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I have a book that labels C, F, Bb, and D as a Csus4 chord. I get the F is the 4th to C, but why the dominant 7th and the 9th? Are those vital to a Csus4 chord, do they add to it, or is the book just wrong?
If anyone has the book, I'm looking at page 22 in Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book.
No, the 7th and 9th are not vital to a sus4 chord. A "regular" sus4 would just have root, fourth, and fifth (so C, F, G, in this case). That said, jazz seems to never play simple "regular" chords without adding at least a 7th. But the chord you have listed could probably be more accurately described as a C9sus4 (without the 5th, if you want to get really technical). Alternatively, it could be described as the folowing slash-chord: B♭/C, which might make more sense.
However, this type of chord often occurs on the fifth note (dominant) of the scale (so you'd likely see this chord in the key of F). In that case, it is a particularly common type of chord to use in jazz (basically a IV chord over the 5th scale degree) so it has its own name: the jazz sus chord, or a "dominant 9sus4 chord". It's important to note, though, that "jazz sus chord" is different from a plain old "sus4" (which, as I said is just C, F, G).
I've described jazz-sus chords once before, as an example where slash-chords are useful.
It is a sus4 chord I would not call it a Csus4 though. It's obviously an extension with a suspended third. I would instead call it a C9sus4 because you have everything up to the 9th (it's ok to omit the 5th) and the 3rd is suspended.
A standard triad with a bass note a tone higher than the root is often called an 11th.(Off the bass note name). Bb, D and F make up a Bb major triad, and the C is a tone above Bb. So it can be known as C11. The intro to 'Midnight at the Oasis' uses 5 of these 11th chords. Otherwise known as Bb/C, but, as the others have said, it's not a sus4 in its common form.Could be Bb add 2,or at a push add 9 though unlikely, but generally the 'sus' bit suspends the 3rd of the chord, to be replaced, usually temporarily, with either a 2 or a 4. Not in this case.
These four notes don't make a sus4 chord, and certainly not a Csus4 chord. If you leave out the D, the other notes make an Fsus4. No other sus4 chords can be made from these four notes. However, like all sus4 chords, the three notes used for Fsus4 (F, Bb, C) can also be thought of as two other suspended chords: these are Bbsus2 and an incomplete C7sus4 (it has no 5th).
Need to recognize the difference between a triad sus4 and a dominant 7th sus 4:
Csus4 = C F G
C7sus4 = C F Bb D
So in the book it's a typo, should be "C7sus4"
C9sus4(no 5th).