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Hey folks.
I've done a lead sheet for Kurt Rosenwinkel's great tune Brooklyn Sometimes, from his latest Deep Song album. I know he's released a book of tune transcriptions, I personally haven't seen it, this chart was done as more of an exercise for me. It is a great tune, nonetheless. Bouncing along with a kind of wistful ease and swagger, it's upbeat but gentile, and as Rosenwinkel has mentioned of many of his tunes, it is very songlike. I've done a pretty long analysis, and any corrections would be useful!
Analysis:
The first 16 bars are piano introduction, the same chords as the repeated section at the sign. I think on the recording Kurt plays the piano here, so his singing is a part of the tone colour of the introduction. The vocal line is very quiet, and difficult to discern, but is there, and elegantly sows some of the seeds of the melody within the harmony by embelleshing the melodic tones. The vocal line also adds a certain specialness to some parts here: note in bar 10 how the vocal line doubles the bottom rising figure, which is quieter from the piano, and does not double the higher figure. Rosenwinkel said that sometimes some harmonies need a richness added to certain tones, and he will try and add this richness through his singing. I'm sure Kurt could have sung that top line, but he chose to sing the rising one, adding a shimmering rising texture to the major sixth, which falls to a perfect fifth, which lifts the figure. The rising figure makes the lift more subtle, which the top, higher line being the lit one, the one that is noticed. The embellesment of the rising figure makes a point of highlighting the slip from the slightly more dissonant sixth to the more consonant fifth, rather than a mere fall from the D# to D natural.
The chords themselves appear beautifully chosen and structured when the melody appears in bar 17. I've written chord symbols, most probably to aid in improvisation over the section, or to make the harmony understandable. However the voicings should be strictly adheared to. They are necessary for the tune to make sense, in my mind, and are great, simple chords.
The repeated section itself is split into two further subsections, made clear by the bassline. In the first 4 bars the harmony moves up, and then twice down, and in the second four bars performs a similar outing except for the B major(add4) in bar 24.
The cadence here falls to the Asus in bar 25. Really this is an E chord, but the Asus makes for more clarity of voicing than E7(omit3)/A, and really the Asus is a true Asus performing the function of the E chord. This second subsection would appear to be a dominant section, but is not quite what it seems. Instead of having a section of movement around the dominant, the bassline conceals the key centre by hovering on the B and F#. This makes for an intruiging mix of ambiguous tonality - the first subsection is very clearly a D minor sound, but here, it is difficult to work out exactly what is going on. Moments like bar 28, with a Eb major sounding chord, superimposed over this B natural make for a jolt in tonality. The lower Bb of the voicing clashes with the B natural in the bass. But it isn't really dissonant, it is merely the harmonic extension of the perpendicular nature of the melody and the bassline at this point. The section shuffles along, with the bassline being altered in bar 30 to make the sound more consonant, to finally find the dominant in bar 32 (albeit with a b9, which adds to the slightly more dissonant nature of this section).
Then follows a bridge section. This section is intruiging, not only harmonically, but rhythmically also. Firstly we have the A / Gm / | D/F# figure which is then lowered and continued in the E / F/Eb / | D figure. But there, apparently, the logic seems to end. Even the melody is disjointed, although still songlike. It is not nearly as memorable as the melody in the sign section. Mehldau approaches the piano melody with great touch but also robustness, which allows for the melody and Kurt's interjections to coexist carefully and not compete.
After the piano plays its melody, the guitar returns with a strange, haunting melody over some even more illogical changes, and a strange rhythmical structuring. I've written it in 4, but it could easily be split up into other time signatures. Ali Jackson supports the bassline by adding cymbal sounds and crashes, but also continues with the double-time feel with the hihat on upbeat quavers. Really, to me, the purpose of this bridge section is to contrast the logical nature of the sign melody, so when it returns on the D.S. there is a release of tension and rhythmic uncertainty - suddenly, there it is, that incessant bassline, the upbeat quavers, bouncing along.
The bridge changes return for a piano solo, only before a guitar solo on rising chromatic harmony. At bar 51 I've written the changes extremely simply - some of the voicings should be more minor, some should be more major in sound. But really the voicings are up to the pianist. The bass shows where the harmony is going, and the resolution at bars 57-8 allows a little breath of fresh air. The rising chromatic harmony builds tension incredibly, and this is greatly contrasted by the release of tension as the piano solo enters.
Finally, the melody at the sign is recapitulated, to fine on the dominant A7(b9), which lingers in midair. Despite this, the tune is extremely satisfying - it doesn't end on the bridge. The great melody comes back, and the listener goes off humming it.
Hope this has helped shed some light on a great Rosenwinkel tune.
Cheers...
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