sharp five and the root and then one other, youve got it. Another way we do it is by, in a sharp five chord, switching in one voice from one chord extension to another, so you get the five and then the three; within a four second period you get both of them. For me, most of the time its sketching what the ear then creates internally.
Andrew: For me, and probably I speak for most of us, a lot of it is aural. I like to - not that Im a keyboard player - but I like to sit at the keyboard and plonk and find out what sounds good. And then if it sounds good, then thats all that really matters. And, obviously, what sounds good on the keyboard wont always sound great with the voices. For me its a bit of trial and error.
And then after that Ill kind of pull it apart and analyze and see what Ive done. But Im not necessarily thinking too academically about it at the creative time. Im sort of thinking more sound. Trying to hear things and hearing how things might move.
SDS: From what I understand, thats worked pretty well for Gene Puerling.
Andrew: Genes been great, and it really has been great having some time with him, and seeing the way that he works. Its really encouraging to see that creative process can work, obviously, very well.
SDS: Were all of you working with Gene when you met with him last year?
Trish Delaney-Brown: All four of us met him once [the story of that get-together is described on their website, www.idea.com.au/journal.htm], but it was more about the group sound, not so much about arranging. He did talk a little bit about his arranging process and he took us through Brahms Lullabye for us to sing a bit of that.
SDS: Did he write that for you?
Naomi: He wrote it for the Hi-Los. Its one thats been very rarely performed, so he said, You guys should do this. We said, OK! [They performed it as their final encore later that evening, and Gene Puerling was in the audience to hear it.]
Trish: So with all four of us it was more suggestions as to how we can improve our sound or get some different colors and also some different sounds within a program. So he had listened to the CD [their fourth CD, Evidence] and, you know, close harmony is his thing, so he said, It would be really nice to have that color on a CD. But then these guys [Naomi and Andrew] did some intensive
Andrew: Yeah, more focusing on the arranging side of things. He compiled an extensive list of examples on his computer, these snippets, and he would play these examples and then he would talk about what worked for him.
SDS: Not so much from a theoretical background?
Naomi: Not at all. Sometimes he said, This is what I think I did, and then when I analyze it, it turns out that this is what I actually did. But the reason I did it is it made sense to my ears. Thats his bottom line.
Andrew: I think its wonderful that he took us on, because he said to us up front, Im not a teacher, I dont do this kind of thing. But we were honored that he would give us his time to actually share what works for him and the way that he works. It was great to get an insight into one of the masters, I think, of vocal arranging.
And with that, it was time to get dressed and prepare to go on stage for the evenings show. The night before had featured a performance at the Cayuga Vault, in Santa Cruz. Despite some challenges related to the different A/C power standards between the two continents, The Idea Of North came out with two really wonderful sets over the two nights, and it was a pleasure and an honor to share the stage (and the backstage) with such wonderfully talented and truly nice people.
Stephen Saxon (stephen@saxon.com) has been singing and playing jazz for nearly 30 years. He sings bass and writes a lot of arrangements for Clockwork (www.clockworksingers.com), the first runners up in 2004 Harmony Sweepstakes national finals. He has studied arranging with Kirby Shaw, Phil Mattson and Ladd McIntosh, and toured as a member of Chanticleer, The PM Singers, The Klezmorim and The San Francisco Klezmer Experience. He teaches improvisation, arranging, and jazz singing, and he is a conductor with the award-winning Piedmont Children's Choirs.
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