"SD" chord in Swallow tune

Howard Peirce ( howard.peirce@sdrc.com )
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 10:19:09 -0500

Came across a peculiar chord notation I thought somebody might help me
with. I've been looking at the tune "Another Fine Mess" on Steve
Swallow's _Deconstructed_ CD. Swallow has thoughtfully included lead
sheets in his liner notes, so we know how he intended the changes.

The tune, as near as I can tell, is a reharmonization and contrafact on
"Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You." The following progression appears in
the A section:

G7SD Db7#11 | C7alt

and then a few bars later:

F7SD B7#11 | Bb7alt

As near as I can tell from the melody and from listening, the "SD"
chords are identical to what I'd call an alt chord or #9#5 chord. Does
anybody know what the "SD" means, and how I would treat it differently
from an alt chord?

I'd think it was Swallow's way of notating an alt chord, except that he
uses the standard alt notation in the very next bar. It might mean
"secondary dominant" or "substitute dominant" or even "subdominant", but
none of those explain the alterations (and "subdominant" makes no
sense).

Any ideas?

HP