TL;DR: When you change the III7 and VI7 in All of Me back to their diatonic Minor's, the tune is a good example of how a soloist can use color to alter the harmony by playing the Dominant harmony over the Minor chords.
Ah, I noticed a typo in the Real Book chart: the 2nd A9 should be an A Minor 7 chord.
For those wanting more elaboration: There are recordings at the end of the post illustrating the charts. I was playing through All of Me one day and noticed that the tune is just four 8-bar expanded turnarounds, with the diatonic iii and vi "jazzed up" by making them Dominant instead. The iii and vi chords are Em and Am in the Real Book key of C. It's a common substitution; most Minor chords can be made Dominant and sound pleasing. I realized that that was probably a smart decision by the composer because it does give the chord progression more interest. But then I wondered what it would sound like without the Dominant III7 and VI7 chords – E7 and A7 - and revert them back to their diatonic Minors, from E7 and A7 to Em and Am. So first, here's the chart as commonly played from the Real Book with the Dominants.
Here's the chart with the diatonic Minors.
I was surprised that I liked the vanilla version of the tune with the diatonic Minors too. I was surprised because ordinarily, I would have been first on the bus to dress up those Minors and make the harmony more interesting. In this case, I think I like it because 1) it's unexpected to my ear since I'm so used to hearing the Dominant chords, and 2) the melody is so strong that it carries the song regardless. It's worth noting that there's only one pitch in the melody that's not diatonic and that's the raised 3rd played over the III7 chord – E7. I could see calling this on the bandstand sometime just for the change, even though it's even less of a challenge to solo on.
The diatonic version of the tune is more somber and less cheerful – to my ear – so I wondered next what would happen if I reharmonized the tune in Minor instead. There's a lot of choices about which Minor scale to use, do you use the bVI or the Natural VI? but because of the iii chord – Em - being flatted – EbMajor - you can no longer get that nice parallel ii-V7 motion separated by a step - Em A7 Dm G7 becomes EbMaj AbMaj7 Dm7b5 G7b9. The Minor version of the tune sounds less like an expanded turnaround. Here's a chart. It sounds even more somber and again I could see calling this on the bandstand just for the freshness. I also think the Minor re-harm fits the lyrics better which I think are somewhere between macabre and sarcastic. I did have to change the melody a bit.
Next, I realized I could take the Dominant idea a step further and make the III7 and VI7 – E7 and A7- into 7#9 chords – E7#9 and A7#9. The 7#9 is one of the most tense sounding chords I can think of. I found I couldn't stomach the VI7#9 - A7#9 -but could see using the III7#9 – E7#9 - and calling it on a gig, again, just for the change. No chart of that because it's just swapping all of the E7s for E7#9s.
Finally, the real take-away for me, was that in some ways it's more interesting if the harmonist plays the straight diatonic Minor iii and vi – Em and Am - because then the soloist can use the III7 and VI7 – E7 and A7 - or moreover, the III7#9 and VI7#9 – E7#9 and A7#9 - harmony, to give their lines more interest. So, a nice example of playing "outside". But if the harmonist plays the 7#9s, then the soloist can use those pitches from the chords, but they're less interesting. Even more interesting is what happens when the harmonist plays the iii and vi and the bassist plays the 7#9s!
Ah, I noticed a typo in the Real Book chart: the 2nd A9 should be an A Minor 7 chord.
For those wanting more elaboration: There are recordings at the end of the post illustrating the charts. I was playing through All of Me one day and noticed that the tune is just four 8-bar expanded turnarounds, with the diatonic iii and vi "jazzed up" by making them Dominant instead. The iii and vi chords are Em and Am in the Real Book key of C. It's a common substitution; most Minor chords can be made Dominant and sound pleasing. I realized that that was probably a smart decision by the composer because it does give the chord progression more interest. But then I wondered what it would sound like without the Dominant III7 and VI7 chords – E7 and A7 - and revert them back to their diatonic Minors, from E7 and A7 to Em and Am. So first, here's the chart as commonly played from the Real Book with the Dominants.
Here's the chart with the diatonic Minors.
I was surprised that I liked the vanilla version of the tune with the diatonic Minors too. I was surprised because ordinarily, I would have been first on the bus to dress up those Minors and make the harmony more interesting. In this case, I think I like it because 1) it's unexpected to my ear since I'm so used to hearing the Dominant chords, and 2) the melody is so strong that it carries the song regardless. It's worth noting that there's only one pitch in the melody that's not diatonic and that's the raised 3rd played over the III7 chord – E7. I could see calling this on the bandstand sometime just for the change, even though it's even less of a challenge to solo on.
The diatonic version of the tune is more somber and less cheerful – to my ear – so I wondered next what would happen if I reharmonized the tune in Minor instead. There's a lot of choices about which Minor scale to use, do you use the bVI or the Natural VI? but because of the iii chord – Em - being flatted – EbMajor - you can no longer get that nice parallel ii-V7 motion separated by a step - Em A7 Dm G7 becomes EbMaj AbMaj7 Dm7b5 G7b9. The Minor version of the tune sounds less like an expanded turnaround. Here's a chart. It sounds even more somber and again I could see calling this on the bandstand just for the freshness. I also think the Minor re-harm fits the lyrics better which I think are somewhere between macabre and sarcastic. I did have to change the melody a bit.
Next, I realized I could take the Dominant idea a step further and make the III7 and VI7 – E7 and A7- into 7#9 chords – E7#9 and A7#9. The 7#9 is one of the most tense sounding chords I can think of. I found I couldn't stomach the VI7#9 - A7#9 -but could see using the III7#9 – E7#9 - and calling it on a gig, again, just for the change. No chart of that because it's just swapping all of the E7s for E7#9s.
Finally, the real take-away for me, was that in some ways it's more interesting if the harmonist plays the straight diatonic Minor iii and vi – Em and Am - because then the soloist can use the III7 and VI7 – E7 and A7 - or moreover, the III7#9 and VI7#9 – E7#9 and A7#9 - harmony, to give their lines more interest. So, a nice example of playing "outside". But if the harmonist plays the 7#9s, then the soloist can use those pitches from the chords, but they're less interesting. Even more interesting is what happens when the harmonist plays the iii and vi and the bassist plays the 7#9s!
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