Subs for Darn That Dream reed kottler: Someone suggested that we make a list of tunes that have such nice changes that they can't be improved. I'm not sure such a list exists though there are certainly some tunes, especially jazz tunes like confirmation, where you are pretty much locked in. One tune suggested along these lines is "Darn that Dream" by Jimmy Can Huesen.I'm going to assume that people have the "New Real Book" volume I which has this tune but if you know it anyway you should be able to follow this analysis. Well certainly even the sheet music is fairly sophisticated but the changes in the "New Real Book" (NRB) are fairly modern changes and at least include Bill Evan's cut at the changes. So part of the problem is not improving Jimmy Van Huesens changes but improving Bill Evan's changes. I'll present the sheet music and standard modifications and some fresh ideas I found without spending alot of time. I don't have time right now to try and rethink the whole tune as it is more challenging to find improvements than alot of other tunes. The first eight are: |G Eb7sus/Bb Eb7/Bb| Ami7 B7 | Emi Am/C | Bmi7b5 E7 | |Ami7 F7 Gmaj7 | Bbdim7 Eb7 | Ami7 Ab7 | Gmaj7 Bmi7 Ami7 Ab7| The Eb7sus/Bb is more or less a Bbmi7. Either work. The descending line from Emi is improved by modern players to go E->D->C#->C by |Emi Emi/D A7/C# Cmi6| The A7 can also be a C#mi7b5. I personally prefer Bmi7 instead of Bmi7b5. Thus we have essentially: |G Bbmi7 Eb7/Bb| Ami7 B7 | Emi Emi/D A7/C# Cmi6 | Bmi7 E7 | Also a C7 can be substituted for the Cmi6 if you wait until the C melody note is played to actualy hit the chord. There are some obvious improvements which lead interesting places. We can put a V(F7) in front of Bbmi7 and the tritone sub (C7) of the V(F#7) in front of B7. |G F7 Bbmi7 Eb7/Bb| Ami7,C7 B7 | Emi Emi/D A7/C# Cmi6 | Bmi7 E7 | Now we apply an interesting substituation idea that I've seen before. That is to follow a tritone sub to it's I instead of the I of what it is subbing for. Bill Evans (and Claire Fischer) both used this very effectively in their arrangements of "A Time for Love". So we change the F7 into a B7 and follow the B7 to Emaj7. |G,B7 Emaj7 | Ami7,C7 B7 | Emi Emi/D A7/C# Cmi6 | Bmi7 E7 | We we follow the Emaj7 through a cycle of fourths of major seventh chords. |G,B7 Emaj7,Amaj7#11 | Dmaj7,C7 B7 | Emi Emi/D A7/C# Cmi6 | Bmi7 E7 | Also notice that can also be considerred a giant steps move in this case because the initial key change is by a major third. The nice bass line is what make this work! I think it's a very effective sound and breaths some new life into these changes. The second four bars of the tune are usually played with a melodic change of the original sheet from an E on beat three to an F. This allows the Bbdim7,Eb7 to become Bbmi7,Eb7 . The turnaround at the end is a bit old fashioned and is generally replaced by a more modern jazz turnaround. So we typically get: |Ami7 F7 | Gmaj7 Bbmi7,Eb7 | Ami7 D7 | Bmi7 Bb7 Ami7 Ab7| The Bb7 being a tritone sub for E7 and Ab7 for D7. (The F7 after the Ami is our old friend mr minor plagal cadence ... i.e. Cmi6/F). There is an interesting turnaround change though that I like at the end. I.e. follow the tritone sub to it's I as: |Ami7 F7 | Gmaj7 Bbmi7,Eb7 | Ami7 D7 | Bmi7 Bb7 Ebmaj7 D7| The second 8 are the same basically however you might try starting on C7 or F#7 if you are going to following it with F7 or B7 on beat two like we did before. |F#7 B7 Emaj7 Amaj7#11 | .... The bridge is pretty simple but still there are a few ideas I have right off. The original sheet music is: Ebmaj7 Cmi7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7/G B7/F# |Fmi7 Bb7 | Eb Cmi7 | Gm Gmi7/F| AMi7/E D7 | Eb7 D7 | The major improvements are first to add some ii chord in. Ebmaj7 Cmi7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7/G F#mi7,B7 |Fmi7 Bb7 | Eb Cmi7 | Gm Gmi7/F | AMi7/E D7 | Bbmi7,Eb7 Ami7, D7 | The Fmi7/Bb7 at the end of the first line can be improved with a standard device where essentially you precede the Bb7 by a B7 (half step up but can also be analyzed as the tritone sub of E7 which is the V of B7) and a B7sus. Ebmaj7 Cmi7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7/G F#mi7,B7 |Fmi7,B7 Bb7sus,Bb7 | The bar beginning with Gmi is often improved by precending the Gmi with a ii/V. ALso the bass note for the Ami7 seems kind of pointless so people don't play that. Ebmaj7 Cmi7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7/G F#mi7,B7 |Fmi7 Bb7 | Eb Cmi7 | Ami7b5, D7 Gmi | AMi7 D7 | Bbmi7,Eb7 Ami7,D7 | The last eight are the same as the first eight so that's it. [end reed] John F. Hyde : Great post on Darn that Dream! I especially like the modulation to Emaj7 in the first bar, it really opens up the sound. However I don't believe you can call it a Giant Steps move. Giant Steps is built on an augmented triad, B, D#, F##or G. I think the Emaj7 sounds so fresh because we expect to hear an E-7. [insert quote from original post] I have a question about F7 and minor plagal cadence. I understand you to mean that the F7 is taken from the parallel minor key, Gminor so F7 is the bVII7 of G minor? In playing over the F7 I would tend to use the scale F,G,A,B,C,D,Eb or the lydian b7 scale. The B natural is obviously not from Gminor. Perhaps I don't understand what you mean by mi. plagal cadence. I vaguely remember from school sub-dominant minor chords substitution. I guess I'm looking for a technical explanation for a device that is used quite often. Thanks for the great post, this is the only group where I print out the articles and leave on my piano for further study. [end John Hyde] reed: Most "ear" players will do the right thing here, as you did, without needing a technical explanation. Modern schooled players are more like to do something wrong because of incorrect harmonic analysis. A minor plagal cadence is a borrowed cadence from Gm, namely Cmi to Gmi. However it is used in all the Standards (Gerswin, et, al) and in Jazz quite a bit. In the case the F7 is really a Cmi6/F = C Eb G A F = F9. The significance of it being really just a minor chord over a different bass note is that the chord scale is then C jazz minor or C D Eb F G A B . (C jazz minor = F lydian b7) Confusion about this frequently occurs when iv minor chords masquerade as dominants. Basically dominant chords will resolve to a I or if they are tritone sub they resolve to the I ot rh tritone sub. G7->C or Db7-> C. They can also pivot sometines like Dmi7->G7->Gmi7->C7. Usually if they are doing something other than this then they are really something else masquerading as a dominant. Also bVi7->V7 or bVI7->i appears. There may be a few others I'm not thinking of. Anyway the point is that if we think they are just dominants we are likely to approach playing them incorrectly in improvising. [end]