Un_Poco_Loco

Un Poco Loco

Un Poco Loco

1951 single by Bud Powell

For the song from Coco, see Coco (soundtrack). For the unrelated album, see Un Poco Loco (album).

"Un Poco Loco" is an Afro-Cuban jazz standard composed by American jazz pianist Bud Powell.[1][2] It was first recorded for Blue Note Records by Powell, Curly Russell, and Max Roach on May 1, 1951.[3][4]

Quick Facts Single by Bud Powell, from the album The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume One ...

Musical characteristics

"Un Poco Loco" is in thirty-two bar form.[4] It uses the lydian chords and even uses lydian chords stacked on top of each implying a polytonality (D major 7 over C major 7: CEGBDF#AC#) with the improvisation based on an alternating lydian-ish polytonality and an altered dominant chord. Particularly remarkable to jazz musicians is the placement of C# against a C major 7 chord; James Weidman attributed this to bitonality, while Tardo Hammer attributed it to an extension of the circle of fifths.[5]

Legacy

In the late 1980s, literary and cultural critic Harold Bloom included "Un Poco Loco" in his list of the most "sublime" works of twentieth-century American art (from his introduction to Modern Critical Interpretations: Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow).[6]

References

  1. [1]
    Yanow, Scott (2000). Afro-Cuban Jazz. San Francisco, C.A.: Miller Freeman Books. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-87930-619-9. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  2. [2]
    Priestley, Brian (1991). Jazz On Record: A History. New York: Billboard Books. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-8230-7562-1. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  3. [3]
    Groves, Alan (2001). The Glass Enclosure: The Life Of Bud Powell (Reprinted. ed.). New York: Continuum. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-8264-4746-3. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  4. [4]
    McCalla, James (1994). Jazz, A Listener's Guide. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. pp. 116, 123, 125, 194. ISBN 978-0-13-097940-7. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  5. [5]
    DeMotta, David J. (2015) The contributions of Earl "Bud" Powell to the modern jazz style. Doctoral dissertation, The City University of New York.
  6. [6]
    Kastin, David (2011). Nica's Dream (1st ed.). W. W. Norton. pp. 172, 173. ISBN 978-0-393-06940-2. Retrieved 13 April 2019.


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