Freight Trane by Tommy Flanagan

Overview

Key: A♭ major · Chords used: 16 · Sections: 2

Form: Blues Chorus → Blues Chorus

Where these chords come from: a chord chart of this song written by a musician and shared on the iReal Pro forums, archived in the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). It's one musician's reading of the song, not a transcription checked against the recording. This page shows that chart as-is: the analysis below is generated directly from it by code, not written by AI. Consecutive repeats of a chord are shown once, and the piano voicings are our playable arrangement of each chord symbol, not a note-for-note transcription.

Section by section

Blues Chorus 1

• A♭maj7 – Gm7♭5 – C7♭9 – Fm7 – Em7 – E♭m7 – A♭7 – D♭maj7 – D♭m7 – G♭7 – Cm7 – F7 – Bm7 – E7 – B♭m7 – E♭7 – Cm7 – F7 – B♭m7 – E♭7
  Imaj7 – viiø7 – III7b9 – vi7 – #v7 – v7 – I7 – IVmaj7 – iv7 – bVII7 – iii7 – VI7 – #ii7 – #V7 – ii7 – V7 – iii7 – VI7 – ii7 – V7

Blues Chorus 2

Same chords as Blues Chorus 1.

Chord vocabulary

Chord	Roman numeral	Role	Heard in
A♭maj7	Imaj7	Home chord (tonic)	Blues Chorus
Gm7♭5	viiø7	In the key	Blues Chorus
C7♭9	III7b9	Secondary dominant (V/vi)	Blues Chorus
Fm7	vi7	In the key	Blues Chorus
Em7	#v7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Blues Chorus
E♭m7	v7	Borrowed from A♭ minor	Blues Chorus
A♭7	I7	Secondary dominant (V/IV)	Blues Chorus
D♭maj7	IVmaj7	In the key	Blues Chorus
D♭m7	iv7	Borrowed from A♭ minor	Blues Chorus
G♭7	bVII7	Borrowed from A♭ minor	Blues Chorus
Cm7	iii7	In the key	Blues Chorus
F7	VI7	Secondary dominant (V/ii)	Blues Chorus
Bm7	#ii7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Blues Chorus
E7	#V7	Outside the key (chromatic)	Blues Chorus
B♭m7	ii7	In the key	Blues Chorus
E♭7	V7	In the key	Blues Chorus

Harmonic highlights

• E♭m7 (v7) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• D♭m7 (iv7) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• G♭7 (bVII7) is borrowed from the parallel key, A♭ minor.
• C7♭9 acts as V/vi: it resolves to Fm7.
• A♭7 acts as V/IV: it resolves to D♭maj7.
• F7 acts as V/ii: it resolves to B♭m7.

Sources & accuracy

• Chords: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Freight Trane” (credited “Flanagan Tommy”, style Medium Up Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata.
• Section names: the chart has no section markings, so sections were detected by code from repeated 8-, 12- and 16-bar phrases (letters such as A and B mark different phrases).
• Cross-check: the iReal Pro forum charts archived in ChoCo (de Berardinis et al., 2023). Community chord chart “Freight Trane” (credited “Flanagan Tommy”, style Medium Up Swing) from the forum file linked here, CC BY 4.0 via ChoCo. Performer/songwriter confirmed from Wikidata. A separately posted chart of the same song; its chords match this page's closely when both are read in the same key (similarity 75%).
• Chord charts are often written in a key that suits a particular singer or band, so this may not be the key of the original recording.
• Verified: two community charts of this song, posted in different forum threads, agree on its harmony. They're still charts, not transcriptions checked against the recording.
• Rhythm and chord durations aren't shown; each step is one chord change.