Dark Eyes: chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
Dark Eyes by Traditionnel, key of D (traditionnel), form 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
A Russian-Romani melody older than jazz itself (Ochi Chornye, mid-19th century), Dark Eyes became a manouche showpiece, the tune players pull out to open up the tempo and show off.
The sound: it pivots between D minor and its dominant A7, straight harmonic-minor territory. The A7 is the engine: its ♭9 and the leading-tone C♯ drive every phrase back home to Dm.
Practising it: a perfect drill for D harmonic minor and the A7 arpeggio with its ♭9. Take the melody slow and singing first; the fast versions are where the fireworks live, but the vocabulary is built at low tempo.
Dark Eyes chords: the grille
A : | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | B♭ | B♭ | Gm | Gm | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm |
Chords used
Also known as : Otchi Tchornya.
Videos, Dark Eyes
The original recording
- Django Reinhardt, Django Reinhardt
Watch it played
- Les Yeux Noirs | Test Swing Lâg SL200 / SL100, Clément Réboul
Play along
Open the interactive grille for Dark Eyes: 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.