Groove For Saint Joseph

Norm Harris is an excellent percussionist I work with.

As an experiment he tuned his conga set by ear to a series of tones he liked. As you can see from the V-Vocal graphic his tuning is decidedly micro. This is Norm's first attempt at a micro piece. (Trap set provided by another collaborator, Kimmo Mannikko, aka Black Tiger, who is from Finland). Details below links.

http://notonlymusic.com/board/download/file.php?id=468&mode=view

You can hear his piece, Groove For Saint Joseph, using the tuned congas here:

direct download

http://alonetone.com/norm/tracks/groove-for-saint-joseph.mp3

listen online

http://alonetone.com/norm/tracks/groove-for-saint-joseph

This is one stereo track of 6 conga drums tuned, by ear, to roughly a chromatic scale (I don't know which one - perhaps I've gone micro-tonal!) coupled with a single track of ad-lib quinto (the high drum) and a "shuffle" groove on trap-set (which I don't play), constructed via a metronome, in the absence of the conga tracks, by Black Tiger. The tuned congas were played in a "chording" fashion - 2 drums struck simultaneously to make a chord, and processed via the Lexicon to "drum plate" reverb, with compression.

The "shuffle" groove (aka "swing" groove) is a 4/4 pattern used primarily for jazz, in which the 4 beats of the bar are triplets, but only the 1st & 3rd triplet notes are played. I find that the shuffle groove lends itself particularly well placed against a polyrhythm pattern in 6, which is the meter for the conga parts.

Dedicated on this Father's Day to the patron saint of fatherhood, Joseph, and to all fathers who always seem to be in the right place, saying just the right thing, when we need it most. Thanks Dad!

(Many thanks to Black Tiger, who tells me the bpm on this is 80, which naturally depends upon what time signature you are hearing this in!)