Peace

Horace Silver

Although Horace wrote and recorded Peace as an instrumental in Bb, there is a wonderful vocal version by Lonnie Liston Smith. Donald Smith's vocal is splendid, and it was necessary to move to the key to C to accommodate his low G at the end of the piece.

The L. L. Smith version features a split keyboard allowing a string "wash" to complement the vocal, creating a 70s fusion feel. A lovely ballad with a great message - Horace wrote lyrics to many of his songs even though they were recorded instrumentally by his combo.

                                              

I've puzzled over exactly what is the guiding harmonic thought on the rubato beginning and the ending chord that allows the F# on the I chord (C major). My workaround is to simply use Bm/G (G Maj7) for the intro and ending chord. It might be considered as Cmaj7b5 but I think G Maj7 works OK.

The song is 10 measures at a slow tempo. At first glance one wonders, "how can I possibly remember this?" But after a few repetitions it becomes an easy and fun piece to play. I find it advantageous to look at this song in two measure segments:

After the initial rubato chord, letter "A" starts in the key of C major. The vocal pickup leads to an F natural, and the first chord is the vii of C major followed by an E7 altered dominant (V7 of vi minor) on beats 3 & 4. In measure 2 we get an Am7 followed by an Ab7. In the key of C that Ab7 would be a Lydian dominant leading down a half step, and instead we get a "surprise" chord to start measure 3.

Measures 3 & 4 feature a quick modulation back to C major after a short visit to Db major on the first two beats of bar 3. Beats 3 & 4 are a quick ii-V going back to C major in bar 4. The ii-V looks like it's going to resolve to Cm because it's vii-III7alt of Eb (relative major of C minor) and the C major chord of measure 4 is again a "surprise" chord.

The bass moves up a half-step to start measure 5 on a C#m9, beats 1 & 2, followed by an F#13, beats 3 & 4. The C#m9 could be voiced as E Maj7/C# and the F#13 could by voiced as E Maj7b5/F# - the only moving tone between those two chords would be B natural to B flat (A sharp of the F#13).

Measure 6 can be played several ways. First time around use a descending bass line B-A#-G#-F# under a B major I chord. Second time stay on B two beats then use the same descending run B-A#-G#-F# as eighth notes. A third method, behind solos, don't use the walk down...

Measures 5 & 6 were in the key of B major. Measure 7 is a modulation to Eb major. The F half-diminished is like a ii chord in Eb minor (vii of Gb) , but the choice of Bb13b9 leads nicely to an Eb69 for a I chord - again, a surprise chord. The listener was set up for a modulation to Eb minor but instead receives a lush Eb major. After a long slow 8 bars all that is left is to modulate back to C major.

Magically, in measure 9 we can evoke a vii-III7alt in the key of Eb (Dm7b5 --> G7alt), 2 beats on each chord, and then we're back home to C major as a surprise chord (instead of C minor). And we choose C Maj7 to represent the I chord for the four beats of measure 10 - although C6 or C69 could also work to define the "home" chord.

The last time through do a rubato repeat of measure 9 with fermatas over the Dm7b5 and G7alt chords. Follow the singer carefully, it's a long descending run to a low G! Then use Bm/G as the last chord. Peace!

By the way, these charts are saved as jpegs, and they can be easily downloaded.

Señor Blues

I don't post copyrighted material, but this is a handwritten harmony part, and it's not for profit, instructional only. If one counts slowly, Señor Blues is indeed a 12 bar blues. If the triplet eighth notes are at 120bpm, the slow count would be 40bpm - much easier for the horns to conceptualize in slow 4/4 with a triplet feel! Reading the part is much easier in 12/8 compared to 6/8 because of fewer bar lines...

In the key of Eb minor, the minor i chord is voiced as an Ab13, from the bottom up Gb, Bb, C, F. That's on the piano. For guitar, those are the notes you want in your chord, call it an Ebm6/9 - the bass pattern emphasizes the root.

Measure 5 & 6 of this blues use a B13 chord (actually a Cb chord in the key signature) so on the piano one would simply move the 1st voicing up 3 half-steps. Maybe moving 3 frets up on the guitar would work. (Gbm6/9 over Cb in the bass?!) Measures 7-8 are back to the same pattern, same inversion as the first 4 bars.

The cadence in meas. 9-10 is simply Bb7 - Ab7 and back to Ebm(6/9) with no turn-around. The Bb7 and Ab7 sound fine with no third - and they also sound good as tri-tone voicings (3 and b7). More than a little finesse is required here.

Measures 11-12 are "on the one" - and there are sections of the tune arranged to stay on the minor i vamp. Pianist Horace Silver wrote it - upright bass players get cramps from the brutal 12/8 ostinato! There are a couple or three different recordings of this by Horace, one has a vocal by Bill Henderson. Taj Mahal did a good version, and vocalist Mark Murphy also did it (in C minor).

