Recorded using Finale’s Audio Export and the Garritan Jazz and Big Band sample library, arranger/composer Jon Burr wrote this for his big band, creating this video as a track sound production demo for this website.
This swing piece, reminiscent of Thad Jones style contrapuntal melodic writing, uses Messaien’s 3rd Mode of Limited Transposition (a/k/a the Tcherepnin scale) in its construction. An interesting property of this mode is it contains both major and minor from the root, making it useful for blues and contemporary composition. It’s a symmetrical scale, repeating diminished granules at major thirds (ex: C, Db, Eb, E, F, G, G# A B). Having a somewhat exotic sound, the sound of Messaien’s 3rd mode has become widespread in contemporary Jazz vocabulary, particularly since the early work of Herbie Hancock, who is a student and devoteé of Messaien’s work.
