It is not considered a diatonic chord, even if one could find its notes enharmonically hidden in a couple of scales- Lydian being one of them. The Maj7(b5) chord is quite a fascinating chord. So, even though both chords somehow includes some of the same pitches, they are not the same at all. It is a diminished 5th (★) and it now is a chord tone. On the other hand, Maj7(b5) clearly states that the 5th of the chord is flatted. It is added to the chord and is not a chord tone per se. Maj7(#11) implies that the chord contains a perfect 5th (P5). I need to make a clear distinction here: you see, the Maj7(b5) is not considered the same as the Maj7(#11). However, I quickly understood that even if I was thinking of modal voicings, I had to stay away from those perfect fifths! But luckily, I don't think I embarrassed myself too much with that, since I essentially strummed chords during our "tuning jams". See, being fresh out of school at the time, I believed that I had to think of a mode- and therefore, Lydian was the first one that came to my mind. Simply put, all it meant was grab any kind of basic Bb Major seventh chord, and just lower the fifth.
Even though I was actually wrong (see below) I still managed to find voicings that had the required notes. So the first time I heard Sonny call out that chord (and put me on the spot, kind of.) I naively thought: "Wow, he must mean Lydian.". Since I was usually the only chords instrument in the group, what he wanted me to do was sound the chord, and we would vamp on it for a few minutes so that the rest of the band could tune up to it. Sonny would routinely start every one of our sets by saying: "OK, let's tune up: Bb major seventh flat five!". I first encountered the Maj7(b5) chord when I started playing with the great Sonny Simmons, in the early '90s. THE MAJOR SEVENTH FLAT FIVE CHORD aka Maj7(b5) Major7(b5) chord - jazz theory - improvisation - Major seventh flat 5 - diminished 5th - Bruno Pelletier
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