: What does "Time on" mean in the context of a Lead Sheet? I was looking though my real book and saw an interesting phrase that I've never seen before in the song Stuff by Miles Davis. On the first and last bar there is the

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

"Time" in this context means that the rhythm section is to play the song's groove, and then the chord Db7#9 is given as an indicator of what the harmonic instruments will be playing around. Depending on what the groove is, i.e. the feel of the tune, the piano player might improvise some material for those 14 bars.

So the correct interpretation of this is "Play time, on chord X", rather than "Time On".

And of course as Todd mentioned in the comments, some informed perspective could definitely be gained from listening to recordings of the tune.