I almost never put in the tensions when I post subs.
For me, it just creates extraneous information that detracts
from the essential part of the reharmonization.
It's pretty obvious when there is a melody conflict and
for the other cases it turns the subs into a particular
arrangement. I might write 9 and someone else would
rather play b9.
In the NRB they put all the tensions in when there is a melody
conflict so the chord players won't make a mistake there.
To put the NRB (or ORB) in context, it's important to understand where
those changes come from.
Those are usually the changes from one or more recordings. In the
ORB they reference the recording on the bottom of the page and in the
NRB it's in the back of the book.
Sometimes they are pretty decent but sometimes there are just the
changes that say Miles used back in '53 and nowadays people may
play much hipper changes. In any case, they were just a particular
artists choice for that record. Sometimes they are some really
involved head changes that you might not want to solo over.
In some cases where a tune is reharmonized differently by everyone
("Skylark" for example), they may just use sheet music changse for
some parts.
>>In the areas of decending dominant chords you can approach
>>them with ii chords or sus chords. Thus the first 4 bars can
>>be:
>
>I don't think either of these variations does justice to the chromaticism
>of the melody. How about
>
> D9,Ab7 G9,Db7 | C7,(b9) FM7,Bb7 | etc., or
>
> D9,Db9 C9,Cb9 | Bb9,F#7 FM7,Bb7 | etc.
>
>Similarly, for the last measure of the bridge, I like
>
> Bb13,B13 C13,C#13 |
>
>Of course changes this thick work better a slow tempos.
>
yes, those will work.
As far as whether they do more justice to the chromaticism,
it's just a matter of personal taste which ones you use.
reed
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com