William Brunard and Brad Brose opted to play “I Love You” in a fun “See-you-at-Django-in-June” video recently (you’ll find it at the bottom of this page) so we’ve decided to add the song to our Core Repertoire for 2016 as a Bonus Tune. Here are the charts and some notes from Jack Soref, who prepared them:
“I Love You” is another from the jazz manouche repertoire that has received many treatments. In a Gypsy jazz setting, the harmony can receive countless variations and embellishments. The chart I’ve provided lays out a basic road map, along with some variations from both Django himself and William & Brad’s performance. If you listen to the linked videos, or others, you will hear there is even more you can do: go simpler, go more complex…make it yours!
As a primary reference for the melody, I went back to an early (possibly the first) recording of the tune, by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra:
Compare that with Stephane’s Grappelli’s treatment of the melody here with Django:
And here’s the video we mentioned above featuring William and Brad. For fun, I wrote out William’s four bar intro along with some possible chords, implied by the improvised line. It never hurts to add another introduction to your repertoire!