Saturday, February 10, 2018

All The Things You Are

 Diz and Bird

No need to overdo the Roman numerals - just remember this one in the key it's commonly played in, Ab. Note the areas where it modulates to different keys, couple that with an almost subliminal sense for the harmonic motion and it's fun to play.

 A1:  Starts with vi-ii-V-I followed by IV and a quick modulation in bar 6 to new key, major III.

A2:  The section starts with minor iii of the key, a pivot chord acting as vi of V.  We moved up a minor third to the key of the V. Thankfully it's the same melody and changes as A1 - just based on 5 of the key.

Bridge:  The bridge was set up by the modulation in measure 14, establishing III of V as a new key.
So now we just relax and continue to groove in what is actually VII (!) of the original key, an easy ii-V-I in G major.

Measures 5-6-7 of the bridge (21-22-23 of the song) could have been a ii-V into relative minor, but (surprise) it's a ii - V going to major VI. Then, boom! Last measure of the bridge a crazy minor key ii-V, maybe a vii diminished or V7+5 whole tone... To set us up for a repeat of the original motif in the original key.

The extended A3:  Measures 25-28 col 1-4 (they're exactly the same, vi-ii-V-I in the original key Ab). Then the harmonic rhythm of the concluding two 4 bar sections is cool stuff. (A3 is 12 measures long.) The second 4 bars of A3 are IV-iv-iii-biii followed by a simple ii-V-I to Ab, add a turn-around to vi as required.

A few words about the famous intro / outro: Diz used Dbminor 9 to C7+9, and later usage modified this to parallel 7+9 (alt chords), DB7+9 to C7+9. A nice variation involves inserting a four bar tag. Starting measure 31, it would be iiim7b5 - V7b13 - ii - V... and instead of resolving to I - invoke the intro again!

The impetus that established All The Things You Are as a bebop staple came from Diz and Bird in their very hip and to the point instrumental, while Ella Fitzgerald owned the vocal. It's said that when Ella would sing out loud on the long bus trips, all the cats dropped their chatter to groove on her great sense of swing and impeccable intonation.

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