Re: "How Insensitive" by "Tone" Jobim

Bert Ligon ( BLigon@mozart.music.sc.edu )
Mon, 11 Aug 1997 14:37:25 -0400

>>
>I notice something else in "How Insensitive." I have the tune in Dm, and
>the opening changes feature, of course, the half-step descending bass
>line Dm, Dbdim7, Cm, G7/B. When it isn't just a kind of 3-6-2-5
>movement, this sort of progression is hard for me to understand. It also
>occurs in "One Note Samba." In that tune, which is in Bb, this
>progression seems to function as a 3-6-2-5 (with tritone subs for 6 and
>5) but I find that tune hard to improvise over as well, at least for the
>first 8 measures. Interesting how the same progression in a different
>key takes on a different character.

Thess progressions are a bit different.

In How insensitive:
Dm - C#dim7(A7/C#) - Cm - G7/B is basically Dm followed by its dominant,
resolving deceptively to Cm and its dominant. (C#dim7 and A7/C# function as
dominants to Dm and Bdim7 and G7/B function as dominants to Cm.)

In One note Samba:
Dm - Db7 - Cm - Cb7 all points down to Bb using, as you noted, the tritone
substituitions (Db7 & Cb7) The traditional progression without
substitutions would have looked like: Dm - G7 - Cm - F7 (Bb); iii7 - V7/ii
- ii7 - V7 (I).
You can find this progression everywhere on turnaround type tunes (I Got
Rhythm, Have you Met miss Jones, Heart & Soul, etc.)

_______________________________________
Bert Ligon
Director of Jazz Studies
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School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Voice: (803) 777-6565
Fax: (803) 777-2151
http://www.music.sc.edu/Departments/Jazz/
bligon@mozart.sc.edu
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