P.W.Farrell's Blog.

paul chambers lines on So What

the problem why does So  What  sound so  open/modal on the record, yet it often sounds chunky and rigid when folks play it?

the solution Paul Chambers isn’t thinking Ebm when he walks the bridge……he’s  thinking Db. I’m not  sure if he’s thinking Db 7 or Dbmaj – obviously Db major makes sense as  it is  the parent scale of  Eb dorian but he drops both a B and C on strong beats quite a bit. The interesting thing about walking the bridge this way is that suddenly the chord  tones of  Ebm become upper partials of what  the bass is  walking. The sound becomes more  one of  a general key centre or tonality rather than one chord. In a word: modal.