"Solar" by Miles Davis | My Chord-Melody Arrangement

[Nas]

Hi everyone! My name is Anastasia Bogdanova, or just Nas. And this is my new arrangement of Solar. Hope you'll enjoy it!

[Clint 55]

Sounds good! I thought all your voicings sounded good and I like the little bit of bass you played with your thumb to make the rhythms more interesting, the counter melodies too.

Any explanation on your approach to harmonizing each melody note? I have been using the approach of alternating between the written chord and a diminished chord (if it fits). Kind of the Barry Harris model.

[Nas]

Thanks for your feedback! My arrangements are a mix of my knowledge from the course of jazz harmony, as well as my own experience of playing different arrangements, Joe Pass's for example. When making them, I don't really think of rules, it's more like improvisation. But now analysing it, I can say, what I used here.
So, during first 2 bars on C-maj7 I just use melodic minor scale harmony with Ebmaj7#5 as III chord, Dm7 is borrowed from C minor scale.
3 and 4 bars (Gm7 C7) - this is II-V of F major, so I added Am7 from the same scale. And F#dim7 is borrowed from G harmonic major scale - because I assumed Gm as a tonic chord for just a moment.
Fmaj7 is followed by auxiliary chord Fdim. Gm7 is from F major scale harmony.
Dm7b5 is VII chord from Eb maj scale harmony, I play it a little bit ahead, during II-V to Ebmaj. And Dm7b5 is followed by passing chord Edim7.
And so on....
If you need, I can explain the rest of it.
And year, Barry Harris's method is also a great way of harmonisation especially for scale kind melodies.

[Clint 55]

Thanks for your feedback!

You're welcome! I'm glad I asked. I'm new to chord melody and kind of figured it wasn't an exact science and you can just make stuff up from rules or not and see if it sounds good. It was helpful to see someone else's thought process, those examples will be helpful to me, thanks.

[Sam Sherry]

You may draw some different inspirations from Bill Evans' version from "Sunday At the Village Vanguard."

[Clint 55]

Bill Evans is NUTS!

[Sam Sherry]

Bill Evans is NUTS!

Scott LaFaro died almost sixty years ago.

Even sixty years later there is more freedom in his playing, in this playing, on this record, than most of us let ourselves have. The wind is still blowing through the doors he opened!

[Clint 55]

I agree. I like bassists to swing with quarter notes, but LaFaro really perfected the approach of interplay with the band throughout the tune. It's a lot to try to follow sometimes but the time is always there. So impressive. My favorite example is Come rain or come shine off portrait in jazz.