| LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Wrong Chords In Ellington Tunes | |
| Rid -- 03/24/2007, 19:34:02 -- #34160 | |
| Here is a quote from Bill Dobbins: “Another one of my pet peeves, ….. is the regularity with which jazz musicians play the wrong chords in some of the most familiar Ellington tunes. Two of the most painful examples are the third bar of Mood Indigo and the fifth bar of Satin Doll.” Does anyone know what he means? Thanks, Ed | |
| dalty52 -- 03/25/2007, 07:44:19 -- #34160 | |
| Dobbins is all about learning tunes the way they were originally written(and, I know this from experience as I was in Dobbins' big band for 2 years). What is the first chord of Stella By Starlight? No, it is NOT E-7(b5) it's Bbdim7. The third bar of Mood Indigo is not ii-7, as the real book says. It is usually bVIMa7, but sometimes IVMa7(On a recording I have, it's IVMa7 over the solo and bVIMa7 when the band plays it). Also, the fifth bar of Satin Doll is not really A-7. It's EbMa7. Obviously, the tunes sound ok the real book way, BUT.....I'd say it is much better to learn from the recordings. He can be a real stickler about these sorts of things, but, in a way it is good. The last concert of each year, we would do a big band concert without any music. The last one I did was all Horace Silver tunes. Dobbins would come in and teach us all of the parts straight from memory(nope, he didn't even have a score himself). People whined and complained a little bit about it, but, in the end, that is the best our band ever played. He made us learn Horace's solos by memory and try to play them exactly as Horace played them. This really forced us to get inside the essence of these tunes, and it showed at the concert. So, when you learn music from original scores, it really gives you the WHOLE perspective on the tune, which, I think is important. I totally agree with him. I don't think he minds that people PLAY chord substitutions........but, I think he doesn't like the fact that they don't know the original chords to begin with. | |
| Rid -- 03/26/2007, 16:33:27 -- #34160 | |
| Interesting! Thanks, Ed | |
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