Carla & Paul Bley - 1964
Carla Bley’s composition ’And Now the Queen’ was first recorded by a quintet on Paul Bley’s 1964 album “Barrage”. Paul re-recorded the piece in a trio setting in 1965. This “Closer” album featured a young Barry Altschul on drums. Altschul would go on to record extensively with both Anthony Braxton and Chick Corea.
Bley makes good use of Dominant Substitutions here. The F# in bars 2, 4 and 9 are indeterminate shells but the f#/e combination in this context implies a VII-I resolution. The Ab in bar 5 is a 1-3-7 chord making it clearly a Tritone Substitution for D7.
The F+ in bar 13 would be a backdoor cadence to the tonic but she subs a sister chord VI for the I chord.
For more on Dominant Substitutions check out the page on “Changes” (Link).
