"Caravan" - Ellington meets Burroughs

The latest video on the Charles Neuzil Music YouTube Channel is my version of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan,” as inspired by the “Cut-up Technique” of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin.   

In this video my trombone takes the lead, backed up by the Arturia Drumbrute Impact and the Korg Monologue.  The Drumbrute Impact sets the tempo.  I run the trombone through three pedals.  The three pedals are the TC Electronics Dark Matter Distortion, a Boss DD7 Delay, and a Boss DD6 Reverb.   

The video begins with my playing the head, being the “A” section of Caravan, followed by some soloing on the Phrygian Dominant Mode of the Harmonic Minor scale of C.  I am also playing the third degree of the scale as a quarter flat, which I can do on a trombone with its slide.  I then play Caravan “cut up” using William S. Burroughs' “Cut-up Technique.”  I then do another round of soloing, and finish off playing the head once again (Section A).   

I recorded the video and audio separately and then mixed them together.  I am still using the i-Phone to record the video, but record the audio through my Yamaha mixer and Scarlett audio interface into the computer.  I use a Shure 57 microphone.  I just got in a Canon SL3 DSLR and will be using it soon to record video. 

Hope you enjoy this as much as I did playing it!  The entire process took about three weeks, which included designing the sounds on the synths, rewriting the music, and recording all the parts, creating the video, and mixing it all together.  You can see the full video here:  https://youtu.be/8oXM45G2Hzc

Recorded October 18, 2020. 

To learn more about the Duke Ellington Jazz Standard “Caravan,” see the Wikipedia article at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravan_(Juan_Tizol_and_Duke_Ellington_song) 

To learn more about the Cut-up Technique of William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, see the Wikipedia article at:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique

 

 

 

 

 

 

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