Description
Como Azucar
Como Azucar is a samba piece I wrote for one of my Living Rhythms performances in the 90’s. We’ve probably only performed it with my band about a half dozen times. I’ve written a LOT of original jazz tunes and some of them have been lost, unfortunately. This one was hiding in a folder on my hard drive. So I was happy to resurrect it for my video session with David Craig.
My history writing jazz is a sort of funny story. I was originally afraid to write any jazz pieces because I thought I needed to know everything every instrument could do before I started. Even though I was doing gigs with lead sheets and stuff like that, my composer’s mind was still stuck in the classical mode.
Up until about 1888, 99% of my compositions were classical. This is true, even though I wasn’t really playing a lot of classical at the time.
Como Azucar Samba
I have no recollection of what lead me to writing this song. I am certain that the name refers to how saccharine the tune is. It’s mostly diatonic and in that regard stands out from my more chromatic compositions from the 90’s.
I actually enjoy writing music at a variety of different dissonance levels. You will see that clearly in my classical pieces. Some of my trumpet works are just I, IV and V chords throughout. No sevenths. Not a single bit of chromatic harmony. Then on the other side of the spectrum, I have written trumpet pieces with extremely advanced chromatic harmonies. I enjoy doing this just as much with jazz as I do with the classical stuff.
Como Azucar Demo
Here is a video of David Craig and I performing straight from one of these lead sheets. I hope you enjoy it:
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