Ambient Jazz Ensemble - Blues For A Billion Stars
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Blues For A Billion Stars inspired by the classic Blue Note Records sound of Horace Silver, Art Blakey & Coltrane. In my teenage years, learning double bass, those iconic mid tempo tunes were perfect for getting to grips with jazz chord changes. I’m still drawn to the ‘heads’ of the those tunes on tenor sax & trumpet, initially in unison before peeling off into harmony, & this was something I started to explore in an AJE writing session. The premise for BFABS was what would happen if, say, Charles Stepney (Rotary Connection, Terry Callier, EW&F) was to arrange & produce Herbie Hancock's Watermelon Man.
The original chords were pretty close to a classic blues progression but morphed into basically one chord with a turnaround at the end, it felt very jazzy for an AJE piece due to it’s swung groove & horns. In searching for more atmospheric ideas the outro took shape, a stark contrast to the Blue-Note vibe & an interesting twist, creating almost 2 tracks in 1. This gave rise to the title, a juxtaposition of something as raw & rootsy as the blues, with the biggest beautiful other-worldly & cinematic expanse of the solar system. The title then further influenced the direction of the track demanding a bigger & more expansive sound, utilising strings over the sax/trumpet section & an epic end section.
The long version is slower in tempo & features the full AJE instrumental palette of live sessions. The atmospheric intro is allowed to build & features a Middle Eastern duduk which is doubled by pedal steel. The main version, meanwhile, grabs parts of live performances & rebuilds them with a combination of live loops & drum programming.
