Perhaps not everyone (jazz musicians) knows that…
When you think of modal, you immediately think of iconic pieces like "So What" from Kind of Blue or "Impression" by John Coltrane.
Yet, twenty years later, Mick Goodrick recorded a piece that demonstrates a perhaps even more interesting use of modality. The piece is "In Passing," from the album of the same name, beloved and respected by musicians but perhaps ignored by experts in the field.
Here, the reference mode is the Ionian, the one corresponding to the major scale. Eddie Gomez immediately takes up the Tonic and won't budge from it even with a bulldozer. Jack DeJohnette goes… well, Jack DeJohnette’s Jack DeJohnette, and we know and love him.
John Surman and Mick Goodrick play with the mode, creating tensions between the Tonic, the Sensitive, and the Countersensitive, ethereal plagal cadences, dominants that don't dominate, resolutions that will resolve sooner or later… but not today.
It's the most beautiful modal possible, where the ears decide whether to tread water, dive in, resolve, or postpone.
Furthermore, the Ionian inevitably creates a certain "folk" atmosphere that makes the song airy and playful, as often happens in Irish folk and many other Anglo-Saxon forms around the world.
The rest of the album is a series of very "ECM" masterpieces, including "Summer Band Camp," a true compositional gem.
Note for guitarists and others: Mick Goodrick wrote a beautiful book on harmonies and various conceptual principles: The Advancing Guitarist. You can find it online.
Studying harmony helps you understand the difference between jewels and jewels, each precious in its own right. This one, however, was quite large.
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