Diana Reeves' Suzanne

[evancj]

I recently got the Diana Reeves cd, Bridges, where they do an incredible
version of Leonard Cohen's, Suzanne (one of my all time favorite songs).
I've been working out the reharmonization, which really adds a haunting
quality to the song, but I'm kind of stuck on how to think about two of the
chords. I'd appreciate it if anyone here who is familiar with the take
could help me out.

They have transposed the original melody up a minor third, so the original
chords of the verse and chorus of Suzanne would be:

|G | |Am7 | |G | |Bm7 |C |

with some slight variation in the form. Now what I have been able to figure
out is that they've substituted a iii-7b6 for the I chord (Bm7b6 for G) and
a biiimaj7#4 for the ii chord (Bbmaj7#4 for Am7) but I can't figure out what
to call what they do over the Bm7 & C.

The Bm7 is changed to an F#minb9,11,13 chord (can I call it that?) and the C
to a Gmin9 chord. The problem is that I can't figure out what the theory is
behind this and when I do different inversions or try to solo over it I find
myself hitting a lot of things that sound like clams to me. There's no
extended solo on the song, so I only have one lick from the saxophonist
(Kenny Garrett) to try to figure out what's going on. Unfortunately for me
he just hits this really outside, intentionally flat scream that is very
cool; but it's not what I want to hit every time through :).

If anyone could help me figure out what's 'really' going on, I'd be most
grateful.
-Evan