Barney Kessel on Autumn Leaves harmonization

[BartLutsch]

In his version of Autumn Leaves, Barney harmonises the melody like in the screenshot. He builds an Ab and a B over the D in the melody. But these notes don’t fit the key of Eb major, nor do they really fit over Bb7. How should I see this? How does he harmonize like that. I’ve seen his video on harmonization but it doesn’t make things easier. Can someone explain this? Thanks!

[Tal_175]

It's just tritone sub, Bmin7-E7.

[Tal_175]

In his version of Autumn Leaves, Barney harmonises the melody like in the screenshot. He builds an Ab and a B over the D in the melody. But these notes don’t fit the key of Eb major, nor do they really fit over Bb7. How should I see this? How does he harmonize like that. I’ve seen his video on harmonization but it doesn’t make things easier. Can someone explain this? Thanks!

Why do you think Ab doesn't fit over Bb7? That's just the 7th. I thought you would be more mystified over the A natural which actually is not in the chord. The notes B and A suggest tritone 2-5 in fact the guide tones lines A to G# are the moving voices there. A very common harmonization idea.

[AllanAllen]

Well, first off. The key isn’t major…

[alltunes]

Well, first off. The key isn’t major…

relative major?

[AllanAllen]

relative major?

That’s not things work.

You don’t call a blues in F major when you mean Bb.

You don’t call So What in C major. It’s just wrong.

[ragman1]

I've deleted my other posts because Tal is right, he was thinking E7. I didn't go far enough into the rest of the transcription. You'll see the E7's popping up further on.

[alltunes]

That’s not things work.

You don’t call a blues in F major when you mean Bb.

You don’t call So What in C major. It’s just wrong.

Not trying to pick fights just trying to understand better….examples above not the best…assuming your talking about a Bb blues it would Eb

but interestingly if you think Eb major and its diatonic chords you can get some different things to play over the Bb7 chord…in other words you are “ thinking”of the Bb7 as the V chord I think I saw this concept on a Don Mock video years ago…taking it a little further Fm and Gm are chords in the key of Eb…you can comp Fm and Gm triads over the I chord..and of course expand the concept over each chord in a blues…

[AllanAllen]

Not trying to pick fights just trying to understand better….examples above not the best…assuming your talking about a Bb blues it would Eb

but interestingly if you think Eb major and its diatonic chords you can get some different things to play over the Bb7 chord…in other words you are “ thinking”of the Bb7 as the V chord I think I saw this concept on a Don Mock video years ago…taking it a little further Fm and Gm are chords in the key of Eb…you can comp Fm and Gm triads over the I chord..and of course expand the concept over each chord in a blues…

You’re right, I had it flipped. F Mixolydian is Bb major. I’m not great at being clever. Bb mixo is Eb major.

I love the Don Mock stuff. He’s got some tutorials on YouTube I’ve watched a dozen times pulling bits and pieces.

[paulkogut]

the a-natural and c are acting as a F dominant 7 , moving to the a-flat, b natural (which is really a c-flat but most folk will write b natural) d, which is a Bb7b9 , to Ebmajor7 then A7 as a tritone substitution of Eb7, most likely going to Abmajor

PK

[mikeSF]

chromatic passing tones to complete the line: Bb, A, Ab, G. His counterpoint is rich here, as there is also C, B, Bb as well as the ascending line: Bb, C, D, D (as part of the melody). Barney loved his oblique motion.

[BartLutsch]

chromatic passing tones to complete the line: Bb, A, Ab, G. His counterpoint is rich here, as there is also C, B, Bb as well as the ascending line: Bb, C, D, D (as part of the melody). Barney loved his oblique motion.

do you think it’s better to see it this way? Like a melody line with intervals on top that move a certain direction instead of a melody line with chords build on top?

[mikeSF]

Not a better way, just another way to look at it.

[zebredacier75]

He was a famous jazz pianist who first came up with the idea of creating a harmonic modification on the third and fourth bars. This innovation was then adopted by many other jazz musicians. Do you know who it was and in what year?

This video gives you the answer! (English subtitles available)