9 February

Popular music, with the exception of Brian May and maybe some vocal groups, has lost its counterpoint? Counterpoint for me is the highest form of music, and maybe of all art. Bach wrote the book. Instead of having melody plus harmonies, you have melody plus counter-melodies, which become the harmonies. So you have this delicious play of melodies off against each other, creating constantly shifting harmonies. Once you start noticing counterpoint, it becomes addictive. (I think it’s the highest form of art because it solves the old Tower of Babel - multiple voices in harmony, without losing their individual differences. Everything from music to conversation can aim at counterpoint.) Have a listen to this Nat King Cole classic. The big band leaders of that day wrote amazing counterpoint, the band was constantly playing counter-melodies to the main melody, which often gets missed. It’s like 2 or 3 stories all happening at once. Also, listen to that first big blast after Cole puts the little keyboard down, those big bands were the heavy metal of their day, a physical wall of air moving across a room. Amplified music can’t do it the same way, it was a physical wave of sound.