The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    Came across the Library of Congress copyright registration score for Wayne Shorter's Yes And No, and it's got something pretty odd in it. Pretty much every chart for this tune has the B section starting with Am7b5, but Shorter seems to have written Ao9, aka diminished 9. Then in the 3rd bar he writes D9o, which I don't really think is a thing but could plausibly mean b9, which would square with the conventional D7b9.

    Changed changes for Yes And No? (Wayne Shorter)-yes-no-excerpt-loc-chart-jpg

    The scan is a little gritty around there, but I can't see how those were intended as anything other than diminished symbols. There are plenty of other places where he writes a flat symbol or a ?, and neither resembles that o.

    Anyone have an idea what's going on here? The b7 is in the melody, which would support the conventional half-diminished, but this seems like a pretty unusual copyist error to make.

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  3. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by abbnyc
    Came across the Library of Congress copyright registration score for Wayne Shorter's Yes And No, and it's got something pretty odd in it. Pretty much every chart for this tune has the B section starting with Am7b5, but Shorter seems to have written Ao9, aka diminished 9. Then in the 3rd bar he writes D9o, which I don't really think is a thing but could plausibly mean b9, which would square with the conventional D7b9.

    Changed changes for Yes And No? (Wayne Shorter)-yes-no-excerpt-loc-chart-jpg

    The scan is a little gritty around there, but I can't see how those were intended as anything other than diminished symbols. There are plenty of other places where he writes a flat symbol or a ?, and neither resembles that o.

    Anyone have an idea what's going on here? The b7 is in the melody, which would support the conventional half-diminished, but this seems like a pretty unusual copyist error to make.
    Interesting, do you have a link to the complete tune? It's possible that he developed his own notational shorthand (shorterhand?). Notice that the D7b9 that follows is written 'D9o'.

  4. #3
    Comes from a journal article, and I'm not sure what the forum policy is on copyright, so don't think I can link it. There's not much else of note in there anyway, just that Ao9 - D9o

  5. #4

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    Just checked the original manuscript for Nefertiti and all the chords that appear as m7b5 in real books are once again written as o9.

  6. #5
    Interesting! By any chance are there any where there's a bb7/?6 in the melody, or where there's no b9/?9/#9 in the melody? Just trying to get a sense of how he's defining that harmony, since the relevant melody in Yes & No implies the quality of the 7th & 9th.

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by abbnyc
    Came across the Library of Congress copyright registration score for Wayne Shorter's Yes And No, and it's got something pretty odd in it. Pretty much every chart for this tune has the B section starting with Am7b5, but Shorter seems to have written Ao9, aka diminished 9. Then in the 3rd bar he writes D9o, which I don't really think is a thing but could plausibly mean b9, which would square with the conventional D7b9.

    Changed changes for Yes And No? (Wayne Shorter)-yes-no-excerpt-loc-chart-jpg

    The scan is a little gritty around there, but I can't see how those were intended as anything other than diminished symbols. There are plenty of other places where he writes a flat symbol or a ?, and neither resembles that o.

    Anyone have an idea what's going on here? The b7 is in the melody, which would support the conventional half-diminished, but this seems like a pretty unusual copyist error to make.
    Good find!

    This is the sort of thing that gives me a big jazz nerd boner. I’ll have a look and a listen and see what I think.

  8. #7

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    Yeah that is hard to get my head around... Clearly there's a Bb later on, so maybe Ao9 means Ao7 + b9 (i.e. A C Eb Gb Bb)?