FunkySoulJazzy

I'm trying to build up my songwriting momentum after being out of it for a while. Tonight I knocked out an interesting song request that I've been meaning to write for a while now. Here's what Dona asked for:

What is your song idea? I'm looking for something really funky and jazz like. I love the piano and guitar, so I'd like those to be in the rhythm. I want a really bassy song, so something with either electric bass, or tuba or trombone or some other bass instrument playing melody.
I'd just love for you guys to try, even if you guys aren't really jazz oriented.
Thanks a bunch! 

describe your song in one word funkysouljazzy

Well as much as I wish The Wiggly Tendrils were proficient in all styles of music, we aren't. I haven't a clue how to play jazz. And that's not for a lack of interest. My love of music started with jazz.

The first albums I bought with my own money were jazz albums: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; John Coltrane, Blue Train; Chet Baker, Chet... And if I had to choose one album to listen to for the next year, I'd probably go with Stevie Wonder's Musiquarium compilation. Mr. Wonder is my favorite male vocalist. My favorite female vocalist is Nina Simone. My interest in songwriting really came after realizing I was never going to be good enough to play jazz... I mean not even close. I had so much trouble trying to learn other people's music that I just decided it would be easier to write my own.

...well jazz and the Beatles. I listened to a lot of Beatles growing up too...

In any case, for whatever reason, I never developed the chops to play anything much more complex than root position chord shapes on the guitar. So I really wasn't sure what to do with this request. Initially I planned to play the instruments myself... but then I gave up on that and worked with samples instead.

a young man learns he has no chops.

I went through the sample bank in logic and settled on an acoustic bass sample, a drum sample, a guitar sample and a piano sample. Each of the 4 samples are pretty short. No more than 16 beats. I created variety by cutting up the samples and playing them in different orders and having them come in and out at different times. You can hear clicks in some of the places where I've made edits. It's tedious work, and I tend to be a bit sloppy. After I finished the music, I threw in some crowed noises under the music on a whim.

sample collage. tedious but fun.

The request didn't ask for lyrics or mention anything about possible subject matter, so I left it as an instrumental. All in all I think the recording turned out well for a night's work. I just wish I could actually play it!