Transcription Analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGQMz70jG60

As this is quite a dense reharmonisation of this Hymn, I will try to point out some of the key moments
that make this 'Gospel Jazz' music.

In this arrangement, the singer was not really singing with a tempo, but in a more ad lib style. It was not
possible to find a consistent pulse. The keys player is playing interjections and punctuating specific notes
with chords and rhythms, while the singer waits for each phrase to be punctuated to move on.

There are many instances of Jazz harmonies, including many extended 7 th chords (nearly every chord is
somewhat extended), and tritone-substitutions, and instances of extending the II-V-I progression (Bar
15-18 using Em7 and Am6: Cmaj7-Dm7-Em7 (b13)-Am6/F#-Gsus4-G). We hear a tritone substitution in Bar
13 (Dbmaj7 as a G7 chord): Eb6, D7, Dbmaj7, C, and again in bar 28 from Bb7 (b9/13/b5) onto a C(b9/11)/A
functioning as an extended A7 chord.

We also hear some Gospel style harmonies, including the use of the iihalfdim into the I chord, and
followed by the G7/13sus4 chord (Bar7). These are popularly used reharmonisations in Gospel music,
with the V7/13sus4 often used as the penultimate chord in a piece or progression (see Wonderful is
Your Name, Melvin Crispell). In this arrangement we hear it many times. The melody is also changed by
the singer a number of times – in adlib sections and adding high notes and climaxes in the music (Bars
25 and 28)

In this arrangement we hear some polyphony in the piano part, as well as between the piano and the
voice. This is the one thing (other than total reharmonisation) that differentiates this from the style of
the original Hymn. We can hear the Pianist playing against the rhythm in the voice in Bars 25-26, playing
a Gm7/11 - C7b9/13, Fmaj7, A, D(om3) progression which the singer ad libs a C pentatonic run over. The
pianist in this arrangement is punctuating phrases by answering musical questions the melody might ask
(e.g. the lick in octaves and a perfect cadence in Bar 18).

This style of church music is usually set for accapella choir, or for an organ doubling the choir, usually
contains little to no polyphony. You can hear the one of the only polyphonic moments from many choir
settings of the piece in the pianist's bassline – A, Ab, G in the bass in bar 30 is usually 'Lifted me' sung by
the basses in the choir. The pianist often echoes the singer as well – this can be heard in bar 28 when he
plays G6, Eadd11, Bb7/b9/13/b5 in the same rhythm as 'lifted me'.

There is also some improvisation from both instruments, with the singer improvising some pentatonic
riffs in Bars 25-26, and 29-31, and the pianist using pentatonic and blues scales as well – A lick in Bar 11
using Eb and E in quick succession, and the cadence between verses in bar 32 uses acciaccaturas from
the minor 3rd onto the major chord.