Sunday, October 11, 2015

Lady Bird Ending

The Turnaround

The path-breaking turnaround in Tadd Dameron's "Ladybird":

Cmaj7 | EbM7 | AbM7 | DbM7 || Cmaj7.

has been cited as an inspiration for Coltrane's descending major 3rd resolutions in "Giant Steps".  The turnaround in Ladybird may have been inspired by the bridge to "Have You Met Miss Jones" by Richard Rodgers.

All Dominants Version

Some charts may call for Eb7 and Db7 instead of the major-7 chords.  For simplicity, let's change all but the tonic chord to dominant chords (the double bar separates the turnaround from the top - or end - of the song):

Cmaj7 | Eb7 | Ab7 | Db7 || Cmaj7.

Replacing the dominants with their tritone substitutions, we have:

Cmaj7 | A7b5 | D7b5 | G7b5 || Cmaj7.

That's just a jazzier version of the old Tin Pan Alley turnaround: vi-ii-V-I.

All Major 7s Version

Now what about those major-7 chords? Can we relate them to anything we know already?  Let's take a look at the guide tones through the turnaround.

chords:           Cmaj7 | Ebmaj7 | Abmaj7 | Dbmaj7 || CMaj7

guide tones:               | G, D.     | C, G.     | F, C

contained in:              | E-7        | A-7       | D-7

Let's expand:              | E-7 A7  | A-7 D7 | D-7 G7 || Cmaj7

All roads lead back to 6-2-5-1.

This sequence of all major-7 chords yields a smoother, hipper, sound with less tension. We might think of it as 

Cmaj7 | A7sus | D7sus | G7sus || Cmaj7

All roads still lead back to 6-2-5-1. 

Relation to Giant Steps:

Let's take those first three chords and transpose them down a semitone.  Well also turn the second chord into a dominant and leave the third chord as a major-7:

Bmaj7 | D7 | Gmaj7

The first three bars of Giant Steps! 

Of course, we have no idea that this is what inspired Trane. The mind-blowing harmonic sequences of Giant Steps boil down to the three key centers: Gmaj, Bmaj, and Eb major, all separated by a major 3rd.  In the first eight bars they cycle quickly in descending order, so the beginning of each sequence happen to map nicely onto the Lady Bird ending. This is probably coincidence. In the second eight bars the key centers cycle in ascending order. Coltrane's composition is about the symmetry of those three key centers, spaced a major third apart, and the quick sequences they generate, not favoring any one. No cigar.

Suggested:

10 Must Know I VI II V Substitutions (by Jamie Holroyd)

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