Juju Knows – Rob Bargad

Here is a very nice Rob Bargad composition that you won't find on Youtube by searching under Rob's name. You will, however, find it if you search "Juju Knows Carolyn Leonhart"; it comes from vocalist Carolyn Leonhart's album though it's an instrumental track.

Juju Knows is a 3/4 song with an open-ended sound. Though F major is the basic key center in the A section, the B section has more of an F minor tonality. The form is quite long: a 22-measure A section, repeated twice, and a 16-measure B section which is also repeated twice. The long notes of the melody give this song a lot of space. In the A section the melody has a generally downward direction, coming back up in the last six measures. The B section melody repeats a mostly descending phrase twice, for a total of four times in two B sections. The changes have a mix of II-V7s and more unexpected movement, with the B section lacking dominant chords except for the C7sus in the first ending. The second B section ends with a rather unexpected C major chord; Rob sometimes plays Cmaj7(♯11) here.

On this recording, there is an intro that vamps the first four measures. This vamp returns between the piano solo and the out head. At the end of the out head Rob holds the last chord and then plays two more rubato B sections.