New Tango No. 2: Mystery
New Tango No. 2 is part of a series of tango-jazz compositions. Each one explores a particular quality of the tango. Number 2 expresses a mysterious mood and has a touch of blues. Recorded by Amy Leonard, violin; Jeff Knoettner, keyboards; E. Shawn Qaissaunee, guitar; and Peter McCarthy, bass.
Given that many of my tangos have shifting time, this one is unusual in being entirely in 4/4. The A part is 12 bars. A distinctive feature of this section is the use of blues scales over triads. The B part is 8 bars. As a contrast, this section has a harmonic shift to minor 9th chords. The tune's 20-bar AB form is used for solos. To underscore a mysterious mood, the coda has a fake ending (2nd bar of the coda) before starting up again (repeating bars 9-11 of the A section) and leading into the real ending.
Given that many of my tangos have shifting time, this one is unusual in being entirely in 4/4. The A part is 12 bars. A distinctive feature of this section is the use of blues scales over triads. The B part is 8 bars. As a contrast, this section has a harmonic shift to minor 9th chords. The tune's 20-bar AB form is used for solos. To underscore a mysterious mood, the coda has a fake ending (2nd bar of the coda) before starting up again (repeating bars 9-11 of the A section) and leading into the real ending.
