JOHN SCOFIELD’S COVER OF THE classic “House of the Rising Sun” is a great example of how to create a harmonically rich jazz solo over a simple pop chord progression.
JOHN SCOFIELD’S COVER OF THE classic “House of the Rising Sun” is a great example of how to create a harmonically rich jazz solo over a simple pop chord progression. Even though the chords are the same basic major and minor chords from the original version (Am, C, D, E and F), Scofield demonstrates how the lines themselves can imply all of the harmony necessary to create hip sounds.
Let’s start with some simple stuff. Because the song is in the key of A minor, the home scale can be viewed as A Aeolian (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). In Ex. 1 Sco uses this scale to create a three-note descending motif over the Am and C chords before altering the scale’s F natural to an F# to accommodate the D major chord.
Ex. 2 uses an idea based on A minor pentatonic, but adds a Bb (b2) for an interesting tension. This lick then moves to a B minor/D major pentatonic scale over the D chord. The B minor pentatonic scale can also be used on a C major chord to create a C Lydian sound (C, D, E, F#, G, A, B). Notice how the notes of the B minor pentatonic scale are also the 3, 7, 9, #11 and 13 of a Cmaj13(#11) chord. Ex. 3 shows how