Songwriting: Bossa Nova

The New Wave Continues

In last week’s blogpost Songwriting: Beginnings and Uptempo Songs, I talked about my beginnings as a composer leading up to the release of 510JAZZ’s debut album Bossa510.  I also related how after our album release, my son David and I took 30 new songs that we had composed, selecting 16 of them for our new album January 16.  That blogpost went on to show you the thought process that we went through in composing our four uptempo songs.

This blogpost will show you the creative journey to capture the essence of Brazil’s Bossa Nova (meaning “New Wave” in English) in our own 510JAZZ compositions.  It’s not easy following in the footsteps of Antonio Carlos Jobim and hundreds of other Bossa Nova composers.  We did our best to be true to their style, while still adding in our own unique East Bay sound into the mix.

Every one of our songs tells a different story – and each song has a different story of how they came to be.  The four songs listed below have unique styles yet all have a Bossa Nova feel:

2. He Made It All For You

As believers, we’ve experienced so much inspired beauty in nature. These environments are seen right here at home, in faraway lands and everywhere in between. We believe that all of the beauty that we see in the world around us is because of God. I wanted to capture this essence in a mid-tempo bossa, which pays homage to the pioneer of Bossa Nova music, Antonio Carlos Jobim.

So many of the Jobim performances that I have heard, were centered on that gorgeous nylon-stringed classical guitar. Tony Song captures that essence for us. While I love singing my own songs, I learned an important lesson with our Bossa510 album, in that introducing a variety of vocalists brings new beauty to our songs. Ricki Wegner was a co-worker of David’s, and she agreed to come to 4Play Studios to lay down the vocals. The results were truly inspired – exquisite lead and harmony vocal parts. Stan Muncy added the icing on the cake with his superb vibes stylings and latin percussion.

Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: Ricki Wegner (vocals), Stan Muncy (vibes)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion).

Listen to the song


6. Fly Away

I’m writing this blogpost today while on family vacation in beautiful Kauai, looking out at the ocean and realizing that some of my favorite compositions were conceived while on vacation in the Hawaiian Islands. We took a family trip to Maui in 2015 and I composed “Fly Away”, with most of the text unfolding on the 5-hour flight back to the Bay Area. This song is autobiographical in that it explores the feelings that I have along the way, whenever we fly back to the Islands.

Nikki Rey sang my first Hawaii-inspired song Maui Moon on our “Bossa510” album. It seemed natural to bring Nikki Rey back into the studio for “Fly Away”. The real treat was adding the incredible ukelele stylings of Mr Mego as a counterpoint to Tony Song’s beautiful rhythm guitar.

While on a visit to London’s Heathrow airport, I captured the sound of an airliner flying overhead on landing approach.  I immediately thought of how this recording could flavor the ending of our song. I think it really makes the listener feel like they have now landed in Paradise (Maui).

Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: Nikki Rey (vocals), Mr Mego (ukelele)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)

Listen to the song


10. San Juan Island Sunset

Two years ago I took a solo holiday drive from the Bay Area where I live – all the way to Seattle, Washington. My favorite stop was the idyllic Deception Pass region of Whidbey Island. During this trip, I took the Anacortes Island Ferry across to lovely San Juan Island. Exploring this place was pure delight.

Coming back to my campsite at Deception Pass, I spent hours gazing out at The San Juan Islands across the water. I was especially entranced by the beauty of the sun setting on these islands.

I immediately set to work on a story of “what if?…”. What would it be like if that special girl came here with me and we found a little place along the coast, and we settled here? The song goes on to explore how we could spend every day enjoying the beautiful San Juan Island Sunset.

Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: Oshra Sedan (vocals), Tom Povse (flute), Gil Cohen (flugelhorn)
Strings: Matthew Szemela (violin), Mads Tolling (violin), Emily Onderdonk (viola) and Lewis Patzner (cello); Strings arranged by Stan Muncy
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion); Horns arranged by Tom Povse

Listen to the song


14. Lift It Up To God

God has been so good to me. So many chapters of my life were ones where certain things seemed out of control. Then I finally got it. ALL of our lives are best lived when we give God full control.

This song explores how we should open our hearts, our minds and our very lives to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. God gives us all the gift of free will, yet not all want to hear his call.

We brought David’s childhood friend Nik-Nak to sing lead vocals on this special song. Nik-Nak has a superb voice and he told this story with soothing confidence. We thought it would be good to add some female backing vocals, and decided to ask our friend Ricki Wegner to come back into the studio to sing responses, harmonies, and chorus parts. Ricki Wegner and Nik-Nak are the perfect duet for this song.

Music and lyrics: John Vargas and David Vargas
Featuring: Nik-Nak (vocals), Rick Wegner (vocals), Tom Povse (flute)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)

Listen to the song

 


Next Week

We’ll bring you a behind-the-scenes look at composing songs with a contemporary jazz feelVisit our 510JAZZ Blog page next week to read our new blogpost.

Blessings to you all.

John Vargas
510JAZZ

Songwriting: Getting Started / Uptempo Songs

My Beginnings In Songwriting

I started composing music in 2011 when my son David was working on his third album with his rap group Trinitydeep. I was so impressed with David’s ability to tell a story through his music. I never imagined that I could write my own songs like that. Instead, I wanted to sing covers of jazz standards and put the recordings on YouTube. My big concern was with copyright infringement. David encouraged me to compose my own songs, copyright them and become a music publisher.