Wave

Antonio Carlos Jobim

It's in the books in the key of  D, basically a guitar key, and considering the Brazilian roots of this tune, that makes sense. But a key change is in order when converting to a straight ahead jazz tune. Dexter Gordon recorded Wave in C (D for tenor sax) and Paul Desmond recorded it in F (D for alto sax). Consider it in key of C, and that also helps the comparison with the Roman numeral version.

Interestingly, it's a 12 bar A section, 8 bar bridge. The 12 measure A section is analogous to the blues form. It's a bit of a stretch, but the comparison may serve as an aid to memorizing the progression.

The first 4 could be compared to a blues with a "quick IV" except the "IV" in measure 2 is shown as a bvi diminished chord - the notes in a full diminished on b6 are b6 - 7 - 2 - 4 of the key, several ways to realize that chord. The 8 tone scale for a full diminished adds 4 tones each a whole step above the given tones. The scale for measure 2 could be Ab Bb B C# D E F G. Measure 3 is a v minor, measure 4 a I7, as it would be in a 12 bar blues.

Measure 5 is a IV chord, measure 6 a minor iv - as in a blues where measure 6 sometimes is often altered to iv, bVII or #iv dim. Instead of a return to I in measure 7 the song goes to variations on III dominant (iii a substitute for I, so III7 is not such a stretch). The A7 (VI7) in measure 8 is a bit unconventional - but the cadence that appears in measures 9 & 10 is close to the spirit of the blues. A jazz blues would offer ii - V7 in measure 9-10. Jobim gives us a II chord to V7, modified by adding preceding chords, vim7-II9 followed by bVI9-V7 alt.

 

Instead of a resolution to I in measures 11-12 we get a shift to parallel minor, Cm7-F7 2 times - or more. As an option, later, say after the third time through A, one could extend the im - IV pattern to several repetitions, and the next soloist would take over at letter A!

The bridge takes us to ivm7 - bVII7 - bIII in the first 4 bars. Then either a parallelism of biiim7 - bVI7 - bII - V7(alt) in 5-8 of the bridge - or bIIIsus-bVI, bIIIsus-bVI, bII, V7(alt) to turn around for last A. In key of C the bridge is simply Fm-Bb7 Eb__,  Ebm7-Ab7 Db to G7+5 (or G7+9). I took some liberties and arranged 3-4 as the cliche of EbM7-Eb6 % (rpt) and instead of a long ii-V in Db measures 5-6 use Ebsus-Ab7 % (rpt)

So a full arrangement would be: Vamp in on Cm7-F7, A A B A, solos on A A B A with optional extended vamp at end of each solo, vamp out on Cm7-F7, maybe ritard to a C69 last chord.

Autumn Leaves

This one keeps coming up, regardless of the season. It's in relative minor to the key signature. One sharp (Real Book I) means E minor, and the first chord is A minor, so it's often misstated as being in the key of that first chord. The Cannonball Adderley / Miles Davis Quintet did it in G minor with an extended intro based on Gm6. Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Bud Shank recorded this in F minor, it's in newer fake books in G minor, and Tito Puente recorded a Latin version in C minor. Nat King Cole D minor for his vocal range...

Autumn Leaves may seem harmonically complex, especially if you've been playing a lot of three chord blues tunes, but it's actually not that tough. It might be a good exercise to learn this one in all twelve keys, and once one does a little analysis, the logic of the harmonic "skeleton" becomes clear.

The first four measures are actually in the major key presented by the key signature, simply ii - V - I and a "flip" to the IV chord in measure 4. The second set of four measures is a ii - V - I going to relative minor, best represented as vii - III - vi in the key. Melodically, just a slight variation at the conclusion of the 8 bars, 1st and 2nd endings.

An effective device on the bridge is to use a pedal tone on 5 of the relative minor for measures 17-20. Although the sheet music shows it as vii - III - vi, it could be realized as two bars of III7 "alt" (#9 b9 #5 #11) or III7 harmonic minor (b13, b9) followed by two bars on the relative minor referenced to 5 of vi. And 17-20 could also be done as 4 bars of III7alt. Once through the first four bars of the bridge it's simply a ii - V - I (in the major key) with a flip to IV at the end.

Autumn Leaves is an A A B C format. The last 8 (measures 25-32) require a little more thought than the previous 24 bars, and letter C is more closely allied to the B section than the earlier A sections. The first two measures of letter C are a ii - V in relative minor, vii - III7 of the key. Measure 24 was a IV chord, and the bass moves a tri-tone away to the vii chord in bar 25 to kick off the last 8. There's a little bit of sauce in measures 27 and 28, as the chords move from vi in bar 26 to IV in measure 29...

