But Beautiful

Robert A Donnelly ( donnera@mail.auburn.edu )
Tue, 8 Jul 1997 12:02:26 -0500 (CDT)

Hi, looking at a recent post on `back-door dominants' brought up a
question regarding J van Heusen's tune `But Beautiful,` the first six bars
of which are(excluding the pickup)
Gma7 | Bm7b5 E7#9 | Am9 | C#m7b5 // F#7b9 |
Gma7 | Bm7b5 / E7sus E7 | Am9 | Am9 |
(Sher vol 1). While transposing this on the fly at the keyboard I ran
across an interesting substitution which I'd like to hear opinions on.
I'll return to the original key for the example.

Measure 4 is a ii-v leading to B minor, and Gmaj 7 is a typical sub for
Bm7. Another way to get to Gma7 is via the back-door F9, and one could
prepare F7 with a Cm7. The F#7b9 at the end of measure 4 is then a
passing tone with the following result:
Gma7 | Bm7b5 E7#9 | Am9 | Cm7 / F9 F#7b9 |
Bm7 C9 | Bm7b5 / E7sus E7 | Am9 | Am9 |
The C9 in measure 5 is for color.

Of course, I actually got the sub as the result of a `mistake` at the
keyboard, but after thinking about it, it seemed a logical, though somewhat
unusual, substitution. My keyboard teacher at the time hated it, said it
was just simply wrong. However, I when I hear it, it sounds different and
interesting. Any thoughts out there in jazz harmony land?

Bob Donnelly