Music Assignment
Length for Part 2: 500-word minimum (2 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins)
Joe Henderson – Caribbean Fire Dance (1966)
Background: Caribbean Fire Dance is a song written by Joe Henderson and recorded in 1966 that fits into the more astringent, moody strain of hard bop while also drawing on Afro-Cuban elements. The ensemble on this recording consists of Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, musical badass extraordinaire Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone, Cedar Walton on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums.
Assignment:
Part 1: Make a song outline using time markers to indicate the beginning of each new section. Use the song outlines I have provided on blackboard as a model. In your outline, use time markers to indicate the start of each new section and solo. Say what form the head is in (i.e., 12-bar blues, AABA, or something else), and break the head at the beginning of the song down into different sections if appropriate.
Part 2: Write an interpretation and analysis of this song in which you describe what makes this song exemplify the style of hard bop and especially the soulful and “badness” quality of hard bop. To do this, identify particular hard bop stylistic characteristics that you hear in this song—you may have included some in your song outline, so here you can describe them in more detail. Then discuss at least one solo, especially what in that solo you hear as exemplifying the “badness” quality of hard bop. Finally, discuss what moods and emotions the sounds you heard give off and why, and what the significance of these moods and emotions coming from Black musicians might have been in 1966 America.
