All of You - Miles Changes

[sully75]

I was trying to transcribe the Miles studio version of All of You. This is what I came up with. I always find doing this difficult, I mostly went on the bass movement.

I'd love if someone with a better ear than me could take a look. The real book changes are weird but Miles' changes seem weird too.

I really can't tell what's going on in bar 5. Is it straight back to Eb? It feels clunky.

[Rene Asologuitar]

Following this.
Trying to learn as well!

[Jazzjourney4Eva]

The Miles Davis Omnibook has this transcribed. I just looked it up on Amazon and could see at least a few choruses of it by simply clicking.

Just sayin’.

[sully75]

I think that's the plugged nickle version in a different key?

[sully75]

Anyone got time to look this over?

[ragman1]

I'm not familiar enough with this tune to comment on bar 5. Theoretically there's not much wrong with Bb7b9 to EbM7 so maybe it's something to do with the melody. I'd have to explore more.

Mind you, it's a pretty clunky tune. They all sound clunky when they play it!

Even Bill.

[grahambop]

I had a listen to the Miles studio version and I think your changes sound ok. The only thing I would change is to keep bar 5 as F half dim, (= Fm7b5) same as bar 1, because I think that is what is happening in that bar functionally. Sounds like Paul Chambers plays a pedal Eb there for some reason, but Red Garland is not playing an Eb chord, I think he’s just playing whatever he played in bar 1.

If you put an Eb bass under an Fm7b5 chord there, it still works ok. Also bear in mind this tune uses either Fm7b5 or Abmin6 in a few places, these 2 chords are pretty interchangeable. So you could also look at that bar as being an Abmin6 chord but with Paul Chambers playing a 5th (Eb) in the bass. All sounds the same really.

I think these guys just played these old standards by ear, there wouldn’t have been any music, so sometimes I think Red might play one chord and Paul might play a different bass note, it does sound a bit loose or ambiguous at times. But they make it all work somehow.

Also I think Miles tweaked the melody a bit in bars 7 and 8, what he plays there doesn’t fit the usual chord there (Abmin6 or Fm7b5), but it fits the Gm and C7 chords they have used.

As to understanding the chord progression, either Miles’ version or the real book, to me what the chords are essentially doing is continually cycling between the Fm (or Abm) and Eb, you could see it as a ii to I cycle, or a backdoor move (iv to I, i.e. Abm to Eb). Everything else is just passing chords to keep the cycle going round.

[ragman1]

Personally, I'd stop messing around with it and just play the tune. Which is definitely clunky, by the way. No question about that.

[grahambop]

I did a version of this tune once, I think it was in the practical standards thread or something. I remember listening to the Miles track to hear how it went, but I based mine more on the real book version. I don’t think I really noticed at the time that they were a bit different.

Anyway here’s my version. I also did a chart of the chord arrangement I used for the head, it might be of use (can’t remember why I wrote it out now! Someone must have asked about it).

[grahambop]

Bill Evans was interested in what he called ‘rhythmic displacement’ in his later years, there is a lot of it going on in his version. In fact he discussed and demonstrated it with ‘All Of You’ in an interesting interview on Marian McPartland’s radio programme, starts about 4 minutes in:

[ragman1]

Graham -

You beat me to it. I've just tried to do it. Not too clunky but it's still all over the place a bit. What was Mr. Porter thinking of?

Nothing like yours, of course, yours is proper jazz.

[ragman1]

This is really nice. Bill and Marian chatting. There are two versions of All Of You. Bill Evans by himself at about 4.30 and as a duet at 7.05. But it's much better listening to it as a whole.

I still say it's a clunky tune!

[sully75]

I had a listen to the Miles studio version and I think your changes sound ok. The only thing I would change is to keep bar 5 as F half dim, (= Fm7b5) same as bar 1, because I think that is what is happening in that bar functionally. Sounds like Paul Chambers plays a pedal Eb there for some reason, but Red Garland is not playing an Eb chord, I think he’s just playing whatever he played in bar 1.

If you put an Eb bass under an Fm7b5 chord there, it still works ok. Also bear in mind this tune uses either Fm7b5 or Abmin6 in a few places, these 2 chords are pretty interchangeable. So you could also look at that bar as being an Abmin6 chord but with Paul Chambers playing a 5th (Eb) in the bass. All sounds the same really.

I think these guys just played these old standards by ear, there wouldn’t have been any music, so sometimes I think Red might play one chord and Paul might play a different bass note, it does sound a bit loose or ambiguous at times. But they make it all work somehow.

Also I think Miles tweaked the melody a bit in bars 7 and 8, what he plays there doesn’t fit the usual chord there (Abmin6 or Fm7b5), but it fits the Gm and C7 chords they have used.

As to understanding the chord progression, either Miles’ version or the real book, to me what the chords are essentially doing is continually cycling between the Fm (or Abm) and Eb, you could see it as a ii to I cycle, or a backdoor move (iv to I, i.e. Abm to Eb). Everything else is just passing chords to keep the cycle going round.

Sorry for the delayed response. I think you're right entirely, I was confused by the Eb that PC is putting in the bass but it absolutely works under all those chords and that makes everything work out perfectly. Thanks for solving my mystery!

[grahambop]

No problem, it was interesting figuring out how Miles’ version was a bit different from the usual, I hadn’t noticed it before!