F
R E E T R A N S C R I P T I O N
S
The guitar transcription files on this page are distributed
as PDF files. They include both standard notation and
tablature. These files can be viewed and printed using the
free Acrobat Reader from Adobe. Click
here to go to the Acrobat download
site
if you need a copy of Acrobat Reader.
Click
here
to purchase individual transcriptions of Tim's music.
Blind Mary - a beautiful traditional ballad in
Dropped D tuning. Two versions are included - one simple,
the other with some frills.
Click
here to download Blind Mary
(expanded)
Click
here to download Blind Mary
(simple)
Nuages - the jazz classic by Django
Reinhardt
Click
here to download Nuages
Monk's Mood by Thelonius
Monk.
Click
here to download Monk's
Mood
Silent Night is an easy arrangement of the Christmas
classic.
Click
here to download Silent
Night
Eu So Quero Um Xodo is a Brazilian "cowboy" song. In
Portuguese, the title means, "I'm Looking for a
Sweetheart."
When you think of Brazil, maybe the jungles of the Amazon
come to mind. Perhaps you hear a samba from the
Carnival in Rio or have a vision of the Girl from Ipanema in
a lush, tropical clime.
But this song comes from Northeastern Brazil.
It's typical of a musical genre called "Nordestino" centered
in the NE State of Pernambuco. The capital of Pernambuco is
Recife, home to several unique rhythms, such as baiao,
forro, and maracatu, which are different from samba
and bossa nova
There's a vast dry brushland in the north called the
Sertao,
home to cattle and leather-clad cowboys. The most famous of
them all was Lampiao,
a Robin Hood figure who led a popular band of outlaws called
cangaceiros
in the 1920's and 30's . (Maybe a little like a Brazilian
Pancho Villa? or perhaps a Nordestino Subcomandante Marcos
with a bit of John Dillinger thrown in.)
Anyway, this song is played in a style popular in the
Sertao. It was written by the renowned composer, singer and
accordionist known simply as Dominguinhos.
I was introduced to this song by a great guitarist from
Recife, Nilton Rangel. We both worked together in Mandala,
in the late 1980's, a band led by Mary Ann
O'Dougherty, an intrepid Irishwoman who ran a famous
nightspot in Recife for many years.
Nilton was also a member of the Cuerdas Dedilhadas de
Pernambuco, a Mandolin/Guitar orchestra which specializes in
arrangements of traditional Nordestino music.
The rhythm of my arrangement of "Xodo" is called
baiao,
(pronounced Bi-yow) which has a staggered bass line, a
crucial difference from samba and bossa where the thumb
stays on the beat and the fingers syncopate.
It may help to first aquaint yourself with this thumb
pattern. You can play the first two measures of the song in
repetition. You can also play through the chord changes
until you get comfortable with the rhythm.
There is also a melodic scale which gives this northeastern
Brazilian song a special flavor. It is a mixolydian mode
with a raised 4th. If you start on the 4th degree of A
melodic minor you will have this scale in the key of D.
This tab has two parts. After the melody and bridge, there
is a third section which I adapted from one of Nilton
Rangel's arrangements for the mandolin orchestra.
You can hear my version of Xodo on One
String Leads To Another
(Acoustic Music Records, 1999, Best. Nr. 319.1177.242). This
version is a duet with Dean Magraw, who also did a rendition
with Steve Tibbets, featured on Broken Silence.
Dominguinhos, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso have all
recorded beautiful renditions. The Brazilian anthology
Beliza Tropical, organized by David Byrne, features Veloso's
version and is easy to find.
Click
here to download Eu So Quero Em
Xodo
Tanst, Tanst Yidelekh was originally recorded by the
Abe Schwartz Orchestra. Strains of this song can be heard in
a number of recordings, all with different titles. The
earliest is "Ma Yofis", recorded in Bucharest circa
1908-1910 by Belf's Rumanian Orchestra. The Klezmorim
recorded a version titled "Yashke Yashke". More recently, is
a rendition called "Der Rabbe", by Andy Statman and David
Grisman. There's a bit of each of these in this incantation.
- Liner notes, Tanz
Playing a Fingerstyle guitar rendition of a Klezmer tune
feels like a bit of a cross between flamenco and ragtime.
This tune is a great example of how well a flamenco key and
chord voicing can embody a Klezmer tune. The key is B, with
B dominant 7 flavor. The first notes of the melody play off
this typical flamenco voicing of a B dominant 7 with a flat
9 : B-F#-C-D#-B-E.
The scale expressed by this arpeggio is B-C-D#-E-F#-G. It's
a modified Phrygian Mode. Klezmers call it "Freygish," you
will probably recognize it as the "Hava Nagila" scale, also
known as "Hijaz" in Turkish and Arabic lexicons and as
"Ahava Rabboh" or "Abounding Love" in the traditional system
of liturgical scales used by cantors.
For more info see The
Main Klezmer Modes, by Josh
Horowitz
for a very informative explanation of modes used in
traditional Jewish music.
Click
here to download Tanst, Tanst
Yidelekh
Cancion Mixteca and Sandunga are two
arrangements by Tim of traditional Mexican pieces.
Click
here
to read about how Richard Malmed first heard Tim's
arrangement of "Cancion Mixteca". Click
here
for Richard's story of Sandunga and a festival visit on the
Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Click
here to download Cancion
Mixteca
Click
here to download Sandunga
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