Common tone diminished chords and way to modern them up

Sometimes people come across old school chord progressions and have an allergy to diminished chords. For some styles of harmony it does sound a bit wrong, it’s true. A lot of the time you can swap a dim7 out for a ii-V, for example:

Ebmaj7 | Eo7 | Fm7 | F#o7 | Gm7 |

Is often played:

Ebmaj7 | Gm7b5 C7b9 | Fm7 | Am7b5 D7b9 | Gm7 |

However, there are a couple of common progressions that aren’t so obvious. Here are some alternatives, all given in C:

The Horse

F  | F#o7 | C

Subs

F7 | % | C

F | F#m7b5 B7b9 | Dm

Swing era turnaround (Out of Nowhere etc)

C/E | Ebo7 | Dm7 | G7

Subs

Em7 | A7alt | Dm7 | G7

Em7 A7 | Ebm7 Ab7 | Dm7 | G7

(not good if the melody note in bar 2 is an A or B (or both) which it quite often is. Sometimes they change the melody.)

Case study – last eight of On Green Dolphin Street:

Original (I think)

G7 | G#o7 | Am | F#o7 | C A7 | Dm7 G7 | C

Real book changes from the 1970s when ii-V’s were fashionable

Dm7 Dm7/C | Bm7b5 E7 | Am7 Am7/G | F#m7b5 E7b9 | Em7 A7 | Dm7 G7 | C

Stella by Starlight

Eo7 | % | F7 | % | Bb7 | % | Eb

Became

Ebm7b5 | A7b9 | Cm7 | F7 | Fm7 | Bb7 | Eb

Harmonic butchery? Perhaps, but these changes are fun to blow on which is why you hear so many jazz players blowing on them. The original changes are beautiful, very Romantic era harmony. It’s good to know both versions.

Many improvisers find ii-V’s easier to solo on than diminished sevenths (personally, I think it’s nice to have both) so there you go. So therefore, next time – ways to deal with a dim 7 when soloing