Chameleon

Axe_meister

My daughter is playing Chameleon with her Jazz band at the moment. My son (a drummer) loves the funky feel so we have been playing around at home and it all sounds pretty good.
What scales would you lot recommend to improvise around the simple two chord progression Bbm7 Eb7.
Minor Pentatonic in Bbm seems to work (subset of Bb Dorian), just wanted to Jazz it up a bit.
Have played around with Bbm Dorian with a change to Eb Major Pentatonic, but I want the whole thing to sound more
Jazzy.

UnclePsychosis

Try adding a flat fifth to your minor pentatonic. This is sometimes called the "blues scale"

In Bb that would give you the notes

Bb Db Eb E F Ab

Similarly you can try the same thing in Eb over the Eb7 chord:

Eb Gb Ab A Bb Db

It feels weird at first playing the minor 3rd (the Gb) over the Eb7 chord but the minor/flat 7th helps soften the clash between the major 3rd in the chord and the minor third in the scale. It will definitely sound jazzier.

viz

Yep. in fact in order of complexity I'd go for:

1) Bbm penta throughout. That will give you a Bbm penta over the Bbm (obviously) and over the Eb you'll have an add 2nd, no 3rd, no 6th and a flat 7.

2) Bbm penta with an additional flat 5 throughout. As above, but will also give you the blues note on the Bb and an additional flattened 2nd on the Eb. 

3) Bbm penta with additional flat 5 and major 7th throughout. As above, but will give you the flattened 2nd and a flattened 5 on the Eb..

4)  Bbm penta with a flat 5 on the Bbm, and Ebm penta flat 5 on the Eb - as per @UnclePsychosis above.

5) Bbm penta (with flat 5 if you like) on the Bbm, and Eb major penta (which is the same notes as cm penta. you can also put the flat 5 in the c#m penta - that's like having a major and a minor 3rd on the Eb and is rather jazzish)

6) Then you could also dabble in the modal versions of these pentas, so Bbm dorian (with added flat 5 if you like); cm Phrygian (with added flat 5 if you like), Eb mixolydian.

7) Then you could play around with the key - (here we go again, sweet home Alabama), so if you want to make the Eb the stronger of the chords, you could play the Bbm as though it were a V chord, despite being minor - so Bb mixolydian, or even better Bb superlocrian (which is the notes from B melodic minor ascending), and lead into the Eb which would be the tonic. To reinforce that you could dispense with the flat 7 on the Eb and play Eb major. This will all sound odd but jazzous.

8) Even more jazz-like would be if you want to make the Bbm the stronger chord, you could treat the Eb as a IV chord, and play scales pertaining to the V chord over it - ie play either F mixolydian or F superlocrian (which is the notes from F# melodic minor ascending) over that Eb, and lead into the Bbm which act as the tonic! Mellow. Spicy. Odd.

But most of all, try to think in tunes rather than scale-based vamps .

bingefeller

I would play Bb minor pentatonic over the Bb minor and also play Db major 7 arpeggio. 

For the Eb7 I would arrange my thinking in terms of Bb Dorian, Eb7 arpeggio, Db and Eb triad pair and A triad.

EricTheWeary

Bb minor pentatonic but never use the note Bb. Hmm...