I think I can explain what I see as problems with your changes in a more
or less objective manner.
I'm just going to focus on the first eight bars for now. I can't promise
when I'll get to the rest.
Before doing this I want to state a basic rule of reharmonization.
You have to end up at certain essential chords or else
you usually just tear the fabric of the song apart.
Someone like Bill Evans or Art Tatum was a master at figuring
out where these places are and devising all kinds of clever
tricks for arriving at the proper place at the proper time.
The basic problem is like I initially said. You have made local
bass motion solutions but essentially they dont fit together.
In this case what I'll show is that you start a very strong
cadence and then take off in a totally different direction in an
unconvincing fashion.
At 02:29 PM 10/8/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Here's the standard changes for this standard.
>
>| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 |
>| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 ||
>| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 |
>| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7F7 ||
>| Bbma7 | Bbma7 | Bb-7 | Eb7 |
>| Abma7 | Abma7 | Gm7b5 | C7 ||
>| Fmaj7 | G-7 C7 | Fma7 | F-7 Bb7 |
>| Ebma7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gma7 | Gm7b5 C7 |
>| Fma7 | Eb7 D7 | G-7 C7 | Fma6 ||
>
>It's basically an ABAA tune with a 4 bar tag at the end. The A sections are
>interesting in that they go through 3 tonal centers; F, Eb, and G. One of
>my ideas to start with on this tune was to sub by quality. In other words,
>Tonic chords are I, III, VI: Sub-dominant II, IV: Dominant V and VII.
>Chords within each category can be substituted. Here's the first 8:
>
>| A-7 Abo7 | G-7 Eb7 | D-7 B7 | Bbsus7 Bb7E7 |
>| Ebmaj7 | Am7b5 D7 | Gmaj7 | Db7 C7F#7 ||
>
What happens here is you start off with a very nice move which I assure you
I will be using sometimes in the future when I play this tune.
That is:
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7
I use this on so many tunes and I don't know why I never thought of trying
it here.
Now you've set up a very strong cadence with the bass line. The bass line
is heading towards F
already very strongly and its going to get there by passing through Gb or C.
If you play the notest A Ab G you should hear that it's going that way.
(Its just a tritone sub of A D G ).
So at this point we have already locked ourselves into:
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 ? | Fmaj7
So how to get to the F.
An obvious way is:
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 C7 | Fmaj7
or
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 Gb7 | Fmaj7
Well Bill Evans would probably do something like:
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7,Db9#11 C9sus, C13b9| Fmaj7
Now Art Tatum might have tried your Eb7 but he would know that he has to
be at Fmaj7 by bar 3.
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7 Eb7,D7,Db7,C7 | Fmaj7 |
The chromatic line from Eb7 is eighth note harmony.
or possibly:
Ami7 Abdim7 | Gmi7,E7 Eb7,D7,Db7,C7 | Fmaj7 |
>The D-7 in the 3rd bar is a good ex. of sub. by quality. (VI for I) The A-7
>in the 1st bar could be thought of as a sub by quality but actually will
>sound like your basic III, VI, II, V progression. Bars 9 - 16:
>
The Dmi7 is trying to replace the F which is a very strong chord and
an important part of the progression.
If you want that sound, you have to figure out someway to set it up
more convincingly. In other words the whole progression from beat one
has to be moving towards the Dmi7 in some very strong way. And even if
you suceeded, now you have a really weak cadence to the next important chord
which is Ebmaj7.
Frankly the Dmi7 is an example of what I would call an intellectual chord
choice.
Well it's VI for I but so what. If you want to convince me that this will work
here you have to precede it with a very convincing progression. Just Eb7 to
Dmi7
doesnt make it.
The Db7 to C7 in bar eight is nice and is precisely what Bill Evans used
for his blowing changes on Star Eyes.
reed
Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com