face meet palm...

[jazzypaul]

Okay, so November 13th, we're splitting a date with a gypsy jazz band that are dear friends of ours, and they mentioned that they were going to do a theme of some sort for the show (all 80's tunes, all TV themes or something). I mentioned that they should do an entire album and that we'd do one too for our set. It was agreed upon. So, my trio started putting our heads together and we decided that it'd be a hell of a lot of fun to arrange Metallica's Master of Puppets in its entirety for our lineup of guitar/vocals, upright bass and hand percussion.

Now I'm listening to it. Probably the first time I've listened to it from start to finish since I was 21. Now, it's not as if anything on here is so incredibly difficult sounding, but the hard part seems to be figuring out ways to play all of this stuff so that it doesn't simply come off as so ridiculously small as to be laughable.

Master of Puppets and Disposable Heroes both seem as if they're natural candidates to be fairly "stock" afro-cuban arrangements. Orion we can do straight out of the box. My two biggest worries are Battery and Damage, Inc.

I'm sure this'll sink to the bottom of the Organissimo pond like a duck wearing cement shoes, but hey, if you've got any ideas, I'm all ears. Or eyes. Whatever the case may be.

[JSngry]

No ideas, but I saw the thread title and thought it was about looking at Facebook on a Palm, which would be substantially less interesting a topic...

No suggestions, (don't know the tunes, never really got the Metallica bug (but my son sure did, so I know the basic vibe, but that's about it) but one of my "stock" approaches to challenges like this is to deconstruct the melody & then set about putting it back together with different phrase displacements, etc. If it's no longer immediately recognizable, so much the better - sometimes. Then, once you have a melody that is divorced from the original context, you can treat it as something "original" and go from there. Then, if you want to make it more recognizable, you can tweak it back as much or as little as you want/need to. Depends on where you want to go, who you want to go there with, and why you're going there in the first place.

That's one way to do it, just one. Take it for waht it's worth, and hopefully you'll find your own way, all the way. Good luck!

[jazzypaul]

No ideas, but I saw the thread title and thought it was about looking at Facebook on a Palm, which would be substantially less interesting a topic...

No suggestions, (don't know the tunes, never really got the Metallica bug (but my son sure did, so I know the basic vibe, but that's about it) but one of my "stock" approaches to challenges like this is to deconstruct the melody & then set about putting it back together with different phrase displacements, etc. If it's no longer immediately recognizable, so much the better - sometimes. Then, once you have a melody that is divorced from the original context, you can treat it as something "original" and go from there. Then, if you want to make it more recognizable, you can tweak it back as much or as little as you want/need to. Depends on where you want to go, who you want to go there with, and why you're going there in the first place.

That's one way to do it, just one. Take it for what it's worth, and hopefully you'll find your own way, all the way. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips! I (and I guess it's because I'm a drummer/percussionist) tend to do what you're talking about from a rhythmic standpoint, but I'm usually all for leaving the melody intact. But, when you're talking stuff like Metallica, where the melody is certainly almost never the main selling point of the tune, you might as well tweak the hell out of that too, right? So, again, thanks!

[AllenLowe]

I would just put on the original recording and lip synch while dressed in drag.

[jazzypaul]

I would just put on the original recording and lip synch while dressed in drag.

If only we were all midgets. Then we could go out as Mini-Tallica. That'd be awesome.

[JSngry]

No ideas, but I saw the thread title and thought it was about looking at Facebook on a Palm, which would be substantially less interesting a topic...

No suggestions, (don't know the tunes, never really got the Metallica bug (but my son sure did, so I know the basic vibe, but that's about it) but one of my "stock" approaches to challenges like this is to deconstruct the melody & then set about putting it back together with different phrase displacements, etc. If it's no longer immediately recognizable, so much the better - sometimes. Then, once you have a melody that is divorced from the original context, you can treat it as something "original" and go from there. Then, if you want to make it more recognizable, you can tweak it back as much or as little as you want/need to. Depends on where you want to go, who you want to go there with, and why you're going there in the first place.

That's one way to do it, just one. Take it for what it's worth, and hopefully you'll find your own way, all the way. Good luck!

Thanks for the tips! I (and I guess it's because I'm a drummer/percussionist) tend to do what you're talking about from a rhythmic standpoint, but I'm usually all for leaving the melody intact. But, when you're talking stuff like Metallica, where the melody is certainly almost never the main selling point of the tune, you might as well tweak the hell out of that too, right? So, again, thanks!

