SK

Glad you've made good on your 'threat', Dave. Nice sounding recording, very nice groove in the bass lines, authentic time period style and good sense of time. Smooth. The little flits of fast lines are fun - like something else could break out at any moment. The minor chord at the end was your signature DNA. Thanks for posting that. And if I may say so, it sounds "musical" - but don't take that the wrong way. (I'm not a "chick/ass kicking classical player".) Yeah, it's pretty easy to do, which is why we have so many pages of this stuff. Encore. Now kanker, your turn.

You're welcome - not a big deal at all. There are always a few passing changes I don't put in charts, but you're 'the king of passing changes', so you'll have plenty to work with. The older style I used on it didn't allow for much experimentation. Look forward to a new version by you, if you do. I do think my melody is probably accurate, but checking couldn't hurt.

Carlo, I missed a few days in there too, and I'm likely to miss a few more this weekend. Let's see... I could write it and set up my scanner, or just put the chords here. I've never 'typed' a song before. Two beats per chord until the bridge: Why Shouldn't I First 'A' Cmaj7 A7/ Dm G7/ Cmaj7 Am/ D(over Gb bass) Fm Em Am/ Ab7+11 G7/ Em7 A7/ Ab7+11 G7 2nd 'A' Em11 A7/ Dm7 G7/ C6 Am/ F#m13 B7 Emaj7 C#m7/ F#7 B7/Fmaj7 E7/ Bb7 A7 Bridge Dm/ Em7 A7/ Dm/ Eb dim./ Em7/ Am11 D7 Dm13 Eb9/ Dm7 G7 Last 'A' Cmaj7 Eb dim/ Dm11 G7/ Gm7 C9/ Fmaj7 Eb7 Dm7 Ab7+5/ G7/ C Eb7/ Abmaj7 Dbmaj7 Last two bars are a turnaround. Put this with the simple melody on my link and you should have it.

Whenever you get to it, LB, we'll enjoy hearing it. If you came up with a version similar to OP's, I think that's great. No reason not to post it.

The is the best I've found of it - it claims "free" digital download but also says $1.95.(?) http://search.musicnotes.com/?q=Why+Shouldn%27t+I%3F&search_id=Top&hl=n&x=47&y=10 Looks like Bud Powell, Lena Horne and Sinatra recorded it, among others. Now that I've seen the lyrics, it's no surprise it isn't played much.

Carlo and LB, I went out on a limb there to be a little different, so thanks a lot for the words of support. This really is the most "solo piano" I've ever played (publicly) in this thread, so nothing I post is in the realm of what I normally do in trio or quartet situations, and this didn't either. I think "Why Shouldn't I" is a cool old tune, and I'm a little surprised it's so rarely played. Carlo, I chose it because you're doing a Cole Porter CD. I thought you may have a bonafide version ready to post back, as I'd really like to hear what you'd do with it. Come to think of it, I don't know that I've ever seen a chart on this tune either. I learned it years ago by ear, and while my chords are right, the melody may be slightly different, as I played it in the interpretational style of what I'd originally heard. So I could write the chords out and hook up my scanner if you want, although the tune is very accessible and easy to hear and you may have it by now. I'll see if I can find a chart of it on the net too. BTW, on the top of my solo, I quoted "My Way" since an 'unnamed' member here sent me a reharm he had done of that. The quote was a message of hope that he will add his good playing to this thread. And hey ORGAN players, you should post something here too! That's another reason why I faked organ for a few bars. This isn't just for piano - let's hear some REAL organ!

Thanks Roger. Yep, those were the numbers... you know your instrument.

Must have been the $350 headphones I was using.

That was cool, Sue. After I adjusted past the first few seconds (which sounded like eerie music from a flick like "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?") it was actually very pretty. The piano sample sounded good too. "Impressions" was where it went to Dm and Ebm for 24 bars, played straight. The rest was "JAM" in Bb. Opening this thread up now to include OT stuff, anybody learn a new tune you'd like to share? Anybody affected by those storms in the US yesterday? How's it going out there, everybody?

