Two for the Road & Moon River

Records & Albums Jazz Recordings
1

I’ve been listening to “Two for Road” by Mancini. Is it somewhere in the course, Hayden? I wish it was in beginning or intermediate.
Tom

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2

Great suggestion @TomLC - and what a beautiful arrangement in the video too :star_struck:

We haven’t covered this tune yet but we certainly can do.

I will cover it for one of my live seminars next month, as I’m currently looking for a tune to cover.

On a related note I’m teaching Mancini’s “Moon River” this Friday, you can add to your calendar app here:

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and here is the live seminar page:

Thanks for the suggestion!

3

Hayden, That’s great that you will cover it in a live sesson.
I’m signed up for the Moon River Siminar.

Here’s an arrangement I did about five years ago.

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Sounds great Tom, I hear a lot of similar things to my arrangement.

Looking forward to the seminar!

5

Nicely done, Tom. Thanks for sharing.

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Very good Tom! I have also been playing around with Moon River for about a year, so love to hear other people’s take on it.

Really looking forward to Hayden’s seminar.

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I’m also looking forward to the seminar tomorrow @celia - here are 2 recordings from which I found a lot of inspiration:

Beegie Adair’s Solo Introduction:

She plays quite freely in her introduction and utilises a wide range of the piano which I like. There are lots of great reharms, voicings, and fills in here:

Richard Beirach - Moon River

In this recording the left hand outlines the 3/4 time signature which I find effective to use in certain places to build towards a climax. We will discuss this more in the seminar tomorrow.

Chord Charts

@TomLC - I have created a couple of chord charts, a basic one, and one with lots of reharmonisations. Here are the 2 PDF files:

I would recommend printing them both out.

The nice thing with this tune is that it doesn’t need much reharmonisation for it to sound beautiful, but I have outlined lots of really nice substitutions on the PDF above.

Hopefully my pencil annotations are clear :grinning: - I will also create a neater version in notation software.

Bars 21 and 22 is certainly an optional reharm and I parenthesised that whole progression as it wouldn’t sound right if we approached from the F#7(#11) in bar 20.

See you in the seminar tomorrow!

8

Hayden, absolutely can’t wait!!! Those recordings are beautiful.

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@celia,

Agreed, these are two nice versions of the tune. Beegie Adair is always great, and Richie Beirach has a number of really fine albums. And, like you, I’m looking forward to the workshop.

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The “Moon River” seminar now contains the notation with blue highlights, 2 keyboards, and also the chapter markings to easily navigate the recording.

I accidentally streamed the seminar at half resolution, and so the light up keyboard is not as clear as usual, but still easy to see the light up keys. I will make sure to check this setting in future before starting the stream.

Find the updated seminar page here:

@TomLC - I remember you requested a regular jazz standard tutorial on this tune. I have made the “hybrid seminar layout” as you can see below.

Perhaps I should just create a more accessible arrangement and add this our course on “Beginner Jazz Arrangements”. It’s on my to-do-list and if you have any other thoughts on this let me know :sunglasses:

moon river seminar
moon river seminar1280×692 77.1 KB

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@TomLC - I have scheduled a “Two For The Road” seminar for the end of the month, you can add to calendar here:

Thanks again for the suggestion - it’s a really nice tune and the arrangement is starting to take shape :slightly_smiling_face:

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@Hayden
Thanks for the chapters, etc. for the “Moon River” seminar. I’m looking forward to working through it.

As you’re working up your seminar on “Two for the Road,” I thought you might enjoy listening to a solo version by Clare Fischer. I couldn’t find it on YouTube, so here’s a Spotify link:

Also, I came across a three-disc piano collection by the artist on the “Two for the Road” video posted by @TomLC Enjoy. :musical_keyboard:

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Thanks for sharing the “Two For The Road” recording @scott1 - an nice recording!

It’s a really lovely tune and I’m having fun arranging it.

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Lovely playing and can’t wait to play this tune once Hayden has prepared the tutorial

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Hayden

Love the new format…well done!

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I agree the new format is nice. The advantage of a standalone lesson, though, is the inclusion of the arrangement(s). Those certainly give me, for one, a leg up learning the tune.

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Cool, leave that with me Tom.

I will create a notation file for the seminar, and also create a beginner/simplified tutorial and PDF file.

I will post updates here.

18

Haden, the seminar format is great. There is no need for a tutorial. In less you want to, of course. I only meant that I like to have your arrangement to help me learn. It doesn’t necessarily have to be beginner level.

I joined here after quitting another very good on-line program I used for several years. In part, because of your style of playing/arranging. A bit like Beegie Adair in my opinion.

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Sounds great Tom, I would like to make a beginner arrangement of the tune which feeds into the more advanced seminar contents.

Thanks for the kind words… lots more arrangements to come! :sunglasses: