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Summertime, whats the chords?


Raslee
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Ello folks, i'm not particularly jazzy but have been asked to do Summertime this weekend in A...i think the verse groove i'm kinda doing is something around A, B then C and back to B (In a kind of Moondance vibe), however i have no idea for the chords on the 'Fish are jumpin bit' and the 'Hush little baby'...i basically need a blaggers guide to the chords if that makes sense...the rest i'll funk up! :)
Any help always appreciated!

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There are other variations on the second four bars but they are only substitutions using cycle of fifths so, if you are not a jazzer and trying this for the first time, I'd stick to Doddy's changes.

Also, for you Moondance bit, try A, C, B, E intead of A, B, C, B as it resolves more naturally and is a bit more interesting. Just an opinion.

PS Moondance is probably the worst record ever. If you want to know what jazz is about DON'T use that as a guide :)

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If you want to get somewhere near the original "Porgy and Bess" version try this:

Slow tempo
||: Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / E7 Am7 |

Dm7 / F6 / | Dm7 / / F7 | E7 / B7 / | E7 / E7+ / |

Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / D9 / |

C / Am7 / | F7 / E7 / | Am7 / E7 / | Am7 / Bm7b5 E7 :||

There are many different possible variations on this chord sequence but this is near enough to the original.


The Major

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Who are you playing it with? What matters is not all the possible ways [i]Summertime[/i] can be played (... and, if you wanted a song where the answer is "it depends", you picked a good one with countless reharmonisations available!) but how the group of you are choosing to recreate it.

The simplest version I ever did boiled down to:

[code]Am | Am | Am | Am |
Dm | Dm | E7 | E7 |
Am | Am | Am | Am |
Dm | E7 | Am | Am |[/code]

Under the minor chords, I played a simple 1 2 b3 5 riff (A B C E or D E F A) and used the chords I've marked as E7 to put in little turnarounds. It's possible those weren't the chords everyone else was playing but provided a suitable (and simple) structure for me to hang it on.

The version I played most recently, in a more advanced jazz setting, had all sorts of "weird sh*t" going on and sounded wonderful but a) I can't remember it off the top of my head and :) to make the most of it the whole group would need to be singing off the same hymn sheet...

Wulf

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At my girlfriend's graduation a few weeks ago, while we were waiting for the ceremony to start, the Uni organist played a version of "Summertime" on the massive Glasgow Uni pipe organ (it was a hot and sticky day). That was quite fun.

No idea what the chords were though!

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