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Dave Douglas Tune Characteristics

I can not presume to describe Dave Douglas' creative spirit or compositional process. All I can hope to do here is point out some general characteristics that you may or may not have noticed in his tunes or on his recordings. Looking at this list may provide you with some new insights or inspiration in your own writing or playing. If you like Dave Douglas' music, go buy some of his albums and buy a ticket to one of his many live performances.

• Grooves
• Mixed time signatures with a continuous feeling of flow (forward motion)
• Bass lines (ostinatos)
• Melody notes not within the "accepted" harmonic structure
• Voicings (among horns) for sonority and dissonance (not necessarily adhering to the "standard" rules of harmony)
• Simultaneous improvisation among horns (constant dialogue)
• Blurring of boundaries between written and improvised lines
• Unusual root movement patterns and chord progressions (not predominantly II-V's)
• Style Mixing (european orchestral, funk, carnival, stride, swing, bop, rock)
• Unusual instrument combinations (other than the "standard" be-bop set up)
• Non-standard melodic resource choices (unusual scales or synthetic personally created scales)
• Melodies that sound spontaneous and improvised
• Backgrounds or melodies that move freely (out of time) over a groove