Redman and Mehldau: The Nearness of You

In my last post (here) I introduced the current project of Joshua Redman & Brad Mehldau. Now, let's do something with that by integrating it in our own playing. Let's take the Jazz Standard The Nearness of You, a Hoagy Carmichael song from 1938. Here's the figured bass:

A:  (F) ||  I  | Vm  Ix  |  IV  |  IVo  |  III  bIIIx  |  II  V  | III bIIIx  |  II  V  ||

            ||  I  | Vm  Ix  |  IV  |  IVo  |  III  bIIIx  |  II  V  | I  bVIIx  |   I6     ||

B:        ||  II  |  V  |  I  Vm  |  Ix  |  IV  |  IIIo  VIx  |  II  |  V  ||

A:        ||  I  | Vm  Ix  |  IV  |  IVo  |  III  bIIIx  |  II  V  | I  (VI  |  II V)     ||

There are lots of special (III-bIIIx or IV-IVo or I-Vm-Ix, etc.) and standard (II-V-I) chord progressions that make the song interesting. There are also parts of the song that could be altered to add interest, for example a modal Gm bridge with the bass pedal on G. And, of course, Mehldau does a lot of interesting things with chord changes throughout the song. There is much to study here.

EXERCISES

1. If you play a chordal instrument (guitar, vibraphone or piano), find an interested musician who plays a single note instrument (brass or string instrument), make sure you know this song in-and-out, by memory and are comfortable with it (if not, find some other song you are). Then, try a free improvisational session in the style of Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau. How did it work for you? What did you learn? (If you don't play a chordal instrument, find a guitar, piano or vibraphone player).
2. Use lines from the Redman-Mehldau version, particularly Brad Mehldau's introduction, and write a new song using those ideas and any parts of the figured bass above you find interesting. Play the song for some other musicians. If you've done this exercise correctly, they should not have been able to identify your new song as The Nearness of You. If you need more inspiration, listen to Milt Jackson's version (below), one of my favorites.