G-Minor Jazz – Billy Lester

G-Minor Jazz is a great example of a Billy Lester composition—inventive in the tradition of the Lennie Tristano school, but particularly in the harmonic structure with a quite accessible, swinging melody. This song is based on the changes of Cole Porter's You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To, albeit with several reharmonizations in the head which make the standard framework less obvious. The melody doesn't repeat within the form; all four 8-measure phrases are different. The melodic rhythm in the C and D sections is less tied to 2- and 4-measure phrases than in the A and B sections. The D section starts with a repeated, rising 3-beat figure over the barline.

The first notable reharmonization is a descending series of major 7th chords starting from Amaj7 in the fifth measure, only tangentially related to the original II-V7 to E♭. The C and D sections have a lot of chromatic motion using the same chord structure up and down. These structures all contain triads formed from the chords' upper extensions, with the 3rd or 7th in the bass. For example, the C section starts with Gm6(♯11); the piano voicing from the bottom up is B♭, E, A, C♯. These are the same notes as an A triad over B♭, but G is really the root; it's played on the downbeat followed by the chord on the third beat. In the last four measures of the head, the roots are not played; a similar structure starting with D♭, C, F, and A implies E♭7(♯11) and shifts around to resolve to D7 and Gm with a major 7th.

Solos are over the original You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To changes, though on this solo piano version Billy takes the changes a bit further out in a classic Tristano vein. For a description of this solo piano version, click on the Piano Corner tab.

For lead sheets, a bass part and various piano versions, click on any of the other album covers. As is usual on jazzleadsheets.com, clicking on an album cover reveals details and music available for that version.

A live trio version, a little faster still than the 2007 recording which our trio piano part comes from (see the album cover for "Visceral," right). Billy plays similarly to the latter trio version, with some notable differences. He leaves out the arpeggiated left hand figure in the first measure, but catches the "and" of beat 3 in the left hand in both the second and fourth measures. The second measure of C has its third note on beat 3 as in the solo recording, not the "and" of 2 as heard on later versions. On the D section of the in head, Billy plays the left hand bass notes short; he holds them out in the out head. The bass part is again essentially the same as in the quartet version.

Lead sheet editions and the bass part are available here; for various piano parts click on the corresponding album covers (trio "Visceral" and quartet "Four Into Four).

Our lead sheet comes from this quartet version. It shows the trumpet part from the recording, which is essentially the top line of the piano part. In the D section the trumpet plays the last three notes of each of the repeated, rising four-note figures, an octave above the piano. Piano left-hand rhythms are notated below the staff. We also have a piano part from this recording and a bass part. The bass mostly doubles the piano left hand, except in the last four measures of the B section where it doubles the melody. We give bassists the option of walking in these four measures. Our bass part has the rhythms of the melody written below the staff.

It should be noted that with the bass doubling the piano left hand, the roots of the chords in much of the C and D sections are not played. The chord symbols as Billy wrote them show the voicings' relation to the underlying You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To changes. This relationship would be obscured if the chord symbols were triads over bass notes, such as A/B♭, though the notes of the chords would be the same.

Lead sheet editions, a bass part and the quartet piano part are available here; for solo piano (Captivatin' Rhythm), trio ("Visceral" and "At Liberty"), click on those album covers.

This trio recording, a bit faster than the quartet one, is the source of our trio piano part. Billy phrases the melody similarly to the quartet version, but with a few notable differences. Click on the Piano Corner tab for more details. The bass part is essentially the same as on the quartet recording.