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Kenny as well as Pat Martino and George Benson amongst other jazzers use moving ii-v progressions alot to spice things up. You will see this alot a minor 3rd up from the regular ii chord. So in this case Bbm7 (instead of Gm7). Super imposed harmony exists all over jazz from Mr. PC to Cisco by Pat Martino and on and on. Basically you are taking away the ii and/or the v and subbing it for something else to make it slicker. You could blow over Gm7b5 to Calt and it would sound interesting possibly. But in this case Kenny made a "hard" decision to nail the Bbm7 since it follows the melody line specifically. He blows over these changes in his solo vs thinking Gm7b5. If you listen to Mr. PC, alternatively Trane plays over the altered changes of Ab7 G7Alt to Cm as well as Dm7b5 to G7 Alt - but that is Trane and that is what he does! Kenny is more of an in the box compositional type player so he wrote what he wants to hear and rarely does he venture outside. Having said all of that - he did do an album with Trane and there he does blow outside of the changes at times so he knows how, but may prefer something else. On this tune, I think since it is really simple and hip, I usually stay to the stock changes since I like to play off the chord melody which is really nice and oh so KB.
Fantastic video. I stumbled upon this because I found the B section confusing and was looking for a harmonic analysis. Yours was very useful (though the Gbmaj7 to Bmaj7 is still somewhat myaterious to me)
Wes is just mixing it up here. Falling down or back cycling is pretty common in tunes in order to get from one place to another or from one key to the next. so he takes a ii-V to Ab first then using a dominate IV or a secondary dominate approach. We can think of the Db7 as the V of Gb and of course the IV of Gb is B and a simple minot ii-v back to Fm. Wes wasn't a reader but he did understand harmony and how to get from one place to another. In this case as in many of his tunes he uses the idea of connectivity - ie how a chord can be related to the current or even other key centers. George Benson does this alot using Maj7ths. He could have kept this going by stacking Maj 7ths if he wanted, B to E to A to D, then GMaj to Gm to C7. Endless ideas.
Can you comment on the chords provided in the Real Book and on iReal Pro? They are certainly '"related" chords, but I don't think they sound good against the melody. I used those chords as a back track for Four and it just didn't sound right.
Hi Jah - Basically the real book is kind of point in time or someone's version. I think a good thing to remember is; The changes on these tunes are just there to support the head and the melodies played over them. They are dynamic, not set in stone. And while ireal or the book is cool it gives improvisers a distorted view of how to navigate this music - sometimes. The other thing to also recognize is during a tune, changes as well as melodies tend to get mashed up and reharmonized all the time -without any discussion this is going to happen or not happen. It is part of the being present and listening to what is happening in the moment at all times. So in a case like this a chord player might drive the bus here or even a melody player and the goal is these two thing would line up because everyone is actively listening. Remember it's goal not a rule. And sometimes it doesn't work lol. A good tune to listen to that is simple is Mr.PC where there are times the changes are the real book changes and other times they are more standard minor blues. All while Trane, at times plays over both sets, plays the actually "in the moment: changes" and modally as well - just maybe C Dorian or C Pentatonic over the entire form. And somehow it works, because everyone is on board. It is not a "hard" concept just a different one than soling over Evil Ways which is pretty much A Dorian and no one changes any chord for 25 minutes! lol. Hope that helps!
Great lesson!! Thanks! I learned this tune in 1979 and I'm still working on it. I'm a funk, R&B, reggae, Santana player, but tunes like this help make my "rock" solos sound much better.
I imagine a hot Texas day, roasting hot, mid summer. The flies buzzing. this music needs to fit this picture. It really doesn’t need messing with. In my quintet we start with just guitar and vocal, then bring in brushes and bass and then sax. It slowly builds to a climax like a summer storm. brilliant tune.
Hi Bruce, You are an excellent and inspiring guitar player.Your lessons are worth watching. Thank you for being one of the best teachers across the you tube landscape.
Thank you so much for this amazing demo video! You just sold this guitar to me, it should be shipped today! What strings are you using? It seems that you have a wound third and quite fat gauge. Thanks again!
The chords commonly used today for this tune are jazzed-up versions of the original harmony. The original first chord was a I diminished. The "backdoor" dominant is just another way of expressing iv from the parallel minor key (minor plagal cadence). Often, people will turn the backdoor dominant chord into a ii-V, which makes the iv explicit, even though the interposed dominant chord intervenes with the root movement of iv to I. And a iii chord is just another way of expressing the tonic. The B-flat minor to F Major is a minor plagal cadence to F Major, though I tend to think B-Flat lydian once I land on the F Major chord.
Basically it is blues. But Trane plays lots of dominant eb7 and ab7 on this tune. On the IV chord he uses lots of #4 or a Lydian dominant sound. This is something Joe Pasd did a lot of even on the I chord. So , it’s not a minor blues per se. Check out Mr. PC as a contrast.
