Jazz Piece for small ensemble

Okay, this is really short (1:10 to be precise). It was an experiment to see if I could write jazz music. Tell me what you think, and if you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

I don't know a thing about jazz "theory," (except there are lots of 7ths) and I basically just composed this by ear. It's pretty cheesy and cliche, but again, this was only an experiment.

Here it is.

Thanks in advance,

Evan

Hi !

I'm sorry, it doesn't load :(

Veronika

Your four bar vamp is fine. Then, the first 'official' measures of the tune is of the rather boring parallel root inversion I-II-III-IVmaj7 type. - Then things get a little interesting but you need to offset your melody with a base line that is not tutti writing, and certainly not in parrallel motion as you have it. Try to make things interesting there by making your bass walk in quarter notes.

You have some real jazz voicings going on in places, but sometimes you revert to triads. Your use of chords with bass notes that move in seconds leads to a lot of parrallel voice leading, which doesn't sound very good in any idiom. Try learning how to use chords whose bass notes move in fourths or fifths. The perenial II-V-I is a good place to start. Learning a little more functional jazz harmony will go a long way for you, because you allready have some writing skills.

Check out some charts (like your basic Real Book lead sheets) and pay careful attention to the motion of the Bass notes in the tunes you like. Also, even if you like tunes that incorporates Bass motion that uses seconds, listen to a live Bass player play the tune to get more of a feel of how this instrument functions in a Jazz setting. It is certainly quite a bit different than in classical or modern useage. Actually, it's much more like what you hear in baroque and medieval music in terms of how it functions. Thinking in this way might help if your background is more of a classical one.