Substitutions : I Remember You 

reed:

The tune is "I Remember You" by Victor Schertzinger. Lyrics by Jonny
Mercer.

The original sheet music is in G but it's played in G and in F alot.
Anyway, I'm going to discuss it in what Richard Hindman always calls the
"model key of C". (For those that don't know me my two major Jazz
teachers were Don Haas and Richard Hindman.)

The first 8 bars as essentially from the original sheet music (I don't
have it but have a  boiled down version which is probably accurate).

C6   | Cdim7    |  C6     | Gmi7  C7sus,C7 |
F6   | Fmi6     |  C6     | Dmi7  G7       |


The Cdim7 has a B melody note so may also be written as B7/C.
(C Eb Gb A + B == C D# F# A B = C + B7 in first inversion).
We've discussed this appogitura idea earlier in the Stella discussion.
(By the way, this analysis for "I Remember You" is another way
to explain the unusual chord sequence as is played today for Stella).

So the first reharmonization idea that is frequently used on this
tune is to subsitute an actual B7 for the Cdim7. And then we
put a ii7 in front of the B7 so we get:

C6   | F#mi7 B7 | C6      | Gmi7 C7sus, C7 |

B7 forms a nice triple appogitura for C6, i.e. 
[B D# D# A] -> [C E G A].


The next 4 bars have some interesting possibilites. First of
all, the Fmi6 which is a minor plagal cadence to C can be
changed to Fmi7/Bb7 as is commonly done in jazz when a minor
plagal cadence is encountered.

So we get:

F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | C6   | Dmi7 G7 |  

Now the last two bars have a number of possibilities.

One common device is to substitute Emi7/A7 for the C6. This works very
well because we usually precede chords with some kind of V chord. In
this case A7 is the V of D so we get

F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | C6 A7 | Dmi7 G7 | 

Now we have alot of interesting possibilities.

We can substitue Emi7 for C6 thereby puting a ii in front of the V and
creating a very smooth bass lines.

F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | Emi7 A7 | Dmi7 G7 | 

This is an important footnote to my previous email. Not only do you look
for ii7 to put in front of a dominant seventh but you may challenge
other chords, C6 in this case, as to which would better precede the
dominant.

Now it get's interesting.

In this particular song, G7sus to G7 sounds nice to me but then we end
up with a funny bass line. (G7sus == Dmi7/G essentially so it's also a
common resubstitution try).

F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | Emi7 A7 | G7sus G7 |

So I would try:

F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | Emi7 Abmaj7 | G7sus G7 |

Normally I would try perhaps D7 or Ab7. In this case though I have a G
melody note  at that point so instead I change chord quality here an use
an Abmaj7. Though this move will work in other instances (provided that
there is no clash with the Abmaj7).

Now I can go even further an try puting a IImaj7 in front of the Abmaj7
as I suggested in my previous post.

So I use:

F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 Abmaj7 | G7sus G7 |

Once again, under the proper situation this can replace a iii7/VI7
ii7/V7 sequence in other tunes. Eb7 also works fine in place of the
Ebmaj7.  (If we put the Ebmaj7 back to C6 we have what is called the
"Lady Bird" turnaround after the builtin use of that turnaround at the
end of that tune).

Another interesting try makes use of my idea of preceding a minor
seventh chord with a major seventh a half step below.

Then going back to when we still had the Dmi7 chord, we can have:

F6   | Fmi7  Bb7 |  Cmaj7  Dbmaj7   | Dmi7  G7       |

This sounds quite nice. Also we can precede the Dbmaj7 with
the IImaj7 and try:

F6   | Fmi7  Bb7 |  Abmaj7  Dbmaj7   | Dmi7  G7       |

I'm getting into Don land and I think I need to take a rest in a minute.

On final idea is to always remember to try the minor 6th chord in a
minor plagal cadence as both the minor 6th and it's enharmonic mi7b5.
(We discussed this when we talked about stella) In This case Fmi6 ==
Dmi7b5 so we can try something like:

F6   | Dmi7b5  G7 |  Cmaj7  Dbmaj7   | Dmi7  G7       |

Hope this helps.

(P.S. If you don't know "I Remember You", learn it!!!! Get the sheet
music if you can. It might be in some collection books but it's not in
any of the ones I have. It's also in Jamey Aebsersold volume 22  "13
Favourite Standards".)

[later...]

Here are a few more ideas for the first four and then I'm going to move
onto the bridge.

Gmi7 on beat 4 or bar 1 would make a nice passing chord to the F#mi7 in
bar 2.

|C6   ,Gmi7|F#mi7  B7 |

Bars 3 4 could be:

C6 Ami7,D7 | Gmi7 C7 .


Another interest try is to approach the F6 chord in bar 5 with
a minor plagal cadence.

C6     | Bbmi7 Eb7sus,Eb7 | F6 ....

The second 8 are the same as the first 8 essentially:

C6   | Cdim7    |  C6     | Gmi7  C7sus,C7 |
F6   | Fmi6     |  C6     | Gmi7   C7      |
F6 ...

Onto the bridge....

Basically we have:

Fmaj7  | Bmi7  E7 | Amaj7    | Bmi7 E7 |
Amaj7  | Ami7  D7 | Gmaj7    | Dmi7 G7 |

The first 6 bars of the bridge look fairly much okay. I might add an
F#mi7 or F#7 after the first Amaj7. This basically makes it a I vi7 ii7
V7 in A.  Thus:

Fmaj7  | Bmi7  E7 | Amaj7 F#mi7  | Bmi7 E7 |

The last two bars of the bridge have some interesting possibilities.

One that comes to mind is replacing Gmaj7 with Abmi7 Db7 since the
melody note is B.

This is an interesting device. You do the tritone sub ii/V7 followed by
the normal ii/V7. This can be very effective sometimes.

Thus we have:

Amaj7  | Ami7  D7 | Abmi7 Db7   | Dmi7 G7 |

Notice how interesting the bass line becomes! This is my
favourite.

There are some other variations of that. For example:

Amaj7  | Ami7  D7 | Abmi7       | Db7     | or

Amaj7  | Ami7  D7 | Gmaj7  | Abmi7 Db7 |

but the first seems to be best.

The sheet music changes for the last 8 is essentially:

C6   | Cdim7   |  C6   | Emi7b5 A7 | 
Dmi7 | Fmi6    |  C6   | D7        |
C6   | Dmi7 G7 | C6    |           |

I won't go over the same ideas we used in the first 8 that apply here.

The D7 chord is really weak. 

The standard #ivmi7b5 walk down works well here.

Dmi7      | Fmi6    |  C6   | F#mi7b5 Fm6 |
Emi7 A7   | Dmi7 G7 | C6    |            |

Note too that F#mi7b5 is D9 without the root.

[end reed]

Bill:

Why not?:

  F6    | Fmi7 Bb7 | Emi7 Ebmaj7 | Abmaj7 Dbmaj6/9+11 |

[end I Remember You]