Jimmy Buffet: Saxophones:
*
If I had saxophones
Big baritone, cleanin’ up the muddy breaks*
Muddy breaks?
Is this a musical term?
Jimmy Buffet: Saxophones:
*
If I had saxophones
Big baritone, cleanin’ up the muddy breaks*
Muddy breaks?
Is this a musical term?
No one, Not even Bueller?
I found two references to “muddy breaks” which were musical in nature and not quoting the lyrics of the Buffett song:
“Robert also provided slid [sic] guitar work on his hollow-body Gretsch while local sax man Johnny Reno was onstage cleaning up any muddy breaks.”
“… while so many hardcore tunes have dodgy levels, muddy breaks, discordant riffs, and muffled bass, all the elements of ‘Total Xstacy’ sit tighter than a prison rollie, without energy levels being lost in the quest for fidelity.”
According to Wikipedia a break “may be described as when the song takes a breather, drops down to some exciting percussion, and then comes storming back again”. Perhaps “cleaning up a muddy break” is when a musician who isn’t playing the break comes in because the musician who is playing the break is doing a poor job or losing the energy of the song.
This is helpful, thanks.
I think of a break as a instrumental phrase that’s less than a solo (which should be a full run through the chord progression). Muddy is a lack of clarity or distinction in the lower tones, Google muddy mix, or muddy home recording for more than you want to know about that. AIUI, fixing such things is the bread and butter of session musicians and recording engineers.