Hi all, here's the latest jazz fugue I've composed for solo piano/keyboard. Unlike my previous six jazz fugues for piano, this one is in a minor key. Comments welcome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS-vtbTLWUE
Jazz Fugue in A minor
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- KVRian
- 884 posts since 3 Jan, 2016
That was great!
I like listening to a little modern jazz to clean out the cob webs. Good piano sound.
I like listening to a little modern jazz to clean out the cob webs. Good piano sound.
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- KVRAF
- 6325 posts since 18 Jul, 2008 from New York
Based on the title, I was expecting it sound like an academic exercise but this has spark and wit. Well done! 
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 62 posts since 3 Sep, 2016
@fastlanephil @Frantz Thanks for listening and commenting. The fugue does unfortunately have the reputation for being an overly academic form, mostly as a result of the difficulty of composing one, and because 350+ years after Bach, his domination of the form is still so thorough that no one since has truly forged a new direction to take. As someone who, due to physical injuries, hasn't been able to continue to jam and play live jazz anymore (and thus misses and longs for all its wonderful, improvisational freedom), formal fugues, as a result of their motive-based, contrapuntal nature, paradoxically open up lots of harmonic and melodic spaces which lie outside of the "traditional" chord-progressional foundations (i.e. jazz standards) of "straight-ahead" jazz (a kind of jazz that, make no mistake, I adore and love, but just can't, other than through passive listening, really participate in anymore). In the end, composing jazz fugues often gives me a similar sense of discovery and exploration that improvising in a jazz band used to do.
