4 - The obvious note, the less obvious surroundings
A good tune tells a story or conveys a feeling, and to do that it has to have cohesion. Just like a joke builds up to a punchline, a jazz tune often starts with a little opening sentence, and then things happen to this first statement or idea. An interesting aspect in jazz writing is what I like to refer to as the obvious note in a less obvious context. If a phrase or the shape of a phrase is repeated once (or a few times), and then with a harmonic twist, so the listener, expecting something, is surprised to find out the harmony took a less obvious turn. Creating an expectation through repetition or devellopment of an idea or phrase, and then taking a turn into less expected terrain, with a common pivot note for instance, is a widly used technique. I will give a few examples.
The first sentance of Gershwin's "But not for me" starts with a Eb chord. The second line ("A lucky star's above, but not for me") has an identical melody but starts on the double dominant, in stead of the tonic chord. This kind of either repeating the exact same melody and placing it in a new context, or keeping the shape of the melody or the rhythm, with different pitches, and going through nice harmonic changes can be done in many ways. Cole Porter wrote his famous standard "It was just one of those things" using the rhythm of the words of the title, repeating this rhythm over and over again, allmost like a mold to which he fit the pitches and harmonic direction. Many of Porter's songs, now classic jazz standards use the same approach. "I concentrate on you" is a perfect example.
Some tunes stay in their key for a while, for 8 or 12 bars and then suddenly take a sidestep into an different key, where as others do so immediately. There are keys that are very common and popular, depending on style. For instance the relative major or minor keys, the keys that are related with common chords, but also the further away keys like up a major third or down a major third. It's good to find out if the tune has a sequencial melody, (either diatonic or chomatic), or makes use of common tones.
The well known standard "Here's that rainy day" Starts on the 5th, and that note immediately changes color as it becomes the 3rd of a dominant to take you to the chord on the flat six degree. Just like "What's new" does, it uses the same harmonic progression, but with a different common tone. A particularly nice composition that does this is Rob Pronk's "Some folks would say" It's full of nuances, subtle surprizes, held together by a great strong melody, with a dramatic climax five bars before the ending. Also the tritone [II V ] going to the IV at the end of bar 4 is a perfect example of the note G being kept as the color around it changes. (note that he uses a Eb augmented chord in the second ending)
Going up a major third happens in lots and lots of standards, and is a sound that becomes quite recognizable, with an effect that I like to compare to the sun coming out from behind clouds. It's a popular keychange at the beginning of a bridge. (Lover, The song is you, Polkadots and moonbeams, You're driving me crazy), or in the thirteenth bar of 32 bar standards like "Tangerine", "The touch of your lips" or "I Love You". You will allso see some nice examples in "Everybody's song but my own" later on.
Thake a look at this tune by Sanna van Vliet, a perfect example.
https://soundcloud.com/sanna-van-vliet/dont-be-fooled-s-van-vliet
The Pick up of the melody starts in bar 8, and the first chord of the A section is Cm. When it is repeated 8 bars later the chord is DØ which lets the harmony bend away in a different direction. The first different pitch is in bar 18. the Db and suddenly there is this II V I in Gb, a totally different key but it sounds totally logical because of the strong shape of the melody.
Here you see a great example of a surprising chord sequence, Kenny Wheelers "Everybody's Song but my own"
The intro uses a pedal and what I call the "flamenco" atmosphere, The flat 2 major as an alternating chord. (I guess it should have been notated a Bbb chord) The A sections are in Fm or Ab, the brigdge modulates to C major (the sun coming out), with the identical final note of the A sections, the Ab, first on the "flamenco chord" in bar 12, and on a DØ chord in bar 14. Then halfway the bridge it goes to E (the sun coming out again...) in bar 29.
Now we see the "daydream" motion of decending halfsteps, but not going to D in bar 29 as one would expect, but to our opening chord of Ab7sus4, how beautiful!
Another fine example of a tune that is easy to sing but has quite stunning harmony is Jerome Kern's "I Won't Dance" The bridge starts rather abrubtly in Ab, without preparation, because you see the Dm7 G7 in the previous bar, making you expect a C major chord. (The melody note is the obvious C though)
then halfway the bridge the Cb (the 7th of Db7) is repeated in the next phrase, though it changes enharmonically to the B (the tonic of the B7 chord) and we are thrown into a different key all together without a warning. This tune is great fun to improvise on, very singable though chalenging to hear the chord changes.
So to summarise, the "glue" that makes a song coherent is a strong melody, one that takes you along for a journey so to speak. When you repeat this melody, (with or without slight permutations in rhythm or pitch) and then make an unexpected change in key, but keeping the line singable and logical, you can create interesting moments in the song, and a pleasant, sophisticated harmonic structure to solo upon.
