Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Red Garland pick-up to "If I Were a Bell"

Hi again,
I didn't hear it the first time either, so don't feel bad. Try to start the playback of the recording link I provided above by hovering your mouse over the timeline line at 4:23. Play it until 4:25 (by 4:25 it's done, so there's no point in continuing to listen).
On my computer, the left hand rootless voicing occurs between the 4:24 and the 4:25 mark. Sometimes I wish YouTube had 10ths of seconds display like the film industry (which has down to 1000ths of a second right? ) , so sorry I can't point you to it any more precisely. On my computer it happens just before the clock marker turns "4:25").

You may need to turn up the volume and try to "tune-out" the right hand for a sec.

Even if this voicing was not there, like you said, it is a common practice to go from Ab7 to G7 in a musical situation like this. The way that particular voicing feels to the hand of a pianist makes sense in this example. A second later, even softer, Red plays a G7(13) during the following G7 measure. This looks like F-B-E on the piano which is very widely used and practiced among jazz pianists. To proceed this with a chromatically higher Ab voicing (Gb-C-F) was probably so ingrained in Red's mind and playing style, that he probably did this as a left hand 'reflex', more than thinking "Oh, let's do a tri-tone sub here". I don't want to put words in his mouth (or notes on his piano - ha), but this is probably what's going on in this brief moment of his improv.

Let me know if you can hear that voicing. Maybe in the spirit of upcoming Halloween, we should nickname it "Ghost voicing".

Even if the left hand plays an Ab13 rootless voicing, the melody of these 2 bars outlines | FMA9 | F#13 | --> G13 an ascending bassline.

I don't think F#13 makes sense for the second chord in that I VI II V situation because it's not a substitute for D7 that resolves to G7.

If the chords were (half-a-bar each) F^ Am7 Gm7 C7 ithe notes would make perfect sense.
Perhaps his fingers just slipped into a favourite "hot lick"?

I expect there have been attempts to analyse that unfortunate piano solo on "Giant Steps" too :-)

F#13 of course isn't a direct substitute of D7 but the F#13 chord has resolution tendencies toward the following G13 and works very well as a linking chord between FMA7 and G13.

Cudo,

The F#dim 7 chord works well connecting Fmaj to a G chord because it's a very close substitute for D7b9.

A lot of tunes do this such as Easy Living, Ain't Misbehavin', Makin' Whoopee, My Ship, Mean To Me, It Could Happen To You, Have You Met Miss Jones, Memories Of You, You Took Advantage Of Me, Where Can I Go Without You, just to name a few.

But I cannot remember any song that uses F#7 to get from Fmaj to G. I doesn't really resolve well.
Can you name any song that uses F#7 to go from Fmaj to G?

I agree with Jazz+ too.. F#13 seems rather unusual as passing chord, especially for this time period. Besides, the C on the 3rd beat would make it F#13#11 doesn't it? IMO the simpliest solutions are usually the right one, and Tritone Sub/Ab7 would be the most obvious answer to me, and the last two notes (A&Ab) are just chromatically going to the G7 chord.

Jazz+ and etcetra,

I know what function F#o7 has. That's not what I am talking about.
I was speaking about F#13 approaching the V7/V from halfstep down below as a complete approach-chord.
This is an arranging technique which can be done with any chordquality.

Listen to --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTfBpKzu6XA

In the example you hear it approaching the tonic and the subdominant from down below.