MY road to Spain (Part I)

Did you ever have an experience where months, maybe even years after hearing something, you only first realize it’s brilliance? I can revisit tunes, and even complete albums in my collection that find new character, meaning, and connection each time. I recently had a huge experience with one tune, and Chick Corea’s “Spain” was it. Sure, I had heard the tune a few times, but had I really listened?

Note: Really Listening to me, is not just alone with headphones. For me, it can be an extended period of time, up to years even, hearing the same passage of sound, over and over. For me, “really listening” is a multi-step process that begins with the act of listening and digesting the composition or song. It’s learning the emotional content, the expressive value, the harmonic tools, what it evokes for me, how I can get inside it’s structure and turn it into a piece of knowledge for my vocabulary, and then...eventually, how the piece actually came to my attention.

Every piece of music that somehow falls in my lap, never really “falls in my lap”. Well, some have, but most, it’s usually no strange occurrence. These musical excursions are natural stepping stones on my never ending quest! It comes from a series of conscious, unconscious, and coincidental experiences that draw me to an artist or genre.

My road to “Spain” is long, and has taken me from Chick to Miles to Rodrigo to Stevie Wonder and beyond, and still is a moving vehicle in my vocabulary and study. This road, has been an interesting musical journey that started about 3 or so years ago. It didn’t start with “Spain” itself, but with Larry Coryell’s trio arrangement of “Black Orpheus”. The tune, goes by a few names: “Theme from Black Orpheus” “Morning of the Carnival” and perhaps the most often used, “Manha de Carnival”. But however you choose to title it or slice it, the music was composed by the great Brazilian guitarist/composer Luiz Floriano Bonfá for the film “Black Orpheus”, and has become a very well known piece of modern music. It’s been played a million times over – arranged many different ways. For guitarists, it is part of the “bible”, and for all musicians and the listeners, it has become very recognizable.

So, please check this tune out! Check out the various versions, and even more I haven’t listed. Take step one with me...

Black Orpheus (Larry Coryell, The Power Trio Live)
Manha De Carnival (Theme from Orpheus) (Luiz Bonfá)
Manha De Carnival (Paco De Lucia, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, The Guitar Trio)
Manha De Carnival (Toots Thielemans)
Manha De Carnival (Stan Getz)
Manha De Carnival (Gene Bertoncini & Jack Wilkins)
Morning of the Carnival (Larry Coryell, Spaces Revisited)

And here is some history: