ANTOINE BOYER Video Masterclass
ON VIDEO
This star video spotlights the modern jazz stylings of gypsy jazz prodigy, Antoine Boyer. Jason Sidwell specially crafted a rhythmically syncopated track for Antoine, called Enchantment. Featuring a European jazzy flavour it clocks in at 92bpm, it starts in the key of A Minor and uses the A Harmonic Minor scale (A-B-C-D-E-F-G#) to create a mystical mood. Antoine goes with the musical choice of treating the cimbalom melody (a chordophone type stringed instrument played with two sticks, popularised by John Barry’s themes for The Ipcress File film and The Persuaders TV series) as a springboard for his own improvisation, often playing it in unison very much like the ‘head’ of a jazz standard.
In verse 1 Antoine opts for playing rhythmic stabs of the chord inversions (see Ex 1). These are placed in a question and answer fashion and fill in the gaps. The pre-chorus features octaves; a popular way to thicken out the sound this interval was very much the trademark of jazz guitar greats such as Wes Montgomery.
Antoine’s most obvious soloing begins in the chorus section where the harmony shifts from A Minor to the relative Major (C). Here he uses the arpeggios of the many chords to create his melodic framework, sometimes using common notes as pivot points between chords
