[Song Rev.110EX]
"Moonlight serenade" by Tropical Jazz Big Band
Hi. Today's song is "Moonlight serenade" by "Tropical Jazz Big Band X".
"Moonlight serenade" is supposed to be a song of June, according to the lyrics which Frank Sinatra sang. But never mind. Because the moon tonight is so beautiful as well.
"Moonlight..." is a famous swing Jazz number of "Glenn Miller orchestra", which is often called an eternal standard.
But a leading Japanese Latin instrumental group "Tropical Jazz Big Band X" beautifully has arranged it into a happy & relaxing Latin tune.
If you like, please listen.
Links to the music shops, offering song samples, are located on the bottom of this page.
Some contents have been put away in tabs with [ ▶︎] marks in each section, so please click it to read.
The most of linked sites like youtube, or Apple music uses Java script. So, if you are visiting them , please turn the Java script on at your browser.
We are now working on improving appearances of our posts.
If you find anything odd, please kindly let us know.
Thank you.
Song data
| Title | Moonlight serenade |
|---|---|
| Artist | Nettai Jazz Gakudan |
| Album Title | |
| Catalog Number | VICJ-61355 |
| Track No. | 9 |
| Duration | 4:58 |
| Released | 2006 |
| Publisher | |
| Lyricist | Instrumental music(Mitchell Parish) |
| Composer | |
| Arranger |
About the creators
Instrumental music (Mitchell Parish)Lyricist
"Moonlight serenade" is a very well known standard number of swing Jazz composed by Glenn Miller.
According to wiki, it was originally created as an instrumental music, but later, a nice lyrics was given by a lyricist "Mitchell Parish".
Today's track is an instrumental version, and does not contain any vocal tracks. But just an information.
Here is a lyrics of "Chicago" version for your reference. (by j-lyric.net).
Glenn Miller Composer
Glenn Miller was an American trombonist, arranger, composer, and band-leader of the "Glenn Miller Orchestra".
Because Mr. Miller is so famous, and a lot of excellent references are readily available on the internet.
So, we would like to introduce those references for the first choice, instead of writing something by ourselves. Therefore, please have a look at them linked below for the detailed information.
Video clip
Here is a video clip of his "Moonlight serenade".
If you like, please listen.
* "Moonlight Serenade" by "Glenn Miller"
Taisei Aoki Arranger
"Taisei Aoki" is a trombonist, bassist, composer, arranger, former member of "Orquesta De La Luz", and a current member of the "Tropical Jazz Big Band" active since around 1987.
Trombonist
"Taisei Aoki" started his music career since around 1987.
In 1989, he joined "Orquesta De La Luz" as a trombonist, and began to perform across the world.
Orquesta De La Luz
He had been a member until the band break-up in 1997. But afterwards, he joined a Latin Jazz group, "Tropical Jazz Big Band" which has been created in 1995 by "Carlos Kanno" who was a former member of "Orquesta De La Luz".
Since then, he is actively participating various concerts or music lives, not only for "Tropical Jazz Big Band" ones, but also for many others.
Video clip
Finally, here is a live clip of "Mari Yamashita"（vib) & Taisei Aoki (tb.fl key) at "Live House Nagoya Tokuzo" in 2013. A trombonist wearing black knit cap is "Taisei Aoki".
If you like, please listen.
* "Hitoame " by "Taisei Aoki"
Cover art today
Cover art today
Song image & Lyrics
Open
Link to the lyrics
Copyright notice on the lyrics link
Sound impression
Dance-able Latin Jazz
This song is a bright and dance-able Salsa version of swing Jazz in 2-3 clave rhythm.
2-3 clave rhythm
Please check the rhythm of today's song anyway if you like.
(It's free.)
"Moonlight Serenade"(2006)
Tropical Jazz big band
* 2-3 clave rhythm (linked to Wikipedia)
It's not easy, is it? We need to divide a bar into 16. And the following numbered beats are accented.
| x x 3 x 5 x x x (:) 1 x x 4 x x 7 x |
(tu.tu.Ta.tu.Ta.tu.tu.tu: Ta.tu.tu.Ta.tu.tu.Ta.tu)
& repeat
The above Wikipedia link has a rhythm sample, so please have a look if it seems useful.
(2-3_Son_Clave.MID)
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Clave_(rhythm))
Gorgeous and dance-able
When the trumpet section blow a fanfare, the drums, bass, and saxophone join, start the introduction. Soon, the Then
Soon, the conga and tamborim(?) participate, and the saxophone solo plays comfortable main melody.
In the bridge, "Ken Morimura" performs a beautiful keyboard solo. And brings tender and relaxing nice sound.
Following saxophone solo, played by "Kazuhiko Kondō", is also excellent.
In fact, an elegant and melodious classic swing Jazz can become such a funky tune, while keeping its character.
Amazing.
Swing con Clave
We were curious about this album title, since it possibly has multiple meaning for us Japanese.
