Blue In Green first chord....

[Christian Miller]

The example I always think of when this original version stuff comes up is Miles and the first chord of Stella. That change, of course, being universally accepted.

It is not universally accepted… it really depends who you play with haha

Actually the RB chart is slightly inaccurate to the Miles Davis recording too, it’s not just the first chord.

BTW I think people are wrong on the origin of that first minor II V. Jim Hall plays it on his debut album which predates the Miles recording. Miles put it in Bb for the trumpet. Jim played it in G, which seems to be a preferred key for some players. Neither are the original key.

Both Jim and Miles lived in the same apartment block, so no doubt these changes were doing the rounds at the time.

There's absolutely nothing to stop someone improving a composition, especially if it's decades old (I'm not saying you don't agree with that, just saying).

Improvement is of course a subjective thing…

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[Christian Miller]

The older fake books I have say Bb/A (the melody note is E), and there are many other slash chords in the lead sheets. Real Book vol. VI has Bbmaj7b5/A, which makes me think of: | x-0-0-3-5-x |

I hear maj7#11 there but I think Pat probably did write maj7b5.

Older books tend not to include extensions expressed in the melody as part of the chord symbol so much.

For instance, the original Real Book is quite inconsistent about this in general. The New Real Book otoh is super consistent when it comes to jazz (non GASB) tunes - maybe to a fault. I would regard the NRB as representing modern standard practice.

In any case my point was the charts gives A in the bass, and this was Metheny’s intention.

In any case it’s Bb on the record.

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[ragman1]

It is not universally accepted… it really depends who you play with haha

I used the term 'universally' loosely, of course. Let's say most players I've looked at use it.

As a matter of interest, Barney Kessel played it solo and his first chord was interesting:


Make of that what you will!

Neither are the original key.

I'm not very worried about keys.

Improvement is of course a subjective thing…

Absolutely. Using Stella as an example, I'd probably say it's unlikely that a 1944 orchestral movie score is going to translate very well to a modern jazz combo so I'd expect some changes.