Wave
Antonio-Carlos Jobim
Bossa NovaD4/4
82
chords
22
different scales
10
tonal centres
First bars
Dmaj7Bbdim7Am7D7(b9)
Wave has eighty-two chords and forty-six of them are dominants. That's an unusual ratio, and it's what gives the tune its restless forward motion.
The trouble for an improviser is that a dominant has no single answer. Thirty-two of those chords admit more than one defensible reading, and the difference between them isn't theory — it's the sound. Playing Wave on autopilot is the fastest way to make a song full of possibilities come out sounding the same from top to bottom.

