Hi Mel,

Out of all instrumentalists, it is almost always the guitar players who seem to be so rigid about which chords are "right" in a tune *grin*.

Here we likely have a case where the Hal Leonard chart uses chord substitution or possibly reharmonization of a standard. Those chords will work with the song, but are not going to be the same as the "original" version of he song, of course.

The idea of whether those chords are "right" or "wrong" is a matter of personal perception, really.

Of course, when there's another rhythm player who is being obstinate on the gig, I just elect to play whatever chords they think are "right" anymore, as those kind of people can prove to be quite obstinate about such rather trivial matters IMO.

When I don't know which sheet contains the chords as played on the original recording where these transcriptions were derived from, I try to find the original recording and compare to find out for myself what the original players did. YouTube often has the song published online where you can dig it for free, just play along with it and see if the chords really match up or not. Often a one-handed situation just to find that out.

Finally, I have noted quite a few instances where NONE of the fakebooks nailed every chord that is in the original performance. That's always a hoot when confronted by the person who thinks that they know the "right" chord or chords, dontcha know...

Side Note: Awhile back I worked with a young jazz guitarist who used his iPhone to display Realbook chords on the gig. This person was typical and was always accusing me of using those "wrong" chords. Of course.

The first thing I told him was that if he still had to use the chart in order to play the tune, well then he did not know the tune and thus wasn't really ready to play a gig!

The second thing I told him was that it was MY daggone jazz quartet, formed to feature my piano playing, and if I wanted to substitute a chord, if I wanted to reharmonize a passage or an entire song, that was my prerogative and the "right" thing to to would be to support the rest of the band in that situation rather than being so darned obtuse about harmonization. After all, it is indeed a JAZZ band.

Of course, he didn't take too kindly to such common sense notions -- and does not get the gig anymore...


--Mac

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