The Dolphin (Luis Era)

[AndyV]

I've been obsessed with this tune this week, listening to lots of great versions. It's really been daunting to approach with it's unique chord progression. To really make it complicated, I've been trying to arrange it for Weissenborn acoustic lap steel. How do you voice the G711 chord? And, in general, how do YOU approach this tune for improv?

[Mick-7]

Not familiar with this tune, which I suppose makes me "dolphin safe." However re: improvisation, the first thing I'll do when I want to improvise on a tune is analyze the chord progressions and look for common tonal centers.

In this case, A Lydian will more or less cover the first 4 bars, C Lydian the next four bars, etc.

Re: the G7#11, off the top of my head-stock, since it's a bossa, I'd choose voicings like:

x-5-3-4-2-(0) {=G13#11 with the open E string}

(3)-4-3-4-3-(0)

Of course if you include the #11th (C#) and leave out the 5th of the chord (D), you'll have many more options, but that would make it a 7b5 rather than a 7#11, a different sound.

In the first video, the guy who's comping is playing the open D string with C# on the A string, for example:

3-4-0-2-0-x (= G9#11) What a lovely chord!

I suppose this is the easiest voicing: x-5-5-6-6-7

[sgcim]

I just follow Stanley and Lou Levy on this song:

This was the only album my brother ever bought in his life. He just listens to WBGO in his car and does You Tube at home.
I used to play it a long time ago.