Minor M Is Flanagan

Jason Lyon 2008, jlyon@opus28.co.
uk
www.opus28.co.uk/jazzarticles.html
MINOR MISHAP
TOMMY FLANAGAN SOLO
This is a transcription of the two-chorus solo that pianist Tommy Flanagan takes on his own
composition Minor Mishap. Youll find it on the classic album The Cats (with John Coltrane,
Kenny Burrell and Idrees Sulieman).
The tune is a good blowing vehicle: [A
1
] short turnarounds in Bbm, [A
2
] short turnarounds in
Fm, [B] long turnarounds in EbM and DbM, [A
3
] short turnarounds in Bbm.
Ive given the book changes for comparison, but Tommys a bebopper at heart he usually
ignores the II chords and focuses on dominant-tonic motion. Also, even though the written
changes give the dominants as 7+9s, Tommys preferred alteration is 7b9. Actually, if you
think about it, the alt and diminished dominant scales have more in common than not six
tones so a lot of patterns are compatible with both.
The book changes are virtually irrelevant to what Tommys doing in the final 4 bars of each A
section. The solo line indicates that at these points hes just thinking in Bbm, or in Fm, using
the relevant dominant chords (7b9s, natch) to weave out and in again creating and
resolving tension. Dont believe everything you read in fakebooks use your ears
The minor blues scale is used extensively on the Bbm A sections to generalise over the
changes (note how Tommy energises the line with strong rhythms). In contrast, on the Fm A
sections he prefers to chase the changes in a more beboppy way.
Confused about the Ab7alt voicing in bar 6 of the second chorus B section? Its the same as
an unaltered rootless voicing a tritone away (D7). The top voice of this chordal fragment
descends the bottom three notes of the Ab7alt/7b9 scale, landing on the 5
th
of the target DbM.
This is a common comping gesture over a V-I and well worth knowing in all the keys.
A word on the key signature: the tune is in Bb minor and the classically correct key signature
is 5 flats. But jazz tends to use melodic, rather than classical minor. Also, a jazz chart is going
to involve a lot of use of the natural 7
th
of the key which is the 3
rd
of the dominant chord.
For these reasons, its often much clearer and simpler to notate a jazz solo with the major key
signature and flat the 3
rd
where required in the chart (this trick is often employed by
arrangers). Thats what Ive done here. By the way, leadsheets in minor tend to be written
with the correct classical key signature.
THE BEBOP DESCENDING SCALE RUN
Look at what Tommy plays in bar 6 of the second A, first chorus. What hes actually doing
here is adding a temporary C7 chord and resolving it to Fm (well ignore the turn at the start):
C7 Fm
G F E Db C Bb Ab
Tommy is fond of this kind of thing, but its a classic bebop gesture (youll hear it in the hands
of everyone from Bud Powell to Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and onwards).
Tommy places the line so that he only descends as far as the 3
rd
of the target chord. The full
expansion of this sort of thing is descending a seven-note scale for a full bar and landing on
the root. The natural place to start is the 9
th
. Lets start with the F major scale:
G F E D C Bb A G | F
This works perfectly with the harmony if we treat the two bars as a dominant-tonic resolution:
Jason Lyon 2008, jlyon@opus28.co.uk
C7 F
G F E D C Bb A G | F
Sounds very tame indeed, doesnt it? Bear with me. What we get is strong chord tones on
downbeats (underlined) the 5
th
, 3
rd
, root and 13
th
of the C7 chord, then the root of the F
chord. Now the 13
th
of the dominant (A) belongs to the chord but isnt as strong as the other
tones weve been through. However, its the same as the 3
rd
of the tonic chord that follows.
So the harmonic sense here is that the final emphasised tone in the first bar is simultaneously
sort of saying goodbye to the dominant chord it is leaving and saying hello to the tonic chord
coming up. This is a large part of what makes this descending run work so well.
To put this figure into minor, we can just flat the 3
rd
of the tonic (which then becomes the
b13
th
/#5
th
of the dominant a perfectly acceptable alteration on a dominant):
C7 Fm
G F E D C Bb Ab G | F
We are now descending the melodic minor scale. Still not great sounding, but its always an
option. The beboppers recognised that the b9
th
on a dominant is a great sounding alteration,
particularly so when leading to a minor tonic. So we flat the 9
th
and arrive at this:
C7 Fm
G F E Db C Bb Ab G | F
The best-sounding, and most used, of the lot. We are now descending the harmonic minor
scale. Many people choose to see this run in this light and its fine as shorthand. Just
remember that in the first bar the chord is actually C7b9b13 its not really F anything,
although the choice of these tones strongly indicates that we are in F.
Next, look at what Tommy plays over the EbM and Db chords in the B section, first chorus,
and the EbM in the B section, second chorus. Again, well ignore the turn as well as the
placement in the bar:
EbM
F Eb D C Bb G F Eb
DbM
Eb Db C Bb Ab F Eb Db
Again, were descending from the 9
th
of the tonic chord, but this time we skip the 4
th
. Why?
Well, as we heard with the descending run in F major and F melodic minor, descending an
unaltered scale sounds rather rinky-dink. It sounds even plainer when were just playing over
the tonic, as here, when there isnt even a resolution to look forward to. The 4
th
is the tone
most often omitted from the tonic scale doing that here allows us break up the plain scale
and land on more interesting chord tones at strong beats: 9
th
, 7
th
, 5
th
, 9
th
again. Treating this
as a gapped scale and running up and down over three or more octaves is good practice and
gives you familiarity with the possible starting positions.
There are lots of variations of these descending runs, incorporating different rhythms and
interposed chromatics, but its best to get these basic full runs into your hands in all keys first.
Best of luck, and feel free to e-mail me with any queries or comments at jlyon@opus28.co.uk.
Jason Lyon
London
February 2008

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What technique does the article describe that Tommy Flanagan uses in bar 6 of the second A section in the first chorus?

What does the article say about the descending runs that Tommy Flanagan plays over the EbM and Db chords in the B section of the first chorus?

Jason Lyon 2008, jlyon@opus28.co.

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