stella by starlight bill evans transcription

Instead of A-7 | D7 D#o | E-7 … they play A-7 A-/G | F#-7b5 F-6 | E-7 … dropping down on the E-7 rather then creeping up. They are in F, but I’ll continue here in the key of C. It is interesting to listen to the Scott Hamilron recording on the playlist at this point in the song. Notice that the peak of the song is about 7/8 of the way through.

It starts very like the B Section but the A-7 leads to D7 at the peak of the song which escapes chromaically up to E-7 (or C/E) for the final turnaround home via a D#o again, representing B7b9 a secondary dominant. When the song is actually played, rather than just analysed, the B Section is followed by a repeat of the A Section before the final section, C. G7 becomes Ab7 G7, another secondary dominant but this time a tritone sub. The Slow Launcher mentioned above, is broken down. The E7 leads to Am, making another chain of secondary dominants. As mentioned above, the D#o is B7b9 leading round the cycle to a chord on E, E7 this time. All of this before decoration chords again, I want to see the wood without looking at the trees.Īgain, diatonic subs are in evidence, I is substituted for III and then VI. In the B Section, the landmarks are I (or III if you like to think of C/E as Em) and VI and the second half of this section is a classic Slow Launcher (II7 followed by V7, two bars each). He preceded the Bb7 with B7 in bar 5, making an even longer chain of secondary dominants. Instead he makes a chain of secondary dominants and plays Bb7 A7 Dm. The A7 approaching Dm at bar 6 is often broken down into E-7b5 A7 but Evans does not not do this. The other chords I’ve written are the secondary dominants indicated by the use of arrows (resolving round the cycle) or dashed arrows (resolving down a semitone): Ab7 leads to G7 (it is a tritone sub of D7) C7 leads to F A7 leads to Dm D#o represents B7b9 leading to Em (which is what Cmaj7/E sounds like if the C is not included. So, the A Section has landmarks of I, V, I, IV and II. All discussed before in other blog articles here. After that we might allow secondary dominants and their associated II chords. If we imagine harmonising this song from scratch ourselves, we might start with only allowing I, IV and V and then after that allow diatonic substitutions. destinations or resting points or the original three chords, I, IV and V. If you look at the Roman numerals I have added, I have only added what I consider to be the landmarks in the key, i.e. The repeat sign I scribbled at the end of B means go back to the top but take the C section rather than B section. I’ve been lazy and have not written the second A out. Here is my scribbled analysis, based on a combination of the standard changes and what Evans played. The form is ABAC, a song of two halves, all sections 8 bars long as usual. If you don’t know this fabulous song, here is my playlist. So, I made a written analysis to distinguish what matters from what is mere decoration and it really helped.

But I found that I could not get my head round it. I’ve been trying to memorise this song, because Bill Evan’s made it sound so fantastic.

Stella by starlight bill evans transcription