John Swana - EVI Major Man (Transcription)

 This is a transcription of John Swana's fun little sequence, EVI Major Man. I originally stumbled upon the track on John's myspace. He plays EVI (electronic valve instrument) on it and plays some of the most intelligent harmonic lines I have ever heard. Also, this tune brings major chords to a whole new level of hip. After getting into contact with John about the sequence and his recording, he sent me a newer version of the tune entitled, Major Man, which consists of a melody as well as a modulation of the sequence itself, starting up a minor third from the original version then back down a minor third.  The melody follows suit in beginning and end. This whole conception reminds me of Coltrane's major third root movement ideology in tunes such as Giant Steps, 26-2, Countdown and Satellite.  I'm not trying to say there is a direct correlation between the two tunes in terms of harmony, just noting the innovative approach by the two in terms of harmonic patterns. Although, there is a lot of major third root movement going on in Major Man.



1st version
http://www.myspace.com/johnswana


2nd Version
http://galttamedia.bandcamp.com/track/major-man

Analysis:

Harmony:

The sequence consists of all major chords. The re-ocurring roots are Eb, G and B, hence the major 3rd root movement. These 3 bar phrases are separated by 2 bars of roots that are a downward moving whole step apart. The connection is a minor third up between the last bar of the 3 bar phrase and first bar of the 2 bar phrase and a half step down between the last bar of the 2 bar phrase and beginning of the next 3 bar phrase. Let's call the 3 bar phrase A and the 2 bar phrase B.

[A A'A" - B B' - A"A A' - B"B''' - A'A"A - B'''' B''''']

[Eb G B - D C - B Eb G - Bb Ab - G B Eb - Gb E]

The thing that gets me is we only cover 9 key centers. But why?

Time:

The form is 15 bars and the time signatures create what seems to be a palindrome. If you look at the first 7 bars, we have 4/4, 3/4, 4/4, 4/4, 4/4, 3/4, 4/4. So already within the form, we get a mirror. Fun. The last seven bars is the same exact thing and right in the middle, in the 8th bar, is one more bar of 4/4 dividing the two in a perfect half. I guess you could also look at it like there are four three bar phrases which looks like 4/4, 3/4, 4/4 and in between each of those is a bar of 4/4 except in between the last bar and the first.