Until someone posts something new, here are two "novelty" tunes. I hesitated to go way OT on my own reharm thread, but then I thought "Why Shouldn't I?" - another Cole Porter. It's not the style I play at all anymore, but I tried to have fun with some sounds in the FP4 and do a semi-authentic straight ahead version - tribute to the era of 'meat and potatoes' bebop (had to put myself back in a mindset of years ago.) And it's dangerously close to being corny, but that was part of the fun. As I said: a novelty tune. I tried to be faithful to John Coates, Jr.'s style (and version I once heard) on this song, also with a nod to Toots Thielman. I played it split - the piano in the right hand and the bass (with cymbal) in the left, in real time, so the time is a bit precarious and no left hand chords. Then I added harmonica, a guitar sound and organ. Going for a Jack MacDuff/Jimmy Smith/Don Patterson style. I haven't played organ since my early 20's, so this will probably be the only time I'll try it. Remember, this is just for fun, with my main focus on assuming the personality of these instruments in a bygone era. http://www.divshare.com/download/4474008-165 And as a palette cleanser, here's a crazy jazz/rock fusion 'tribute'. I just improvised it one time through on piano, threw in a bit of Impressions, and added some sounds afterwards. It's nuts, which was all I was going for. http://www.divshare.com/download/4473997-e11 I will do more reharms at some point. I have a ton of old ones I've done, but I always try to do something new for this thread.

Understood. Me too, for that matter - just not enough time. Whenever it happens, it'll be good to hear it.

cnegrad, thank you man, but I'm dying to hear more of your playing. That one tune you contributed stood out. I did listen to a lot of classical music and played some of it by ear, which counts for something. And I paid attention to the better film scores, like Alex North, Bernard Herrmann, etc. After a while some of that stuff gets in you, and I'm guessing that might explain the style I played on that last A, since I don't know where else it could have come from.

Oh, that tune... I had no idea what you were talking about, Sue. Glad you got it, thanks, but you could have just watched it, without downloading that monster.

Thank you all very much. Nice job on I Concentrate On You. I'll look forward to your future CD of CP stuff. (The Reharm Club Presents) Sorry for not being around much. My batteries are charged and being used more for writing new stuff and playing gigs right now. I will post something new as soon as I can.

Wow Dave. Top notch. I also love Evans' thoughts on that series. Yeah Carlo, the Yogi thing is a little annoying, but maybe funny for those who hadn't seen it. Dumb story - I just remembered my very first 'live' reharm on a band gig. It was a dance club, and I was about 19. The song was "Color My World" - a rock ballad waltz in 6 with slow, four note arpeggios. I put raised 5's on the major sevens, and made the minor chords minor major sevens, etc. The dance floor took on a sick "Twilight Zone" groove. I was afraid people would get mad... but they kept dancing.

To make up for that... something worthwhile: I have this series of videos at home but tjjazzpiano brought it to my attention that they're now also on YouTube. Bill Evans' insights are timeless and completely relevant to the present. Worth checking out, along with Steve Allen's comments. This one's part 1 of 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm6V7bWnVpw&eurl=http://linear1.net/jpcollective/index.php/topic,337.msg3082.html

+1 and ditto Dave and Carlo, you guys deserve a medal for all the free good info you're providing. Trying to describe music or teach basics in a few sentences can be confusing, but you guys do a great job. But speaking of needlessly confusing, here's Yogi Berra's perspective: Jazz according to Yogi Berra Interviewer: Can you explain jazz? Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong. Interviewer: I don't understand. Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's whats so simple about it. Interviewer: Do you understand it? Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know anything about it. Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today? Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it. Interviewer: What is syncopation? Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds. Interviewer: Now I really don't understand. Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.

Very cool, Jazz+. Hope to hear them sometime.

Yep, the very reason I never try to do that. Ha, thanks for reading whatever I just wrote. If it made some sense, at best, maybe it will open us to experiment with our different approaches for future reharms.

