Un Poco Loco
1951 single by Bud Powell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Un Poco Loco" is an Afro-Cuban jazz standard composed by American jazz pianist Bud Powell.[1][2] It was first recorded for Blue Note Records by Powell, Curly Russell, and Max Roach on May 1, 1951.[3][4]
| "Un Poco Loco" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Single by Bud Powell | ||||
| from the album The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume One | ||||
| B-side | "It Could Happen to You" | |||
| Released | 1951 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 4:42 | |||
| Label | Blue Note | |||
| Songwriter | Bud Powell | |||
| Producer | Alfred Lion | |||
| Bud Powell singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Musical characteristics
"Un Poco Loco" is in thirty-two bar form.[4] It uses the lydian scale, incorporating chords overlapping chords to imply a polytonality (D major 7 over C major 7: CEGBDF#AC#) with the improvisation based on an alternating polytonality and an altered dominant chord. Particularly remarkable to jazz musicians is the placement of C# against a C major 7 chord; James Weidman attributed this to bitonality, while Tardo Hammer attributed it to an extension of the circle of fifths.[5]
Legacy
In the late 1980s, literary and cultural critic Harold Bloom included "Un Poco Loco" in his list of the most "sublime" works of twentieth-century American art (from his introduction to Modern Critical Interpretations: Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow).[6]
