Chord in My Old Flame

[charlieparker]

In Tal Farlow's version of My Old Flame he plays the following

Gmaj7 - G B D F# B
F#7#9 - F# A# E A D
B??? - B G Eb F
E7b9 - E D G# C# F

The chart I looked up was
|Gmaj7 | B-7b5 E7b9|...

I was wondering if anyone could "interpret" the B G Eb F chord. Is it some sort of substitution for B-7b5?

[KirkP]

I think he just changed the B-7b5 to some flavor of B7alt.
Making the chord a dominant adds some tension to make it pull a little harder toward the next chord, and the alt tones (sharp or flat 5ths or 9ths) add even more tension.
Or one could call it F9b5/B, which completes the chromatic line from G down to E.

[grahambop]

What Kirk says.

Those are nice chords, there's a bit more to the last 2 chords though, I hear this:

Gmaj7: x.10.12.11.12.x

F#7 #9#5: x.9.8.9.10.10

B7#5b5: 7x586x then he adds a quick Bb on the 4th string to lead into:

Fmaj: xx756x then he adds a quick F on the 5th string to lead into:

E13b9: 0x0121

[charlieparker]

What Kirk says.

Those are nice chords, there's a bit more to the last 2 chords though, I hear this:

Gmaj7: x.10.12.11.12.x

F#7 #9#5: x.9.8.9.10.10

B7#5b5: 7x586x then he adds a quick Bb on the 4th string to lead into:

Fmaj: xx756x then he adds a quick F on the 5th string to lead into:

E13b9: 0x0121

Yeah, that's what I heard. I thought that was just some melodic fill over the B chord. For the chord you labeled Fmaj, I thought, I heard xx786xx. I will have to listen again.

[grahambop]

I listened to another clip on youtube (sound was better) and ran it at 75% speed to check (you can change speed in the youtube settings).

I definitely hear the F major triad in there. It’s not something I would think of, but Tal makes it sound great of course!

[charlieparker]

I listened to another clip on youtube (sound was better) and ran it at 75% speed to check (you can change speed in the youtube settings).

I definitely hear the F major triad in there. It’s not something I would think of, but Tal makes it sound great of course!

The F major is also pretty close to the B-7b5 if you imagine the B is still ringing.

[KirkP]

Note that B-7b5, B7b5, F7, and F7b5 all are formed from notes in the B7-alt scale (1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7). So Tal might just be thinking B7-alt and playing around with chords from that scale.

The B7alt scale is the 7th mode of C-melodic-minor and the 4th mode of F-lydian-dominant, so if you prefer, you can think of those scales and use chords from them.

For example, thinking of C-melodic-minor might lead one to try Cmin6 chord before the E7, which sounds pretty good to me.

I’m finally beginning to study use of these scales after neglecting them for far to long, and it seems like they apply well to this thread. I hope someone will correct me if I’m off base.