Post 458: MUSICAL TUNE 'GOING DOWN THE LADDER'

I'm going to be a bit technical today, so you will have to excuse me. I want to point out something about a particular chord sequence I find interesting. It's the sort of thing that for me makes our music a constantly fascinating study.

I have written before about the JaDa Chord Progression. You find it at the start of such tunes as these:

It Had To Be You

Ja Da

I'm Alone Because I Love You

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Nobody's Sweetheart Now

The JaDa Progression goes from the tonic to the 6th and then follows the Circle of Fifths. So, in the key of G, for example, the first few bars could be:

G

G

E7

E7

A7

A7

D7

Etc.

Now consider that 1931 classic song entitled Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl, composed by Dally Small, J. Tim Brymn, and Clarence Williams, and made famous by Bessie Smith.

Its Chorus consists of 18 bars (basically 16 bars plus a tag); and it could be said to use the JaDa Progression from Bars 1 to 8, and then again from Bar 9.

But there is a subtle difference from the standard JaDa Progression. Using the key of G again for my example, you will see that - to get from the opening tonic G chord down to the second chord of the progression (E7), it 'goes down the ladder' - passing in half-bars through the chords of F#7 and F7.

G:F#7

F7:E7

A7

A7

D7

D7

G

Etc.

That's what helps to give this song its special flavour. Can you think of any other similar tunes? I can offer Blue Turning Grey; but then I'm stumped.

By the way, if you listen to Bessie Smith performing the song by clicking on here, remember that the chord sequence does not occur immediately at the start (which is the Verse). It comes where the Chorus begins (with the words 'I need a little sugar....').

One other point I can add about this business of 'going down the ladder' concerns the tune I'm Beginning To See The Light. The Middle Eight begins on the chord of III7 and works its way through to the chord of V7. That is normal enough. But it gets there in a most unusual way, which also involves going down a ladder.

The sequence of chords in the eight bars is:
III7 - III7 - IIIb7 - IIIb7 -  II7  -  II7 -  VIb7 - V7.

It produces a very interesting and unusual effect. I think the technique going on here is what is known as Tritone Substitution - but now I am becoming so technical that I'm out of my depth!

Post 317: 'I LOVE MY BABY'

The 1925 song I Love My Baby (by Harry Warren and Bud Green) has always struck me as a routine, ordinary number, unlikely to have any remarkable characteristics in its chord pattern. But I noticed recently that its first sixteen bars (and its second sixteen) begin with 4 bars on the Dominant 7th and then 4 bars on the sixth note of the scale. To put it simply, if you play the tune in the key of G, the first 4 bars will be on D7th and the next 4 on E7th.

Here's how it looks.

I am unable to think of any other tune that begins with eight bars structured 4 on the 5th and 4 on the 6th, like this. Could I Love My Baby be unique in this respect? If so, maybe that's what gives it the catchy effect.

I would be glad to hear from you if you can let me know of any other tune with this pattern.

Post 283: CHORDS INSIGHT ('OWL CALL BLUES')

Pianist and blog-reader Peter Petrovič from Slovenia has been transcribing Owl Call Blues, the lovely tune composed during a tour in France by Shaye Cohn and Erika Lewis. He kindly sent me a copy.

Erika and Shaye

He also added some interesting information about chords.

Regular readers will know that I, as a self-taught musician, have been struggling for months to come to some understanding of chords, chord sequences and how they work, so every snippet that comes to me is eagerly gobbled up.

Here's what Peter told me:

The chord sequence "  Bb7     C#dim7     Cm7-5 " (here at the beginning of Owl Call Blues)  is often used in the 11th bar of a 12-bar blues composition and dissolves very well into Bb in the last bar.

Peter gives this as the chord sequence for the first seven bars of Owl Call Blues:

I feel sure he is right and I now appreciate that this sequence of chords contributes so much to the quality of this song. It is a most beautiful, hauntingly sad and satisfying sequence. Shaye has been very clever in spreading it over the first eight bars of a slow-paced song, rather than employing it only in its usual position - crushed into one bar, bringing a 12-bar blues to an end.

I shall try to memorise that sequence and think of it as The Owl Call Sequence from now on. It may be expressed as:   I⁷   -  III^bo7   -   II^m7-5  -  I.

I wonder whether it occurs at the start of any other tunes. Can we think of one? I doubt it.

You can listen to Tuba Skinny playing Owl Call Blues, with Erika singing, BY CLICKING ON HERE. And you can read what I wrote some months ago about Owl Call Blues BY CLICKING HERE.

Post 227: AN 18-BAR TUNE - 'TANGLED BLUES' BY SHAYE COHN

There are dozens of tunes in the traditional jazz repertoire that consist of 16 bars (measures).

Shaye Cohn
What a Player!
What a Composer!

But can you think of any that comprise 18 bars?

If we exclude tunes that are really 16-bars plus a two-bar tag (tunes such as I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate and She Drives an Oldsmobile and Baby Won't You Please Come Home and Don't Go Away, Nobody) how many genuine 18-bar tunes are there?

I am unable to think of a single one, apart from Miss Otis Regrets by the wonderful Cole Porter - but that is rarely played by traditional jazz bands.

At least that was the case until the ever-amazing Shaye Cohn came along with her 2015 composition Tangled Blues. You can watch a performance of this remarkable song by clicking here.

The 18-bar melody is part of a very clever 'tangle' indeed, because Shaye alternates the 18-bars (which Erika Lewis sings on the recording) with a related 32-bar theme.

But we should not be surprised to find Tuba Skinny coming up with something as unusual as this. After all, they also astonished us a couple of years earlier by adding an 11-bar tune -  Jackson Stomp - to their repertoire. I have not come across any other tune in the traditional jazz repertoire with that unusual number of bars, either.