Jason Moran’s “Ringing My Phone” (Straight Outta Istanbul) features a sampled phone conversation between a girl (his hostess) and her mother in Turkish.
The Story of “Ringing My Phone”
In 2003, renowned jazz pianist Jason Moran visited Istanbul to perform at a jazz festival. While taking a moment to rest in his hotel, something unexpected happened that would inspire one of his most memorable compositions. His hostess received a phone call from her mother. The bell of her mobile phone rang with a distinct tone, and as she answered, Moran became captivated by the melody and rhythm of her conversation in Turkish. The cadence of her voice, the musicality of the language, and the intimate connection between mother and daughter struck a chord with him.
Moran, always attuned to the interplay of sound and emotion, recorded the conversation. He later used it as the foundation for a composition, translating the melody of the speech into a piano arrangement. The result was the song “Ringing My Phone,” which he included in his 2003 album The Bandwagon. The piece is a beautiful blend of everyday life and artistic interpretation, showcasing Moran’s ability to find music in the most ordinary moments.
Some comments about the song in “The Bandwagon” album (from amazon.com):
“Perhaps the most startling cut, “Ringing My Phone,” featuring a “soundtrack” of a phone conversation in Turkish (playfully subtitled “Straight Outta Istambul”) transformed into a musical statement that faithfully retains the voice-timbre of the Turkish speaker, nimbly matching on the piano the sing-song nature of the speaker’s voice, brilliantly documents Moran’s high-wire approach to both his instrument and his group conception.” — By Jan P. Dennis “Longboard Jazzer”
“If you think “Ringing My Phone” is a groundbreaking masterpiece as heard on the CD, I can assure you that seeing it performed live (before I had ever heard it before) was among the most exhilarating experiences *of my entire life*.” — By “dsams5”
“Jason makes an explicit link that so many jazz greats (most notably Coltrane) had in the background all the time – the melody is speech. Ringing my Phone is a brilliant working out of the “Love Supreme” principle. It really grooves too, which is no mean accomplishment.” — By Robert Davidson “Topology Rob”
Jason Moran
Jason Moran (born January 21, 1975, in Houston, Texas) is a jazz pianist and composer. He is a musical adviser for jazz at the Kennedy Center.
Moran debuted as a bandleader with the 1999 album Soundtrack to Human Motion. Since then, he has garnered much critical acclaim and won a number of awards for his playing and compositional skills, which combine elements of stride piano, avant-garde jazz, classical music, hip hop, and spoken word, among others. In 2010, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.
Sources
- Jason Moran on Wikipedia
