O Letschto Gurko — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
O Letschto Gurko by Jerzy Petersburski & Schnuckenack Reinhardt — key of D (ballade), 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
O Letschto Gurko is a Manouche ballad adapted by Schnuckenack Reinhardt from the 1935 Polish tango To ostatnia niedziela by Jerzy Petersburski; Schnuckenack, who spent the war years in Poland, sang it in Romani.
The sound - a slow, aching D minor ballad. D7 reaches over to the iv (Gm6), E7 sets up the A7, and the melody breathes over sparse changes.
Practising it - play it rubato and let the notes ring. Work the D harmonic minor scale, use the D7 arpeggio as a bridge into Gm, and voice the A7 with its ♭9 for that plaintive pull.
O Letschto Gurko chords — the grille
A : | Dm | D7 | Gm6 | Gm6 | A7 | A7 | Dm | E7 A7 | Dm | D7 | Gm6 | Gm6 | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | D7 | D7 | Gm | Gm | E7 | E7 | Gm6 | A7 | Dm | D7 | Gm6 | Gm6 | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm |
Chords used
Play along
Open the interactive grille for O Letschto Gurko: 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.