Nelson Riddle + Ella Fitzgerald

This introduction to I Only Have Eyes for You written by Nelson Riddle for Ella Fitzgerald’s 1962 album Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson is interesting is many different ways but I think the most fascinating thing about these 8 bars is the way the original rhythm section notation does not communicate the full chord sound.

In mm.1 there is a Cmaj7 chord on Beat 4, which is really a Cmaj7/D chord. That Cmaj7/D chord is substantively different from the Cmaj7 that is notated in the guitar part. As a hybrid voicing it is communicating V7sus4, not IVmaj7. The voice leading is transformed from a subdominant cadence (IVmaj7-I6) to a dominant cadence (V7sus4-I6). Riddle does something similar in mm. 4 where Amin9 is notated in the guitar part. That Amin9 chord looks like it is the related II chord of D7 (V7) but because of the bass note it is actually Amin7/D (We’re hearing Cmaj7 in the winds and brass) making it V7sus4. The voice leading is transformed from a subdominant to dominant cadence (IImin7 - V7) to a strictly dominant cadence (V7sus4 to V7).

The orchestration is straight four-way closed “triple lead.” There are a few tensions substitutions but we primarily hear straight 6th and 7th chords. One idiomatic device that is overlooked on dominant 7th chords is the use of a major 6th chord when the root of the dominant 7th chord, or the 13th (major 6th) is in the lead. This is one of those subtleties that often goes unnoticed when first starting out with mechanical voice leading.