STEVE GELLER, MUSICIAN
Some of my Arrangements
For samples of other arrangements, or to commission a custom arrangement for your a cappella group, please visit my Products and Services page or stevegellermusic.wix.com/gelleracappellaarrangements
A Cappella Arrangements
Hero of the Day [4:53]
Originally performed by Metallica. This arrangement was written by me and Alex Baker for the Liquid Hotplates in 2000, and a version appears on our first album, Told it Equals Hip (2002), the name of which is an anagram of Liquid Hotplates. However, the version presented here is exclusively my voice, recorded in Garageband in 2013.
From the Liquid Hotplates, Barring Inclement Weather (2006)
Alone [3:31]
Originally performed by Susan Tedeschi, my favorite part of this arrangement is the three backup singers that enhance the quasi-soul feel of the chords, lyrics and solo. The soloist is Anne Marie Renna, and I and Danièle Gusland provide brief scat solos after the bridge.
Collide [4:33]
Originally performed by Howie Day, this recording features soloist Hal Wolter with occasional countermelody by Tim Valenti. The alto "poem" in the last minute is mostly a re-ordering of words found in the pre-existing lyrics. My favorite thing about this arrangement is the decision to sprinkle the chords and contour of the poem throughout much of the rest of the song.
Hallelujah [5:45]
This arrangement draws upon 5 different versions this song: the original Leonard Cohen version, the self-revamped Leonard Cohen version, and the Jeff Buckley, Sheryl Crow and Allison Crowe versions. Cohen originally wrote 4 verses for the song, then scrapped 2 of them and added 3 additional verses for later live performances. Buckley codified the new 5-verse version as the standard version that every subsequent cover artist has used. My arrangement makes use of all 7 verses (one of the “discarded” verses is re-harmonized into the opening poem, and some of the other “discarded” verse appears in pieces in the background of the arrangement). Tom Dotan, Alison Eeds and Sabrina Fong are the soloists. Fong helped considerably in crafting this arrangement, and with her help it became the most ambitious work during my time with the Liquid Hotplates.
From the Liquid Hotplates, Just a Hyphenated Bop (2004)
Everytime You Say Goodbye [2:56]
Originally performed by Alison Krauss, this recording features Alison Eeds as soloist, with Anne Marie Renna as the “banjo” and Anna Sun as the “fiddle.” Of all 47 Liquid Hotplate arrangements where I was the principal arranger, this was the most efficient one (it took only 2 and a half hours to arrange, and became an audience favorite for nearly 2 years).
Additional Lyrics (Geller):
Oh, it's not an easy world for Man to live in.
You work, and you slave, and you cry, and you grieve, and that's just the beginnin'.
But as empty and dark as you may feel,
If you find someone to love in this life,
That's about as real a gift as Man has ever been given.
It's a Man's Man's Man's World [5:40]
Originally sung by James Brown, I am the featured soloist in this recording. Davis Hake provides the bit of scat-soloing in the lull between the two "halves" of the arrangement, Chris Nucho performs the vocal percussion, and I sing the high trumpet parts at the beginning and end. My idea for this arrangement sprang largely from a performance idea I had stolen from Paul Schaffer (who would occasionally do this act during one of the closing segments of the Late Show with David Letterman), who in turn had stolen it from (more accurately, was paying homage to) Brown's own stage performance. When Brown would sing this or another song, it would (appear to) drain him of so much emotion that he would (intentionally) break down on stage and collapse to his knees. He would be slowly approached and consoled by a handler with his signature cape, and then gingerly help-walked to the back of the stage--as though he was too broken to continue. However, the punchline was that after several seconds of this walk (while the music continued to play), Brown would throw off the cape and run back to the microphone, good as new, to continue singing the song and whip the audience into a new frenzy. The act was repeated by Schaffer with the same staging and melodrama, but the song he performed for the “cape bit” was not a James Brown song, but instead Blood, Sweat and Tears' “I'll Love You More Than You'll Ever Know” (written by Al Kooper). Wanting to use the lyrics to “Man's World” (as we called it) but also have the dramatic horn glissandos at the end of “More Than You'll Ever Know,” I combined them into a single arrangement, re-harmonizing parts of it to better delineate the segments. Because the lyrical themes of the two songs didn't match up particularly well, I wrote a short poem for the middle of the arrangement, one which bridges unrequited passion in “More Than You'll Ever Know” with mutual dependence in “Man's World.” The Liquid Hotplates only performed this arrangement once--but with a cape draped over me and everything.
Instrumental Arrangements
Eleanor Rigby [1:56] MIDI.
Originally a Beatles standard, I arranged this song in 1994 as part of a class assignment in Glasgow, Scotland (though have since tweaked it a tiny bit). Not only was this my first non-vocal arrangement, but it pre-dates most of my classical music compositions. The song’s three intersecting melody lines drew me to it as a good source of material for a jazz arrangement.
She's Not There [2:47] MIDI.
Originally performed by the Zombies, this has long been one of my favorite British Invasion songs. I had tremendous fun determining new ways that I could set the rather repetitive melody in the three identical verses and choruses, and am very happy with the result. Arranged in 2009.