[Dixielandjazz] White Christmas

[Dick Sleeman]

Fred Hoeptner writes:

> However, I
> must disagree with Mr. Kapilow in his statement about minor chords.
> "Listen"
> is indeed minor, but not "glisten," which is merely the seventh of
> the
> tonic, which I assume here to be C. To me the "heartbreaking"
> feature
> relative to "glisten" is the sequence of chords leading into it:
> "tree" = C,
> "tops" = E minor or C maj 7th, "glisten" = C7.

Well I don't find that "glisten" should just be a C7, although it says
so in the lead sheet by Mr. Berlin. In the first place it's not a
seventh but a sixth, so it should be a C13 (or a C7add6 if you will),
but I hear it being preceded by a Gmin9, the 9 being the melody
'a' on "glisten" (and there you have the "minor" chord!).

So the sequence of chords I play is:

- tree ........ C
- tops ....... Cmaj7
- glisten ... Gmin9 - C13
- and
- chil- ........ F
- dren ....... Fmaj7
- listen ...... Fmin69 - Bb13

In an arrangement I wrote some time ago I had the lower strings
play C-B-Bb en F-E-D in these places. And, albeit not
'heartbreaking', it still brings a tear to my eyes....

It's a good thing that we musicians KEEP debating details
like this :-)

Warm regards,

Dick Sleeman