RE: "A Train" whole tone scale on 3rd bar?
Carlos Schvartzman ( (no email) )
Tue, 28 Oct 1997 08:17:25 -0400
Bert is right when he said "...best *choice*...", regarding the this word.
BTW, Duke used the whole tone scale against a whole-tone chord (a dom7 chord
with altered fifths) in this tune. However, if you analyze the melody,
you bet the second chord on 3rd bar is some sort of augmented (i.e. Major
chord with sharp 5th) chord; you can certainly choose; what I meant in my
first post (an answer to Marc Sabatella on scale/chord choices) was that, if
you chose the whole tone scale, there is NO perfect fifth in the chord
(watch it there, bassists!); if you choose the (un)famous Lydian b7 scale
(aka Lydian dominant, aka jazz minor from the 5th), -- which is actually
called the *overtone* scale in 20th century harmony concepts since it stems
from the non-tempered *natural* scale that comes from the harmonic partials
phenomenon -- you do have a perfect fifth, and a #11 as well (not to be
confused with a b5). George Russell (and Jerry Coker) promote calling this
scale (and *feeling/hearing* it) Lydian Augment from the b7 (starting on C
for the D9(#11) it goes: R 2 3 #4 #5 6 7 R, in notes: c, d, e, f#, g#, a,
b, c. I don't care for the *name*, it's just a bag of notes I can take to
depict a certain chord's color. You could choose either one, but make sure
your comping partners have huge ears, harmonic knowledge and are long-time
pros to catch it and comply with your improv, otherwise it could be a mess.
If you (reader) don't care for this at all, then unsubscribe from this list
and play whatever you "feel" sounds good against whatever you "feel" sounds
good and stop studying altogether!
-----Original Message-----
De: Bert Ligon <BLigon@mozart.music.sc.edu>
Para: Multiple recipients of list discussion-L <discussion-L@justjazz.com>
Fecha: Lunes 27 de Octubre de 1997 11:49 AM
Asunto: Re: "A Train" whole tone scale
I agree that the D Lydian dominant (the 4th mode of A melodic minor) is a
good and logical choice here. There are those who use the whole tone scale
for another color choice. Just last week I transcribed Harold Land's and
Clifford Brown's solos on "A" Train. Harold played only notes shared by both
scales, so one can't definitively say which he was using. Clifford committed
to the whole tone scale almost every time on the A sections while playing a
traditional D7 (V7 in the key of G) in the bridge.
-Bert Ligon