Hi Peter,

Here's my take on it:

C | Cdim7 | Dm7 | G7 -- A popular sub for Rhythm Changes in the early era, I tend to think of the Cdim7 here as sub for Am also, but in this case Am6ALT that includes the b5 and b9 w/o root. Am6b5b9 A bit dense, though, so I save such for the wild stuff, would likely make more palatable harmony to go with the full diminished there, which would drop that b9 concept for the A. When it was used in Rhythm Changes it freed up the Bass player to stay on the C for the first three bars, then leaving the choice to drop a half step for the V7 chord, yielding a G7/B, or just play the root after the three C notes.

C | Ebdim7 | Dm7 | G7
Forces Bass note to be the b5 of that Amin7 sub above, retaining the 6th of the A chord, but this time the third of the A chord is impied Major rather than minor. I can be accused of grabbing such a sub where it seems appropriate to play that Am7 in the typical I, vi, ii, V7 as I,VI, II, V7. (ala the first two lines of Rhythm Changes in the original, but without the iii sub for the I the second time around.)

F | F#dim7 | C/G | A7

Now we are steering away from the Rhythm Changes type of sub. If the following bar were to be Dm, this might make a way to get there rather than the old two five one method. "Five to Five" modulation in the last two bars.


There's that old school jazzer's rule of thumb that if a chord shares two or more notes with another, then it likely can be used as a sub. Well, if the given Melody doesn't create a clam problem.

--Mac

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