Once the vi (relative minor) is sounded on the first two beats of bar 27 then the next three passing chords are either realized as a descending chromatic progression bVI7 - v - bV7 or as the sequence II7 - v - I7. The IV in measure 29 is followed by vii - III in measure 30 and we arrive home on a vi6 in measure 31. Optionally, one can use a VI7 in measure 32 to turn around back to the ii chord of measure 1.

For an extreme shorthand way of thinking about Autumn Leaves: The A section is repeated and it's simply four bars in major, four in relative minor. Then the B section is four bars on V of relative minor, four bars of major. The only tricky thing is the last 8, and that's not so bad if you think of it as 8 bars in relative minor, four 2 bar chunks: vii - III, vi "passing," a IV - III7 cadence, and finally vi, the relative minor.

Nica's Dream

The prolific, iconic Horace Silver crafted this one! A DuckDuckGo search on " Nica's dream Pannonica " yields several interesting references to the life of Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter (née Rothschild), legendary benefactor and contributor to the jazz scene. And the search should yield a LearnJazzStandards.com link to Nica's Dream, also.

This is likely going to be played in Bbm, I've never run across a recording in any other key. There are at least 3 different ways to do an intro for Nica's Dream. Recordings made at different times used different intros, check out Eddie Palmieri's Latin version. The "Colorado Cookbook" features the descending sequence BbmM7 - AbmM7 - GbM7 - Cm7b5 to F7(alt) punches followed by 7 eighth notes and a drum fill, used by organist Jack McDuff about 1:12 in, and at the end. It's important to note that some recordings vamp on one bar each BbmM7 - AbmM7, but when the melody starts it's two bars BbmM7, two bars AbmM7.

The minor with a major 7 is a difficult chord to sound properly. It basically implies a harmonic minor structure, but the sixth degree of the accompanying chord-scale could very well be sounded as natural 6, and often a minor i chord is written as m6 and M7 is an option. Taste and experience are the best way to gain confidence with this "exotic" harmony. Optionally, a major chord based on 5 of the minor chord will yield a mM9 sound. Other ways to realize mM7 include playing an augmented triad against the root, e.g. C#+5 (C# F A) and the bass plays Bb, and B+5 over Ab in the bass. The mM7 also shows up as a passing chord in the cliche of descending roots in minor: i - i/7 - I/b7 - i/6.

Now, let's think of the Roman numeral approach to Nica's Dream, remembering that Bbm is the relative minor in the key of Db. (Db is the easiest scale on the piano, thumbs on C natural and F natural, extended fingers on the black keys.) This means that the first six measures are parallel mM7 chords: vi for two bars, v two bars, vi two bars. Then measure 7-8 are essentially I7 realized as vm7 - I7. (The second appearance of Abm is not a mM7!) that's the first 8...

The second 8 measures start with a repeat of the harmony used in bars 7-8, Abm7 - Db7 in bars 9-10. The next figure (measures 11-12) needs to be rehearsed in order to be most effective. It's the same rhythm as the F punches of bar 5-6 in the stock descending chord intro, only a different chord on each punch: GbM7 - Db7 - C7+9 (IV - I7 - VII7alt). Once that passage is accomplished there's a sort of a discontinuity as the root stays on C for the move back to the minor i chord, Cm7b5 - F7+9 - Bbm6 comprise measures 13-16, completing the A section with good old vii - III7 - vi. The A section repeats before we get to the bridge - same material, no 1st and 2nd ending.

Letter B, the bridge is in swing tempo, a contrast to the Latin feel of the A section. It's popularly termed a "Latin-Swing sandwich." the 8 bars of the bridge repeat using 1st and 2nd endings to make it a full 16 bars. First two bars are punches on 5 of the key, beats 2 & 4: Ebm9/Ab 2x then Ab7 2x. It then breaks into swing with chords changing every beat, bars 3-4 are arranged, Db Ebm Fm_ Bb7b9_ _ _ Fb7 (E7+4), passing chord beat 4.

Measures 5-6-7 of the bridge are a stock progression, variation on II, ii-V, I. Eb9, Ebm7-Ab7, DbMaj7. The first ending (repeat back to letter B) is biiim7-bVI7, a vanilla Em7-A7 as a surprise interjection before hitting those punches on Ab (measures 1-2) again. After repeating 1 through 7 of the bridge the 2nd ending is a STOP on III7 followed by lead instrument pickups back to letter A.

Yes, there are punches and turn-arounds to rehearse, and the parallel minor with maj 7 chords are tricky. But the horns can relax and count in half time, drums (and percussion) take the faster architectonic levels, and chordal instruments can play accents and concentrate on developing moving lines that answer the lead phrases. A jazz classic, fun to play, good for the audience too because the arranged parts break things up, creating tension and interest.