Man, Carlo, glad you didn't feel any need to defend because I wasn't being critical. The whole belabored point was for comparisons; to show our different thought processes on how to approach changing the same tune. Not a matter of right or wrong, and certainly not bad. And I was hoping for 'interesting' there, not confusing. Sorry to put you through that! You understood most of what I was saying, but (ah) I think I found where the perspectives differ just now... Yes, regarding the unadulerated original changes, you perceive them as a numeric chord progression leading to Ab, which technically is correct. Now this is going to be tough to explain, but it's my own fault for trying to anyway, so here it is: When a composition is complete, we can look at the chord symbols and assign their value, as a II, or a IV, for example, based on the direction and chords they ultimately lead to. It's a subtle difference here. From a strictly ear perspective, playing in the moment, one tone leads to another, and you're free to go anywhere at any moment. There is a different impact when you only hear the first two chords - Fm to Bbm. At that point, it hasn't resolved to Ab yet, so the emotional feel is a brief resolution in the key of Bb minor. Rhythmically that's borne out too, by the way the time pauses on the Bbm, the Ab, and ultimately the Cmaj7 - as though these are each moments of some brief resolution. So if we heard two chords, Fm to Bbm - and the room blew up and we didn't hear the rest of the song, we might not think that was necessarily part of a progression in Ab. Can't believe I've gotten myself into this but my point was the stress of the timing of the lines with the sense of resolution at each of those points, even though they are a progression in Ab after the fact, give the hint of resolution to me. So in a new reharm, I might try to preserve that effect for tentative resolutions, but change the chords to new resolutions. And you chose to look at it as a series of longer progressions for chordal substitutions throughout leading to A or E or Db, which is certainly commendable, logical and brilliant in its own way. For emotional effect, I take one note and moment at a time to consider the next one, as though the rest of the song hasn't been written yet. And in spite of the fact I 'know' where the rest of the tune is supposed to go. So I try to preserve those spots or hooks that seem to identify the tune. Your approach was a grander, more elaborate reharmonization with many more harmonic possibilities, which I thought was fascinating - and maybe another reason why our reharms sound different. And I'm glad they do! Whew! This was about perspective only, and the most I've written about music in a long time too. If it still doesn't make sense, let's go vegetate in the BossAquarium and forget all about it.

Very well delineated, Carlo, and thoughtful explanation. I played your chords, so hope you don't mind... I'll try to give a little further analysis here which I don't usually attempt, except in a bird's eye type view. I'm sure this will prove to be most unacademic. It's interesting: the Gm / C7 (or 3rd and 4th bars of the A sections) feel (to me) like unresolved passing chords leading to the next set of changes. That's just an observation, not a criticism. That's a shift in the equilibrium from the original, where the song resolves on the 2nd bar on Bbm, the 4th bar to the key of Ab, and continues on to 'unexpectedly' resolve in C, like an addendum to the previous set of changes. The A section contains 3 separate key resolutions. So the original A section resolves with two bars- one key - two bars - another key - and then 4 bars - a final key. Your new version is 8 bars of chords, all leading in various ways to one resolved key of A or E by the 7th and 8th bar. In the original, the resolution through 2,5's to each key gives a specific momentum to the tune. Each resolved key becomes like an anchor, to be sprung from again. By having almost 8 bars of unresolved keys, the equilibrium is stretched broadly and actually becomes a different musical experience. Now of course, that's all a matter of personal taste, with lots of possibilities. Yours was very creative and honestly wouldn't have occurred to me. This was just to show how people may look at the same material differently, or as to what they consider in approaching a rewrite. And Carlo, I applaud your creative treatment.

Carlo, I think I may just consider that suggestion of a week at a mountain resort. heh Hey Richard. That was a tenor sax sound from the humble FP4. LB, there's a purity and honesty in your playing. Plus you have a relaxed, nice sense of time.

Well, thanks cnegrad. I consider it my best work of the thread. (looking around for a puking icon here) Hope this doesn't ruin the thread.)

"key element" restored... "Sonic nirvana/summit"? Wow, thanks! I guess I can retire now. And apologies to my fellow reharmonizers for being so immature. This is what is known (in the 'industry') as a temporary meltdown.

Thank you, Jazz+! Glad you liked that. Now there was a mention of writer's block a few posts back. If anyone wants to know what that's like, I took the 3 most discussed tunes on the KC forum in the past weeks (Ipanema, Night&Day and Mr. Sandman) and put together this little 'writer's block training film'. Yes... this is so wrong... http://www.divshare.com/download/4366589-6a1