“It was a new style of music…”

“It was a new style of music…”.

MY MELODY — “The Musical”

He raised his baton and the sound of four booming kettledrums filled the huge auditorium. Six trumpets and five trombones voiced in five-part, closed-position harmony blended with six saxophones and eight woodwinds voiced in six-part open-position, harmony. A 49-piece string section blended with five glistening harps, as the huge orchestra played in full chorus, creating all of the elements of a beautiful overture. The music stopped and an arpeggio cued a vocalist to enter the stage and sing to the glistening harp-like sounds of the double-grand piano. The stage-lights suddenly brightened, and the orchestra blasted 1940’s Bebop. Twenty-four singers dressed in glittering, pastel colors appeared on stage, formed a Jazz chorus and they danced to the upbeat sounds of the orchestra, while vocalizing in thick rich six-part harmony. Four lead singers took turns singing 1950’s Doo-wop and moved to join the dancing background singers. The music transcended through genres of the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, onto modern hip-hop and R&B, as a six-man dance group performed a sophisticated acrobatic break-dance routine. The group begin rapping, trading mixed phrases, and vocalizing in rich six-part harmony with the 24-voice jazz chorus and a huge gospel choir that stretched across the rear of the stage. This exciting finalé came to an end. The house-lights brightened and performers bowed to the standing-only audience, as heavy applauds filled the auditorium. The conductor turned and bowed gracefully to the audience and he took in all of the attention that he had just began to get used to. John has always wanted to conduct an orchestra on Broadway. This was his finest performance and he felt very good about it. All of a sudden…

ABOUT THE STORY…

John had dreams of being a Music Director, conducting an Orchestra on Broadway. After meeting an executive in the music industry through a close friend, he took advantage of a rare opportunity to embark upon his dream career. However, things took a turn after the loss of his wife and soul mate and the mother of their five-year old daughter. His Mother and his Sister came to the forefront to help with his daughter, which enabled him to reach the heights of his career. Okay, so what about his Melody???

MY MELODY — “The Musical” was written originally as a full-scale Broadway style Musical Review, complete with SCRIPT, SONGS (music & words) and a completely orchestrated overture in five movements, which transcends through the musical decades from 1940’s Bebop to 1950’s Rock n Roll, 1960’s Soul, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, 2000’s, on through modern, Hip-Hop and R&B music with lots of International and Modern Contemporary Hip-Hop and Break Dance. (whew!) Can you imagine that??? After all of that, then the book… okay, so it’s backwards. WOW!!!

This book also includes some great focal points of WISDOM & ADVICE, FAITH & ENCOURAGEMENT and the GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL for everyday living. Okay. With all of that in mind, you must ask yourself, what about John’s love life??? what’s his Melody??? Don’t ask…

…READ THE BOOK!!!

♫♫♫ MY MELODY – “The Musical” ♫♫♫ –

MY MELODY — “The Musical,” my original Broadway Musical Stage-play will be performed on Broadway sometime in the near future. This electrical, exciting, dazzling Musical Stage-play will keep you entertained, as the musical sails through an exciting finalé that is full of great International musical themes and modern American musical themes through the decades. Can’t wait??? I PROMISE THAT YOU WILL LOVE THIS MUSICAL!!!

But for now, the Musical/Romance Novel also titled MY MELODY – “The Musical” is now available in Paperback, on Amazon Kindle and at Barnes & Noble Nook Book

For the paperback, paste either link into your browser:

https://www.createspace.com/3440846 or https://www.createspace.com/3381740 or https://www.createspace.com/3860223

For the Amazon Kindle, paste this link into your browser:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008JGSKRW

CLICK HERE: for the NOOK: For the the Barnes & Noble Nook Book, paste this link into your browser:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-melody-the-musical-eriq-hayles/1028993353?ean=2940013092747

“It was a new style of music…”

…being reborn. It happened one Friday night on the way home from a gig. It was about seven of us band members riding in a van listening to the radio. There was a song, by a popular group in the 70.s called Chic’. Their music was used as the background to words spoken in rhyming rhythms while trading “mixed phrases”. This style is called “Rap.” The group was called The “Sugar Hill Gang.” Everyone in the van was excited to hear these spoken rhythmic rhymes to a beat. New groups popped up everywhere and all of a sudden, everybody was doing it.

This new music’s lyrics spoke about innocent subjects like friendships and forgiveness and some occasional scatting, but as rap caught on, we began to hear the sounds of booming bass over the stereo that has gotten louder and more guttural than ever, and full of violence, drugs and abuse. Rap has captured the attention of teens and young adults and has bridged all nationalities to hip-hop.

The style of rap has made it full circle to become a part of Gospel, Rock, R&B, Jazz, Country & Western, children’s songs, and commercials. Rap has also become one of the biggest products in the music industry.

Some 30 years later, I was given a record collection from my father, which featured such music greats as “Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, etc. There was a song sung by Louie Armstrong. He was speaking song lyrics in rhyming rhythms to a beat. This brought back an old saying “History repeats itself.”

But of course, we can say the great like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn is where rap all started. We called it scat. (We can go even further back than that). Louie Armstrong rapped in the beginning of “It don.t mean a thing… At first rap didn’t mean a thing. It was a style many thought would disappear with the times, but rap is here to stay. It is as popular as street corner singing in the 50.s.

Please feel more than free to email any questions, comments, “griefs,” gripes or complaints directly to the editor at editor@egypttheatre.com. 

“Back in my day…”

…my grandfather used to say, with his corn-pipe hanging from his mouth, “Music was Music!” Of course he referred to the big band days. But ‘back in my day,’ the days of reel-to-reel, eight-track and early cassette tape, music had a different sound. Some call it “Analogue” and others thought it was the best sound ever. We looked up to groups like The Temptations, Gladys Night & the Pips, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Three Dog Night, etc.At that time, we danced to the tune of real instruments, such as electric guitars, bass, drums and of course to add to the excitement, a horn section (even strings if you really wanted to get crazy).

 

At that time, we could take music as an elective in school, because courses were as plentiful as there are starving artists and musicians. Students were taught the importance of reading music, as well as playing an instrument. We learned that there is a real balance between Music & Art, Math & English, Sports, etc. Of course, after school we entertained our friends by getting together with our band for an occasional after-school jam session.

 

One day after a high-school football game, we, including some of the members of the band rode the bus home. One of the musicians took out a Bari-Saxophone and began playing a horn line of a popular group. I then took out my trumpet and joined in, playing a harmony line. Everyone else joined him one by one. While we were playing, the bus driver looked in his mirror and kept driving. We entertained the whole bus with our music. Now, in the days of CD’s, DVD’s, MV’s, PC’s, MP3’s, etc. students are given a shallow chance at learning any kind of music in schools today, due to government cut-backs

 

Of course, these days we dance to the sound of “rap”, a relatively new style of music, a synthesized beat created by a DJ operating a turn-table adding scratching record sounds. (Back in my day we got in trouble whenever we scratched a record) Most of the music was borrowed from the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s eras.

 

But of course, we cannot compare any of the music then to the music back in my Grand Fathers’ day, from ragtime to the big-band era, which in my opinion is even better than the music from “back in my day”.