Blue Bossa and Vai Querer

[Teasing the Korean]

I was curious if anyone has noticed the harmonic and melodic similarities between these tunes. "Vai Querer" is on the 1962 "Cal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil" (Verve). It is by Hianto De Almeida and Fernando Lobo. The earliest version of "Blue Bossa" that I have is on the 1963 "Page One" album by Joe Henderson on Blue Note. I'm not sure if it was around earlier. I wonder if one was subconsciously inspired by the other. There are only so many notes - I suppose people on different continents could have stumbled upon a similar melody.

[Teasing the Korean]

In case you haven't heard Vai Querer, it is on the following video at the 4:08 mark:

Similar to Blue Bossa, huh?

[JSngry]

Similar first eight bars, yeah, and possibly an inspiration to Dorham. But after that, they both go their own ways.

[Teasing the Korean]

They definitely go their own ways, but 8 bars is pretty substantial relative to a 16-bar tune.

[JSngry]

Well, that goes both ways, ya' know?

[Teasing the Korean]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

[Free For All]

I think melody-wise the similarity is only about 4 bars. The chord progressions of the two tunes have more in common(the first eight bars) but it's what I would consider a fairly common chord sequence (i-iv-iim7/V7-i) and probably exists in many other tunes as well.

I would say it's very possible that two musicians in different parts of the world could have written similar variations of what is a fairly basic progression and melody. Or maybe KD came up with the melody with a subconscious (or conscious) influence of something he heard. Who knows? That's how many great tunes have been inspired.

Really, the most unique aspect of Blue Bossa is where it goes to the key of Db in the third four bar phrase. The rest of the tune, while melodically/harmonically pleasant, is fairly unspectacular(no disrespect to KD intended!). The "easy" part of the tune is why it's such an overplayed jam session choice. And it's usually that four bars in Db where the less experienced players get tripped up.

Edited March 24, 2011 by Free For All

[JSngry]

They definitely go their own ways, but 8 bars is pretty substantial relative to a 16-bar tune.

Well, that goes both ways, ya' know?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

Just that, yeah, 8 bars is pretty substantial, meaning that the 2nd 8 of Dorham's tune being totally different is just as noteworthy as the 1st 8 being similar.

[Jim R]

I think melody-wise the similarity is only about 4 bars. The chord progressions of the two tunes have more in common(the first eight bars) but it's what I would consider a fairly common chord sequence (i-iv-iim7/V7-i) and probably exists in many other tunes as well.

I would say it's very possible that two musicians in different parts of the world could have written similar variations of what is a fairly basic progression and melody. Or maybe KD came up with the melody with a subconscious (or conscious) influence of something he heard. Who knows? That's how many great tunes have been inspired.

I think there may be another brazilian tune (somewhat of a standard, possibly) that has similarities to these, but my brain hasn't been able to retrieve it as of yet...