Charlie Parker - 1945
Charlie Parker recorded ‘Billie’s Bounce’ in 1945, the same year World War II ended. The piece not only serves as an introduction to the period we will focus on (the 1950s, 60s and early 70s) but it introduces some of the principles we will see repeatedly in these analyses.
Example 1 shows a very basic 12 bar blues chord sequence on top compared to the changes Parker uses for ‘Billie’s Bounce’ (starting at bar 6 of the song above).
In bar 2 of the example Parker goes right to the IV chord which was common even in “straight ahead” blues by this time. The B dim moves the bass line smoothly from the Bb to the F with a c bass.
In bar 8 we see our first “Temporary II – V – I” (marked in green). That is, a chord group that sets up, or implies a new key centre. The Am7 – D7 points to the G chord but the G chord is minor so it serves two purposes (1) as a modified ‘I’ chord it resolves the previous bar and (2) as a II chord for the next group, a tonic II – V – I to F.
Finally there is another temporary group setting up the V chord (C7). The “Temporary II – V – I” is one of the signature devices used in the late 40’s and early 50’s.
‘Billie’s Bounce’ is also a great place to start looking at “Chord Groups” or harmonic phrases. The red lines shows where you may like to divide the song into sections. There are all sorts of advantages to looking at these songs a a group of phrases rather than a series of individual chords. It will help you memorize the piece, but it also helps you create smooth “sentences” when improvising rather than trying to play over isolated chords.
Exercise: Try finding some notes that work across the whole chord group. Mark down what notes ‘always work’, sometimes work’ and ‘never work’. We will talk about this more later.
The four bar piano intro to the 1945 Savoy recording (transcribed above) is attributed to Dizzy Gillespie! It’s a variation on a standard cycle of fourths pattern: III – VI – II – V – I (Link) or in this case Am – Dm – Gm – C – F.
Playing with our expectations, Gillespie puts a major 7 in the bass on the Dm. In the next bar this major seven turns into a b5 for the Gm chord making it half diminished. We will see more examples of minor chords with M7s and the use of b5 as we work through these lessons.