D#7b9

— About this chord

D#7b9 (Eb7b9) is a sharply tense altered dominant, its flatted 9th adding a dark, dissonant bite that resolves powerfully into G# major or minor. A classic ii-V-I color in bebop and hard-bop jazz, it also appears in blues turnarounds looking for extra pull. On guitar the compact A-shape grip (root on the 5th string) makes it easy to slide chromatically between altered dominants; on piano it is often voiced as a diminished-7 shape stacked over the root. Also searched as Eb7b9, D#dom7b9, altered dominant.