Belz — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
Belz by Alexander Olshanetsky & Jacob Jacobs — key of D (traditionnel), form A A' B A''. Below is the full chord grid; on Haute Gitanerie you can play along with a scrolling chord ribbon, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and switch on a rhythm backing (la pompe) to practise your solos over the changes.
About
Belz (Mayn Shtetele Belz) is a Yiddish theatre song from 1928, music by Alexander Olshanetsky and lyrics by Jacob Jacobs, a nostalgic evocation of a little Bessarabian home town. It crossed into the manouche and Eastern-European repertoire as a much-loved slow tune.
The sound — set in D minor, it carries a wistful, longing melody, moving between Dm and its related keys with the dominant A7 giving each phrase its emotional pull.
Practising it — play it rubato and expressive rather than metronomic. Drill the D harmonic minor scale and your Dm and A7 arpeggios, and shape the melody with vibrato and dynamics to bring out the nostalgia.
Belz chords — the grille
A : | Dm | Dm E♭7 | Dm | Dm E♭7 | Dm Eø | B♭7 A7 | Dm | A7 |
A' : | Dm | Dm E♭7 | Dm | Dm E♭7 | Dm Eø | B♭7 A7 | Dm | C7 |
B : | F Gm | Am B♭ | Am Gm | F C7 | F Gm | Am B♭m | Am Gm6 | A7 |
A'' : | Dm | Dm E♭7 | Dm | Dm E♭7 | Dm Eø | B♭7 A7 | Dm | Dm |
Chords used
Dm · E♭7 · Eø · B♭7 · A7 · C7 · F · Gm · Am · B♭ · B♭m · Gm6
Play along
Open the interactive grille for Belz: loop any section, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and play over a rhythm accompaniment — with a real recorded pompe on featured tunes. In the browser, free.