As a first sense, "Swing con Clave" means "Swing (Jazz) in Clave rhythm (or with claves sound)", since "con" is "with", "Clave" is a Latin percussion "Clave (claves)" or a rhythm pattern of Salsa, and "Swing" is a swing rhythm of Jazz.
cigar-claves-Maultrommel, Jew's Harp Photo by Dan Moi, flickr.com under license of CC BY-SA 2.0
Conclave..."Kon-Kurabe"?
But for us Japanese, there is another way of reading, since the word "Conclave", and a Japanese word, "Kon-Kurabe" are almost sound the same..
("R" & "L", and "B" & "V" are the sounds that Japanese are not normally distinguishing. (Non-native pronunciations of English) So, the above 2 words, namely "Conclave" and "Kon-Kurabe" has very similar sounds, like "Vote" and "Boat" sound the same for us.)
The word "Kon-Kurabe" means a kind of "endurance contest". "Kon" means guts, spirit, or mental toughness, and "Kurabe" means "comparison" or "contest".
Vatican style
For the majority of Japanese, "Conclave" was a totally new word when the film was released in 2006.
So, tens of millions of people recalled the Japanese word "Kon-kurabe", when they first heard the word "Conclave".
And after leaned the hard mental contest of "Conclave" from the movie or TV news, people understand and said,
"Oh, I see. 'Conclave' is a 'Kon-kurabe' in Vatican style..."
The launch timing of this album (2006) almost coincided with the release of a popular suspense film "The Da Vinci Code" (2006), which "Papal Conclave" had been an important motif of the movie.
So, there might be some joke mind on this album title, "Swing con Clave".
Reference
About Google translate
About the artist
Tropical Jazz Big BandLatin Jazz big band
"Tropical Jazz Big Band" is a Latin Jazz big band formed by "Carlos Kanno" in 1995.
They debuted in 1998 with the album "Live in Yokohama". Since then, 14 original, 1 live, and 2 best albums have been released until now.
(Ref: Wikipedia-en, Tropical Jazz Big Band)
Carlos Kanno
It seems that the concept of "Tropical Jazz Big Band" reflects the history of "Carlos Kanno". So, we would like to cover just a little bit about him.
"Carlos Kanno" is a renowned Latin Jazz percussionist active since late '70s.
He was a former leader of known Latin Jazz & Salsa band Orquesta De La Luz, and the current leader of "Tropical Jazz Big Band".
In fact, the music of "Tropical Jazz Big Band" seems to be reflecting what the leader is wishing to achieve.
"Carlos Kanno" started his professional career in around 1977 when he was a college student.
In 1984, he passed the audition and became a percussionist of the leading and prestigious Latin fusion band, "Naoya Matsuoka" group.
He absorbed a lot from maestro Matsuoka. And in 1987, he left "Matsuoka" group and joined a newly formed Latin and Salsa band "Orquesta De La Luz" (Orchestra of the light).
Orquesta De La Luz
"Orquesta De La Luz" is a Salsa band formed in 1984 by a percussionist "Gen Ōgimi". The members of the band change often, but there are around 10 members regularly.
Since teamed up, the band was gradually gaining the popularity. And in 1989 they performed in New York for the first time in overseas.
In 1990, the band released their first album "De La Luz" in both the US and Japan.
In the US, this album was ranked top for 11 weeks on the Latin chart of Billboard.
Thanks to this success, they became an internationally popular Salsa band, and staged world tours.
And in this year, the former leader departed the band, and "Carlos Kanno" became a new leader.
"Orquesta de La Luz" continuously showed remarkable performances in all over the world.
And in 1993, one of their album was nominated for "Grammy award", and additionally, an "UN peace medal" were given to them.
Tropical Jazz Big Band
In 1994, "Orquesta de La Luz" set up a special unit called "Tropical Jazz all-stars" headed by "Carlos Kanno" for some music festival. And this team became a seed for a "Tropical Jazz Big Band"
In 1995, "Carlos Kanno" left "Orquesta de La Luz", then gathered 18 members, and finally set up the "Tropical Jazz Big Band".
Since then, the team is achieving a brilliant success, and being one of the giants in Japanese big band jazz.
Next time
We would like to take a break before the article gets too long. Please allow us to continue this for the next time.
Video clip
Finally, here is a video clip of their live concert performing festive Latin number, "Fiesta A La King"
This video was filmed in 1996 when they held their first big scale concert in Yokohama, which was (perhaps )also released as their debut album, "Live in Yokohama".
So, this must be one of their earliest video clip.
If you like, please have a look.
* "Fiesta A La King" by "Tropical Jazz Big Band"
Music Samples
2
(試聴する)
Amazon JP(en)
recochoku.jp
Apple Music(jp)
9
Japanese Letters
| Song Title | Moonlight serenade |
|---|---|
| Artist | 熱帯JAZZ楽団 X(Nettai Jazz Gakudan) |
| Album Title | Swing Con Clave |
Comments