How can I turn any (pop) song into a jazz song?

Question

I tried jazzying up Bad Day by Daniel Powter. It's basically a D-G-A chord progression (1-4-5), wich is quite simple. I thought that adding 7th chords and some altered timing, would at least give it a bit of jazz feeling, but instead it all just sounded very dissonant. Do you have any tips or ideas on how to make a jazz cover of a song, or make it sound more jazzy? Is there a jazzy variation on the 1-5-6-4 progression?

Answer 1

Adding 7ths would be a decent start, but make sure you're adding the diatonic 7th at first. This will get your ear more used to the extended harmony.

so for your progression, Dmaj7, Gmaj7, A7 would be a good place to start.

depending on the melody, you could try substituting some chord with related harmonies:

1. try F#min7 or Bmin7 instead of D
2. try B min7 or Emin7 instead of G

These chords may work (again, depending on what the melody is doing) because they have tones in common with your original chords). For example: D major and F# minor both contain an F-sharp and an A-natural.

Good luck!