Well, if you have the time, the tweaking can go all the way out and then back in again. Depends on where you are when you reach that point of "Yeah, tha's it".

[Aggie87]

I would just put on the original recording and lip synch while dressed in drag.

If only we were all midgets. Then we could go out as Mini-Tallica. That'd be awesome.

Maybe you're on to something with the mini thing.

[ep1str0phy]

Shit, "Battery."

If there's no melody--like there is no real, active vocal melody in this context--I would just find one. My first step would be to shrink down the wall-of-sound guitar and bass parts into more manageable, less dense melodic lines--just forget the vocals. I agree that this would fit an afro-cuban vibe well to the extent that this sort of metal is not only rhythmically intricate, but also modular in design. This is related, I think, to what J said, but once you abstract the melody from the guitar and bass parts, it should be easy to play with it.

[jazzypaul]

Shit, "Battery."

If there's no melody--like there is no real, active vocal melody in this context--I would just find one. My first step would be to shrink down the wall-of-sound guitar and bass parts into more manageable, less dense melodic lines--just forget the vocals. I agree that this would fit an afro-cuban vibe well to the extent that this sort of metal is not only rhythmically intricate, but also modular in design. This is related, I think, to what J said, but once you abstract the melody from the guitar and bass parts, it should be easy to play with it.

Actually, the guitarist in the trio is a wonderful singer, and since we both grew up on hardcore 80's metal, he's chomping at the bit to get at them. I think I figured out Battery yesterday while I was doing my usual exercises on the cajon, as this works really well as a samba (think Stone Flower, rhythmically speaking). The Thing That Should Not Be, I think is gonna get the lounge singer treatment, because that tune's a big ass velveeta and nut ball if I've ever seen one. Right now, we're only down to Leper Messiah and Damage, Inc. for new treatments.

[ep1str0phy]

Wait--are you doing a whole thing as a samba, or just the verse? That actually sounds like it would fit pretty nicely--I'd think that Damage, Inc. might work similarly (I can actually hear a bossa nova clave under some of the first few riffs, matching the rhythm pretty well).

[jazzypaul]

Wait--are you doing a whole thing as a samba, or just the verse? That actually sounds like it would fit pretty nicely--I'd think that Damage, Inc. might work similarly (I can actually hear a bossa nova clave under some of the first few riffs, matching the rhythm pretty well).

The only reason I might NOT do the whole thing as a samba might be to (slightly) nod to the original and lay down some cajon hip-hop on the implied half time section coming out of the choruses on battery.

insofar as Damage, Inc goes, the samba thing could work too. I wanted to see if I could mix it up a lil more though. Dunno yet. We've got a month and change to get it together.

The club in question has one of those record on the fly CD recorders, so I think I'll be able to get all of the end results on disc. That'll be fun.

[ep1str0phy]

Creativity is fun, no?

[Brute]

Is Bob Ferraris still on bass? He was my teacher for a few years, what a monster! Please tell him Geoff says hi and that I want my "Jazzology" book back.

EDIT: Sorry, I just checked your myspace page and saw that Bob is indeed still in the band. He sold me a copy of your "Mainstreamism" CD a few years back. I love the "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread" thing on Caravan.

Edited October 5, 2009 by Brute

[Shawn]

This sounds interesting!!!! I hope you guys are planning on recording this date, I think it would be awesome.

....Damage Inc. should be easy to re-arrange without losing the overall vibe, just be sure to leave in the "GO!" before the solo starts.

\m/

[jazzypaul]

Is Bob Ferraris still on bass? He was my teacher for a few years, what a monster! Please tell him Geoff says hi and that I want my "Jazzology" book back.

EDIT: Sorry, I just checked your myspace page and saw that Bob is indeed still in the band. He sold me a copy of your "Mainstreamism" CD a few years back. I love the "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread" thing on Caravan.

it's a small world after all...

yeah, Bob's a bad bad man on the bass, and I think that if he ever moved out of Joliet and towards Chicago/Cook County, he'd be busy 11 days a week.

I will most certainly tell him that you said hello, and I will also let him know that he's racking up fines with the Geoff library.

And thanks for the kind words! If at all possible, you should come out and see us some time!

....Damage Inc. should be easy to re-arrange without losing the overall vibe, just be sure to leave in the "GO!" before the solo starts.

Some things are just deemed to be for all times, sir.

My favorite slight tweak on something thus far...The "Master, Master" section of Master of Puppets, we're doing as all percussion, no harmony or melody. Should be fun!