reed: "Israel" was a pretty important tune in Bill Evan's arsenal. He recorded it many times. It was also on that famous Miles album "Birth of the Cool". I think Gerry Mulligan (arranger? for that album) played the tune alot too. I thought that I bought John Carisi's record just to see how he played the melody because Bill And Gerry played it very differently but I can't seem to find it. But I think that a basic discussion of that tune would be interesting here. It's a 12 bar minor tune, generally played in Dmi. Essentially a minor blues. Bill played for the head (essentially): Dmi | Dmi+ | Dmi6 | D7 | Gmi | C7? | Dm7 Em7 | Fmaj7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 | Dm6 B7 | Bb7 A7 | Bill's head arrangement is a somewhat involved so this is my basic analysis of what he played. Scott Lafaro is on bass and doesnt always play the root so it's hard to be 100% sure as Bill is playing rootless voicings at times. During the solos, the changes are more what you would expect. Dmi | Dmi+ | Dmi6 | D7#9 | Gmi | C7 | Fma7 | Bbma7 | Emi7b5 | A7 | Dmi6 B7 | Bb7 A7 | I have a chart from Gerry Mulligan's "A Concert in Jazz" recording. I don't know that album so I'm not sure if they solo over these changes also. Has anyone out there transcribed the changes from "Birth of the Cool"? The changes I have from Gerry are: Dmi | Dmi+ | Dmi6 | Ami7b5 D7#9 | Gmi | Gmi7 C9 | Dmi7 Emi7 | Fmaj7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 | Dm F9 | Bbmaj7 Bb7 A7 | These are pretty much the changes Bill played over the head. The walk up (dmi7 Emi7 -> Fmaj7) might be pretty cumbersome during the solos though I don't know what tempo they are playing at. Bill played the tune fast and openned the changes up nicely for the solos. I like the Bbmaj7 A7 move during the turnaround. That is a very effective device to avoid hearing the more predictable Bb7. I didnt do this leadsheet and I'm not sure if anyone actually played the Bb7. There is an Ab melody note there and sometimes people will just make that chord adjustment even if it was never heard. The Bbmaj7/A7 type combination is a move Bill liked to play. If he had say: Dmi7 | G7 | he might play Dmi7 Abmaj7 | G7sus G7 | !!!!Correction to Bills soloing changes. He plays a somewhat simpler turnaround. > During the solos, the changes are more what you would > expect. > > Dmi | Dmi+ | Dmi6 | D7#9 | > Gmi | C7 | Fma7 | Bbma7 | > Emi7b5 | A7 | Dmi6 | A7 | > !!!!end correction ------------------------------ Ken R Re: the changes to Israel: >Dmi | Dmi+ | Dmi6 | D7 | >Gmi | C7? | Dm7 Em7 | Fmaj7 | >Bbmaj7 | A7 | Dm6 B7 | Bb7 A7 | Man, I may be way off the mark here and in need of an ear-tuning, but on Birth Of The Cool, I could swear I heard: Dm / Dm+ / Dm6 / D7#9 / Gm7 / Em7b5 A7 / Dmaj7 Em7 / Fmaj7 Gm7 / Abmaj7#11 / A7 / Dm6 B7 / Bb7 A7 :// The orchestrations do make it a bit obscure, I didn't exactly transcribe every part to double check, but on a fairly quick check, this is what I got. If it's not "right", at least it may provide some interesting subs:-) ------------- reed: Re: the changes to Israel: Dmi | Dmi+ | Dmi6 | D7 | Gmi | C7? | Dm7 Em7 | Fmaj7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 | Dm6 B7 | Bb7 A7 | These changes above were Bill Evan's changes from the head as played on "Explorations". The C7 is a judgement call. He's playing an Emi7b5 in his left hand (the same as C9 if you add the C bass note) and the bass is playing a D and then a C. I just listened to the CD again and if you want to include the orchestrations, they are playing differnt things on almost every chorus it sounds like. What I hear the piano player playing throughout the solos is essentially: Dmi | | | D7 | Gmi (Gm+ |Gm6 A7)|Dmi7 Emi7 | Fmaj7 | Bb7 |A7 |Dmi | A7 | (Of course Gm6==Em7b5) But it's not the same every chorus and the horns are playing all kinds of things that I'm not sure exactly what it is right off. They are playing dissonances, etc. reed Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 12:12:10 -0700 From: reed kotler Subject: Don Haas Don Hass has agreed to join the list as a definitive resource for what changes are being played on a particular recording. Don is a top pianist/arranger and has perfect pitch and perhaps the best ears in the business. There might be some judgement calls in some cases as to how to interpret what certain notes indicate, especially say in a dense orchestration, but there is no question that he heard all the notes correctly. Don is also a harmonic genius and will be contributing to discussions on chord changes. Don could get up in the morning at 8am and start playing Stella By Starlight and by 8pm he could still be playing and not have repeated himself harmonically. Don does not have email though and is very busy so I will be posting on his behalf. Any mistakes will be from me not communicating correcly on his behalf. I aplogize in advance for the inevitable mistakes that I will make. I had him listen to "Israel" from the "Birth of Cool" record and he started laughing. The actual changes are really wild for that recording and are pretty much different for every chorus. However, wouldnt you know, the power went out just as he was about to transcribe the changes on paper. We may have to wait for another week because Don is really busy but it will be worth the wait. I guess, essentially the key center is C (as opposed to D as usually played) however it goes back and forth between starting in C major and starting in C minor which is pretty wild. Then it modulates to G for a while and then goes back to C minor. (Was Gil Evans the arranger on this session?) Anyway, my interest is piqued but we'll just have to wait unless someone else out there wants to take the changes off. I'm really good at transcribing solos but it would probably take me a while to pick through the orchestrations on a recording like this to get the changes 100% so I'm not going to volunteer to do that. Perhaps we have some perfect pitch listerners out there that would like to try. Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1996 19:28:23 -0700 From: reed@reedkotler.com (Reed Kotler Consulting) Subject: "Israel" from Birth of the Cool Courtesy of Don Haas we have the changes to the first four choruses of "Israel" from the Miles Davis "Birth of The Cool Album". Don only had 20 minutes to do this but we'll get the rest next week (I watched him, he really did it in 20 minutes!) (And yes, that first chord is a Cmaj7!!!!!) (we have omitted the intro for now.) Cmaj7 | | Cmaj7 Gm7 | C7 | Fm7 Fm6 |Fm6 G7#9 | Cmaj7 Dmi7 | Ebmaj7 Fmi7 | Gbmaj7 | G7#9b5 | Cmaj7 Dbmaj7 | D7 (G7) | Cmi Cmi+ | Cm6 G7 | Cmaj7 G7 | C,Gb9 Gb9 | Fmi7 Fmi+ | Fm6 | Cmaj7 Dmi7 | Ebmaj7 Fmi7 | Gbmaj7 | G7#9b5 | Cmaj7 Dbmaj7 | D7 G7 | C C+ | C6 G13 | C G7 | C7 | Fmi7 Fmi+ | Fmi6 G7 | Cmaj7 DMi7 |Ebmaj7 Fmi7 | Ab/Gb | G7b5 | Cmaj7 Dmi7/G |Cmaj7 (G7)| Cmaj7,Cmi Cmi+ | Cmi6 Dbmaj7/G | Cmi G7#9#5 | (Cmi),Gb13#9 | Fmi Fmi+ | Fmi13 Fmi13,G7#9#5 | *C Dm | Eb Fmi | Gbmaj7b5 | Bbmi/G | N.C. | | * there is superimposed over these chords, the chords |Gb C | Dm | Eb | The rhythms are staggered. [end israel]