If you’re looking for the Lady Bird Lead Sheet, you’ve just found it!
Lady bird is a song by Tadd Dameron that has been composed in 1939.
Tadd dambron was also known for his unique writing style and incorporating something in his songs that would later be known as the Gadd Dameron turnaround.
Which in reality looks like this C Major: C- Eb7 AbMaj7 Db7, which in hindsight is quite different from any turnaround that we’ve ever seen before.
It kind of reminds me of the Coltrane changes, however even the Coltrane changes were more standard two five one.
So, what is it that we’re seeing here in this particular example?
Well, to put it lightly, modal interchange.
In C major, you can borrow C- and Abmaj7, which is the 6b7.
What about the other dominant chords? Ah easy!
Before every single chord in jazz, you could put a dominant in front of it. Whether it’s a secondary dominant or extended dominant. Resolution is all that matters. And so with that being said, that is exactly what is going on here, except in two different ways.
While the Eb7 is a secondary dominant of some sort, the Db7 is a tritone substitution that is about to resolve to C major.
And these things are important to know, because they will help you make decisions on when exactly you have to play which scale.
Would it help you if I told you that the last Db7 chord in this example is not a traditional mixolydian scale worthy chord, but a mixolydian #11 because of its inverted status.
Would it help to know that you could play a #11 on the Abmaj, and a altered scale on the Eb7 instead of the mix #11.
There’s a bunch of reason why this is the way to go about it, and frankly it sounds really good, so I would try it out, and do research on why some of these things happen and sounds good..
Nonetheless, as always, memorize the melody, the harmony, practice fast, practice soloing and connecting the chords, and try it out in a real life setting such as a jammies session or jam club.
Enjoy this Lady Bird Lead Sheet!