Moonlight In Vermont Analysis Essay

First Song: “Moonlight in Vermont” uses a bass, drums, piano, guitar, and saxophone. The song has a slow tempo and a relaxed sound. The bass, drums, and piano keep the rhythm while the saxophone and guitar play melodies both separately and layered. The guitar, saxophone, and bass play an improvised solo. The improvisations are simple and blend well with the slow tempo. The soft and light tone from the guitar and saxophone are what help to classify this song as cool jazz. This song has some classical influences as well and can be detected by the layering of melodies.
Second Song: “Desafinado” uses a bass, drums, guitar, and saxophone. The song has a slow tempo and a Latino sound. The bass and drums create a Latino rhythm and the saxophone and guitar play melodies. It sounds like the guitar, bass, and saxophone play at least one improvised solo in this song. The Latino rhythm with the melodies from the saxophone and guitar help to classify this song as bossa nova. The bossa nova genre is a blend of cool jazz with Latino influences. The tempo is a little faster than most cool jazz and the melodic ideas are more tightly packed together. The rhythm section and some of the melodies really project the Latino
The tempo of both songs is similar, but the “Desafinado” song seems to be a little faster. The tone and melodic improvisations have a similar sound in both of the songs. The rhythm section defines the style of both of these songs. “Moonlight in Vermont” uses a simple bassline, piano, and a high-hat to keep the rhythm. “Desafinado” uses a more intricate bassline and it sounds like the drummer uses the snare drum and an open and closed high-hat. These rhythm sections form the structure of these songs and classify the style of each. The simple rhythm fits with the cool jazz style and the more complicated Latino rhythm fits with the bossa nova