{"id":2233,"date":"2021-05-11T21:12:20","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T12:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/songharvest-net-560616.hostingersite.com\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T01:56:38","slug":"so-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/2021\/05\/11\/so-what\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udca6 So What \ud83d\udca6"},"content":{"rendered":"

In-F Livehouse, 1 May 2007 \ud83d\udca6<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This Mizuoka Nobuyuki Group<\/strong><\/span> May Day performance of \u201cSo What\u201d still fascinates and entertains me some 14 years after the event took place. It obviously has much to do with the carefree synergy the players display. Equally important, though, is the fact that this recording represents a far superior arrangement<\/em> to the famous original by the great Miles Davis!<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd80 \ud83d\udc0b \ud83e\udd91 \ud83d\udc20 \ud83d\udc33 \ud83d\udc21 \ud83d\udca6<\/span><\/p>\n

Up until the day of this gig, I\u2019d been a stranger to most of the Miles Davis catalogue, including the venerable \u201cSo What<\/a>.\u201d Enthralled by the local trio\u2019s performance, I was eager to look up the savage-but-civilized \u2018jazz standard\u2019 on the Internet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Being so famous, the title was easy enough to locate, all right . . . . And when I pressed \u201cPlay\u201d to have my first listen . . . . It was like . . . . Hmmm . . . . What\u2019s this dreary droning going on?!?\u00a0<\/em> I was a little taken aback. By a minute into the clip, the entire concoction sounded . . . . well,<\/p>\n

b<\/strong>–l<\/strong>–e<\/strong>–a<\/strong>–k \u00a0 a<\/strong>–n<\/strong>–d \u00a0 b<\/strong>–o<\/strong>–r<\/strong>–i<\/strong>–n<\/strong>–<\/span>g<\/em><\/span> . . . .<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>\ud83d\ude2e\u00a0\ud83d\ude35\u00a0\ud83d\ude34\u00a0\ud83d\udca4<\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t at all jazzed by that great jazz number. What did I have to compare it with? A uniquely rip-roaring, Made In Japan live gig that I\u2019d witnessed just a few hours before! \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5\u00a0<\/span>\ud83d\udca6 \u00a0So what that I don\u2019t like the original \u201cSo What\u201d whatsoever. Kind of Blue*<\/em><\/strong><\/span> is kind of an understatement too, if you ask me. That\u2019s just my amateur opinion, of course. \ud83d\ude11\u270c\ufe0f\ud83d\udca6<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

*\ud83e\udd8b True Blue \u25b6\ufe0e<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Nevertheless, I\u2019d long hoped to make my own standalone video of \u201cSo What,\u201d since I admire this local performance so much. And for a while I\u2019d been fixated on finding a means to marine-theme the project. Online research eventually led me to a cheap-enough, bare-bones conversion app that could output the kind of underwater effect I was after. This videoclip that I made with that software was obviously stylized quite a few years ago \u2014 and the simple tech I used back then was soon trampled to death in the stampede of developers who launched the CGI Revolution<\/a> that offers all of the cool tools we find around today.<\/p>\n

\n

\ud83d\udca6 \ud83e\uddad<\/span> \u00a0Piano:\u00a0 Nobuyuki Mizuoka \u00a0\ud83e\uddad<\/span> \ud83d\udca6<\/strong><\/span>
\n\ud83d\udca6 \ud83d\udc0b<\/span> \u00a0Bass:\u00a0 Tsuyoshi Nakayama \u00a0\ud83d\udc0b<\/span> \ud83d\udca6<\/strong><\/span>
\n\ud83d\udca6 \ud83e\udd80<\/span> \u00a0Drums: \u00a0Naoya Numa \u00a0\ud83e\udd80<\/span> \ud83d\udca6<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udca6 \ud83e\udd80 \ud83d\udc0b \ud83e\udd91 \ud83d\udc20 \ud83d\udc33\u00a0\ud83e\udd90 \ud83d\udc21 \ud83d\udca6<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Part of what\u2019s so entertaining to me about the above live clip is that the high energy, slick switchings and unique touches are delivered by musicians who each remain rather monk-like<\/strong><\/a> throughout. As the song moves along, you can hear how their collective monk-power is ramping up; I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll get what I mean. Most likely you\u2019ll also detect the spiritual pinnacle point when they reach it \u2014 before they merge together for their full-on descent to a soulful, smooth-jazz landing.<\/p>\n

For many of the years that I\u2019ve enjoyed this \u201cSo What\u201d rendition, I felt an irrepressible urge at that aural pinnacle to jump up out of my chair!<\/em> I\u2019ve wondered why<\/a>, and I can only surmise that it\u2019s some form of soul euphoria<\/a> . . . . \ud83e\udddc\ud83c\udffb\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\ud83c\udf3f\ud83c\udf8b<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once I attempted to explain this strange physical phenomenon to a singer friend of mine. She had no particular insight to offer about it, but she hoped somewhat wistfully that she\u2019d mesmerize an audience the same way too, someday. \ud83d\ude07\ud83c\udfb6\ud83d\udca6<\/p>\n

Can you detect in the audio that jump-up activator? I\u2019ll leave it to you to find. Go ahead, dive in!<\/a> \ud83d\udca6\u00a0\ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"
\n*The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified \u201cKind of Blue\u201d as quadruple platinum, and it became the best-selling jazz album of all time. Apparently, in December 2009 the United States House of Representatives voted 409\u20130 to pass a resolution honoring \u201cKind of Blue\u201d as a national treasure.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The unique melodies<\/a> of Composer-Pianist Nobuyuki Mizuoka are routinely featured in the background music of the TV-Asahi Channel\u2019s\u00a0\u79d8\u6e6f\u30ed\u30de\u30f3 (\u201cHitou Roman\u201d\u2014 Hidden Hot Spring Romance)<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>program in Japan. \u201cHitou Roman\u201d was profiled in Yahoo News Japan in October 2018, the program\u2019s 20th Anniversary Year:\u00a0 https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/yb6xpa52<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>More on YouTube<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Mizuoka Nobuyuki Group May Day performance of \u201cSo What\u201d still fascinates and entertains me some 14 years after the event took place. It obviously has much to do with the carefree synergy the players display. Equally important, though, is the fact that this recording represents a far superior arrangement to the famous original by the great Miles Davis!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,28,29],"class_list":["post-2233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-japan","tag-milesdavis","tag-smoothjazz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2233"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3284,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions\/3284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/songharvest.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}