MacJams.com - Song: Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen by John Stebbe

Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen
by John Stebbe

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Guest views: 7435
Member views: 0
Song comments: 22
Tokens: 0
Plays: 4752
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Downloads: 397
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Submitted on: Apr 07, 2005 - 10:39:46 AM
Last Updated: Apr 07 2005 - 07:01:50 AM

Description One day while teaching my elementary music classes (ages 5-11), I came across a recording of the Harlem Boys Choir (which is a NYC public school) singing this old spiritual, in a "smooth jazz" kind of way. (The recording was included in the CDs which come with my music textbooks.) Although I was already familiar with the song, for some reason it struck me in a new way. And I decided to record it.

I have been collaborating with "real drummer" drlaine for a few tunes, and he and I got together on this one. I had originally conceived of it as a ballad, but the up-tempo urge took over, at drlaine's recommendation. And it was drlaine's idea to put in the Latin-style bridge.

I still am in awe of this long-distance collaboration process -- it's miraculous! drlaine, I hope we can meet face-to-face someday. In the meantime, I am getting to know you through your very soulful drumming. You are WAY talented!

Hope all of our listeners enjoy this as much as drlaine and I enjoyed putting it together.

The piano and bass sounds are played by me, and are from Sonic Boom Box. The drums are indeed real drums, recorded and performed by drlaine after I finished the piano/bass tracks.

And the whole thing is running through GB2. What a gas.

I need to convert the piano sounds to Synthogy Ivory, but have not gotten around to doing that yet.

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	Magritte said 1373 days ago
	Wow. Fabulous. Never would have imagined such a fun version of such a mournful song. My one teeny tiny suggestion would be maybe a slightly more drawn-out ending. It seems a bit abrupt (although that does fit the snappy feel of the song). Please post more tunes, you guys.

	thetiler said 1373 days ago
	Nice Great tune You can really play. Not only jazz, but you maintain a nice melody. Thanks for sharing :)

	Mr. S said 1373 days ago
	........ talent Mr. S

	Joanna said 1373 days ago
	Love it! That is some great jazz playing, guys! Extemely cool. If you ever need a vocalist, keep me in mind.

	MissChaos said 1373 days ago
	all you need now... is Richard Cheese singing the vocals. Wow. Very cool. I am not a jazz fan by any means, but I'm loving this! And I love the latin bridge -- I actually wanted to hear more of it. Amazing talent here. Amazing.

	alley-oop said 1373 days ago
	sweet to the soul Hot chops all over! What groove, baby!

	bug67 said 1373 days ago
	Fantastic! This might be the best recording I've heard on MacJams so far! Would love to hear from drlaine for some drum micing techniques. Outstanding!

	Scorpjammer said 1373 days ago
	God!... ..I love this tune, John. What an awesome, deep, lush piano and bass. Drlaine's drumming is dead on. Two veteran musicians at work exchanging ideas and executing them to perfection. Sounds great with my (Bose) headphones. Johnny LOVES Jazz! Bravo, guys! Scorp

	Doadars Uncle said 1373 days ago
	Nobody knows Nobody knows...but I don't care, 'cause I'm groovin' Smooth

	Peter Greenstone said 1373 days ago
	Wow Absolutely wonderful all around. It sounds like the two of you and a couple other people are in the same jazz club playing live together. Such excellent playing and with such style. And the mix sounds excellent, very full and clean. I'll certainly download this one.

	rjjones1150 said 1372 days ago
	wow perfect, most excellently done. keep it up ivory never sounded so good.

	Tom Atwood said 1372 days ago
	Crazy Collaboration Until I read the song descriptioon I had no idea this was a collaboration. Very smooth, fused. The piano is excellent (as usual) but I am extremely impressed by drlaine's long- distance stick-work on this. Nice stinger.

	drakonis said 1371 days ago
	inside out Great job flipping this durdge sunny-side up... I hear the best of Vince G. all over your stuff, classy and excellently played! ttfn, Drakonis

	Swanny said 1369 days ago
	Talent SO GOOD What a great piece of work

	iG.STUDiO said 1369 days ago
	Cool This is, probably my favorite amongst your latest submissions; great playing, totally enjoyable. Good to have you aboard, may be we could do something together, when I get fired next time, and have time to play :{)

	CraizeeMusic said 1368 days ago
	This Is Fabulous!!! I have been a jazz fan from a small kid. My grandfather would put on some of his records of Benny Goodman and others. I just loved to listen to them, and your song reminds me of the quality cool jazz I'd get on the radio on one of the local NPR stations. Great work man! You're on the favorites list! 8-9-8-9 All it needs is a good vocal track and its a hit!

	koolpaw said 1343 days ago
	omg what a shame, i havent found this great performance!!!! "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen" had been played by GeorgeAdams who was a great Sax player, in vary spritual style. This performance is totally different from it but very cool !!!!! i like this !!!!

	stooey said 1330 days ago
	Great Playing! Great Playing, catchy Arrangement!

Exogenous said 1318 days ago

Top shelf
Mr. Stebbe, you are a phenomenal talent. How many years
and instruction did it take to be such a virtuoso? minus
the feel, that's your own thing of course. Drumming and
recorded sound of drums is some of the best I heard on
the site, but keeping in consideration you have a lot more
dynamic range to play with than bloody rock band. Nice
job drlaine, top shelf callaboration. Never boring, great
phrasing and arrangement. Bravo to a dynamic duo.

	jeancharles said 1140 days ago
	This IS my favorite! Wow. I have to admit, this is my favorite piece here at MacJams. It may be a biased choice, since "Nobody Knows" is one on the top of my favorite Spirituals, but never the less, this arrangement is jazzly fantastic. I love the variations, which was created in a very skilled manner. Great realization. Thanks for this piece!

John Stebbe said 1139 days ago

Thanks, JeanCharles
Thanks, JeanCharles. This is a favorite of mine, too. And I recorded
this when I had a very generic piano sound to work with, which was
from SonicBoomBox. It's an OK sound, but the gradations between
volumes, and also bright/dull gradations, are very coarse.

I've since gotten Synthogy Ivory as a plug-in for GarageBand, and it's
out of this world. Listen to a few of my recent posts, and you'll see
what I mean.

So even tho this has the "lesser" piano sound, many people seem to
like this better than all the rest of my stuff. I guess song structure and
feel trump subtleties of piano tone.

	John Stebbe said 517 days ago
	OK, I give. OK, I give. Can someone please tell me why my little humble song has generated 5000+ hits? It must be hyperlinked to someone's site somewhere. Can someone let me in on this? --- My NEW 2007 jazz piano CD on the iTunes Music Store.

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