The first two years were rough for me, in that the stories that came to me were halfhearted, uninspired works. A guitarist friend Bill Murphy advised me that composing is like a muscle. You have to keep exercising it, and it will get better over time. Bill was so right about that.

Bossa510 - from 510JAZZ
“Bossa510” – the debut album from 510JAZZ

2013 was a good year for me, in that I composed 14 songs with David’s help, and we collaborated 50-50 on two bossanova-hiphop crossovers. We named that collection of 16 original songs Bossa510, and it became 510JAZZ’s debut album, released in December 2015.

Listen to Bossa510

 


January 16 – Our Second Album

After the release of the “Bossa510” album, David and I set to work composing new songs. We planned on releasing a second album in the 2017 timeframe. The difference with this new collaboration is that most of the songs were composed as a joint-effort between David and myself.

When all was said and done, we had 30 songs that we were reviewing as candidates for our second album. David suggested that we release a smaller album this time, with just 12 songs, making it an easier production with a faster release. I asked for just one song to stay on the “keep list”, and gave David creative control as to which of the other 29 songs would be on the second album – and which songs would be released in a later work.

Interestingly, while David set the bar at 12 songs, he ended up selecting 15 songs. Just before going into the studio, David composed our title track – song number 16, entitled “January 16”.  This new album is comprised of four uptempo songs, four Bossanova songs, four contemporary jazz songs, and four ballads.  We feel that the “January 16” album gives listeners a wide array of music to choose from.

This little story just goes to show you how an album project doesn’t always evolve the way that you think it will.

January 16 - the new album from 510JAZZ
January 16 – the new album from 510JAZZ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Uptempo Songs Found In Our Second Album

Every one of our songs tells a different story – and each of them has a different story of how they came to be.  The four songs listed below have unique styles yet are all uptempo in feel:

1. Right Next To Me

To properly tell the story of this incredible song, I’m going to direct you to my other blogpost, Studio Talk: Right Next To Me.

 

 

Music and lyrics: John Vargas and David Vargas
Featuring: Matt Blaque (vocals), D-Varg (rap vocals), Tony Song (guitar)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)

Listen to the song.


5. Don’t Take Your Love Away

Before we started studio sessions for our 2015 Bossa510 album, we had some setbacks that kept us from recording. David and I took this down time to compose some new songs. I had been working on one song composing melody and a first verse for a boy-girl love duet.  The concept goes something like this: Scenes of long-distance love show how professional pursuits can get in the way of romance.

Since we were on Christmas break, David jumped in and composed the hook and wrote lyrics for a second verse. Our youngest son Andrew joined in on the fun and wrote lyrics for the third verse. This was a really delightful songwriting project.

David brought the young crooner Nick Neira into the studio for the male vocal part. Our pianist Mark Rickey introduced us to his niece Kristen Nicole who sounded perfect to counter Nick’s part.

Music and lyrics: John Vargas, David Vargas and Andrew Vargas
Featuring: Kristen Nicole (vocals), Nick Neira (vocals), Tom Povse (flute)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)

Listen to the song


9. The Long Way Home

Composer collaborations with David are the most fun – where anything can happen. For this song, I simply came up the melody and the lyrics for the first verse, and then David built on that to come up with the concept for the entire song: Saturday drive, no set itinerary, no hurry – let’s take our time and explore.

We really enjoyed setting Kristen Nicole in these fun, fast-paced boy-girl duets, this time paired with the brilliant male vocals of Mr Mego. We wanted to keep the pace throughout this song, so we decided to not arrange an instrumental break. Just a fun Sunday drive from start-to-finish, accentuated with Kristen Nicole’s vocal scat in the ending.

Music and lyrics: John Vargas and David Vargas
Featuring: Mr Mego (vocals), Kristen Nicole (vocals), Tony Song (guitar)
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)

Listen to the song


13. Serendipity

This song explores what it would be like if we could just leave the responsibilities of everyday life behind – and travel the world. I had the basic concept in mind, but the real songwriting started when I was driving back to California after my visit to Washington’s Deception Pass and San Juan Islands. That one-week trip was magical for me in that I composed both “San Juan Island Sunset” and “Serendipity”.

“Serendipity” was borne of a marathon lyric-writing session as I cruised south on US Interstate-5 from Seattle to the Bay Area. My little Tascam DR-05 digital recorder got a good workout on those two days, as I played the rhythm track on the car stereo while scatting melody ideas. By the second day, I was singing lyrics with my new melody. I think the fast pace of this song was inspired by the Highway-5 cruising speed.

I decided that I really wanted Oshra Sedan to sing duet with Mr Mego, and I was thrilled with how they both rendered this song in the studio. Stan Muncy then took the updated session tracks and arranged strings. I was honored to hear that the string quartet liked this song the best – of all four songs arranged by Stan Muncy, They stated that they really had fun performing it in the studio.

Music and lyrics: John Vargas
Featuring: Mr Mego (vocals), Oshra Sedan (vocals)
Strings: Matthew Szemela (violin), Mads Tolling (violin), Emily Onderdonk (viola) and Lewis Patzner (cello); Strings arranged by Stan Muncy
Rhythm: Mark Rickey (keyboards), Tony Song (guitar), Charlie Channel (bass), Collette d’Almeida (drums), Stan Muncy (percussion)

Listen to the song


Next Week

We’ll bring you a behind-the-scenes look at composing songs with a Bossa Nova feel.  Visit our 510JAZZ Blog page next week to read our new blogpost.

Blessings to you all.

John Vargas
510JAZZ