Song Reviews by Josh Redwood for Ms. Mckinley's 3rd hour U.S. History class.

4/4/12
1. The first track starts off as a slow sing tune with sub-dominant chords and perfect fifths. The Song repeats the pentatonic scale multiple times which gives the song a subtle bluesy sound. The song itself gives you the feeling of walking down a new york street and strolling past the diners and watching as the old chevys' go rollin' down the street. Compared to today's music it is much more laid back and follows older rhythm styles comparable to Sonny Rollins and Dave Brubeck. 2. The track that follows is almost an extension of the first in the sense that the artist uses warmer sounds. You feel as though you have just stepped into a warm place like a house or a nice restaurant and you're sitting in the smoking section listening to live music. Swinging thirds flow right into the general groove from the rhythm section. Compared to today's music. It is a little more on par with modern jazz music. It is innovative for it's time for sure. 3. In the third track the pentatonic scale makes a return followed by a smooth cracking voice coming over the airwaves and despite the quality you can feel the soul in her voice as if you were sitting in the front row listening to her. Some unusual but very comfortable instrumentation is used in this song followed by several key changes that really add different feels to the song. Compared to today's music, There are some similar rhythm pulses but aside from that it is very different compared the the recorded music of today. 4. The fourth track starts with a rising cadence that uses primarily diminished chords but quickly resolves itself by changing to the relative major chord. Then suddenly! A very loud call by the horns followed by a subtle reply from the piano which quickly increases in tempo. This completely changes the atmosphere from the intro. At approx. the five-minute mark another outburst from the horns with a response again from the piano. As the end of this song approaches it seems that the call and response comes to an end with a resolution from the horns. Compared to today's music, this would be considered fanfare.

5. The Fifth track I listened to is a ragtime piece that seems like a hybrid of late Amadeus Mozart with influences from Charlie Parker. A shift in gears is perhaps the best way to describe this song. It uses the circle of fifths to make several key changes with rotating bass lines played as a round with the return of the pentatonic scale swinging on the lowered sevenths. The melody of the song takes you down the road and drops you off at a bus station with fifty cents left for lunch. You walk down the sidewalk saying hi to everyone you know. Ragtime music is no longer prevalent and is therefore not comparable to most music of today.