reed kottler:

Subs for "Beutiful Love" by Victor Young.

It's a tune I play alot but frankly never thought much about
reharmonizing it. I transcribed Bill Evan's solo from "Explorations" and
I play pretty much what he plays for changes which is also what is in
the NRB volume 1.

I expected to just document a few little variations I use and instead
found alot of new fresh ideas.

I don't have the original sheet music (It appears to be out of print.
Anybody seen it anywhere?) but I expect the first four bars were
basically:

Emi7b5 | A7  | Dmi   |      |
Gmi7 ...

The fourth bar usually has a D7 to lead into the Gmi7

Emi7b5 | A7  | Dmi   | D7     |

Emi7 can be substitued for Emi7b5 in most parts of the tune for variety.

Bill plays a Emi9b5 which is essentially a G jazz minor chord.  C13#11
is also a G jazz minor chord and they are all basically interchangeable
given that the bass motion ends up making sense.

So I tried substituting and using a chromatic dominant sequence
which is just a cycle of fourths with tritone subs.

C13#11 B7 | Bb7 A7sus,A7| Dmi   | D7     |
Gmi7....

I also found a slight change to the last bar which increases the motion.
Namely just adding an extra ii/V

C713#11 B7 | Bb7 A7sus,A7| Dmi   | D7  Ami7,D7 |
Gmi7....

The next four are basically :

Gmi7   | C7   | Fmaj7 | Emi7b5 A7 |
Dmi

I applied a standard Bill move that I play which just delays the ii/V by
going to ii7 bVI7sus | V7sus V7 . Here I applied it to Gmi7/C7 .

Gmi7 Db7sus | C7sus C7   | Fmaj7 | Emi7b5 A7 |
Dmi

Then christmas came early this year. I substitue F#mi7 B7 for Fmaj7. The
bass line is basically going that way anyway and it keeps the two chord
per bar harmony going across the whole line.

Gmi7 Db7sus | C7sus C7   | F#mi7 B7 | Emi7 A7 |
Dmi

Now I'm on a roll and frankly surprised because I've played this tune
almost the same way for years and never thought about any of these subs.

The next four are basically:

Dmi   | Gmi7   | Bb7   | A7 |

Here I notices another interesting idea that I would probably save for
the second A section (the tune is A A form) but here it is.

Ami7 D7 | Gmi7 Gmi7/F | Bb7  | A7  |

The Ami7 follows nicely from the preceding |Emi7 A7| and leads fine to
the Gmi7. The F bass note in the second half of that measure seems right
to my ear. I'm sure alot bass players would play it anyway. However that
F bass note suggested the idea of using an Fmi7 chord there because the
parallelism from the Gmi7 is refreshing and because we are going to Bb7
in the next bar anyway so its a ii/V .

Ami7 D7 | Gmi7 Fmi7 | Bb7  | A7  |

The last four are basically:
Dmi  | B7  | Emi7b5 | A7  |

I like to use Bb7 in place of the Emi7b5 and G7#11 is a refreshing
change in place of the B7. I just really noticed it for the first time
in the NRB 1 today and I like it.

Dmi  | B7  | Bb7 | A7  |  or

Dmi  | G7#11 | Bb7 | A7  |

Note that the Bb7 is bVI in D harmonic minor which is why it shows up
alot, especially in minor tunes.

So a fresh reharmonization idea is to play the head:

C713#11 B7  | Bb7 A7sus,A7| Dmi      | D7  Ami7,D7 |
Gmi7 Db7sus | C7sus C7    | F#mi7 B7 | Emi7 A7 |
Ami7 D7     | Gmi7 Fmi7   | Bb7      | A7  |
Dmi         | G7#11       | Bb7      | A7  |

[end]