SongTrellis
Music and Musical Know-how For You

Author:  Joe Bianco Posted:  7/9/01; 9:17:51 PM Topic:  Well You Needn't Msg#:  2008 (in response to 2006) Prev/Next:  2007/2009 Reads:  2814

I was talking to my cousin, a jazz bassist, and in his experience the G7 bridge is always used on club-type gigs. He feels this is due to the fact that the majority of persons playing tunes like this first learned of them from "The Real Book" (the original one), and so eventually those versions became the standard versions.

I'm curious as to what happens to the bridge melody in the Mathews Db7 bridge version. I had noticed the tritone sub relationship with the G7 and Db9 bridges, but the two melodies are completely different.

I will try to compare the melodies here (chords in parens):

Original Real Book bridge version (note the pickup note is the #11 ascending a half-step to the 5th, then the 4th motif):
C# | (G7) D G D C# D G | D D | (Ab7) Eb Ab Eb D Eb Ab | Eb Eb |
| (A7) E A E E (Bb7) F Bb F F | (B7) F# B F# E (Bb7) F Bb F Eb |
| (A7) E A E D (Ab7) Eb Ab Eb C# | (G7) D G Db C | (Gb7) B | etc.

Here's the New Real Book Alternate bridge (note how the pickup note is the chord root ascending a whole-step to the 9th - until the last six beats anyway - then keeping the 4th motif):
Db | (Db9) Eb Ab Eb Db Eb Ab | Eb D | (D9) E A E D E A | E Eb |
| (Eb9) F Bb F E (E9) F# B F# Eb | (Eb9) F Bb F D (D9) E A E Db |
| (Db9) Eb Ab Eb Db (C9) D G D C | (B9) Db Gb Db C (C7) B | etc.

The Ab7 bridge version has a melody similar to the G7 bridge (up a half-step of course) but with a slightly different descending pattern:
D | (Ab7) Eb Ab Eb D Eb Ab | Eb Eb | (A7) E A E D# E A | E E |
| (Bb7) F Bb F F (B7) F# B F# F# | (Bb7) F Bb F F (A7) E A E E |
| (Ab7) Eb Ab Eb Eb (G7) D G D D | (Gb7) Db Gb Db C | (C7) B | etc.

The interesting thing about the Ab7 version is that it keeps the ascending melodic motif like the G7 version, but mirrors the Db9 chord progression from a 5th away. Note that as the bridge chords start appearing two to the bar, in the G7 version there are two ascents before the descent:
| A7 Bb7 | B7 Bb7 | A7 Ab7 | etc.
where in the Db version you have one ascent before the descent:
| Eb9 E9 | Eb9 D9 | Db9 C9 | etc.
which matches the curve of the Ab7 version:
| Bb7 B7 } Bb7 A7 | Ab7 G7 | etc.

So I guess you could consider the Ab7 bridge version a hybrid combination of the G7 and Db bridges.

Please join our community at SongTrellis. Our contributors welcome your comments, suggestions and requests. As soon as you join the site (or login if you are a member) a response form will appear here.