Which bebop heads should I learn first?

[Helgo]

Hi everybody,

so I finally want to learn some heads of bebop tunes.

Which two to four bebop heads do you recommend to begin with?

Thanks,
H.

[randalljazz]

anthropology
confirmation
half nelson
sippin' at bells

[Helgo]

Hi Randall.

Thanks for your suggestions. Did you choose these for a specific reason? Most easy to play? Most often called? Containing most bebop vocabulary?

Cheers,
H.

[AmundLauritzen]

Andreas Öberg composed a head on the Cherokee changes called "My kind of Bebop". It is a head jam packed with bebop lines, and you'll get a lot of vocab for Cherokee changes. It might not be a classic bebop head when compared to Bird since it is a newer composition, but if you're looking to learn heads to improve your improvisation, that one is jam packed with great ideas.

The best thing you could possibly do for bebop playing though is to get the Charlie Parker Omnibook, listen to the recordings of those tunes daily and learn the ones that has the lines that you enjoy the most. It is all in standard notation so you'll get better at sight reading while learning the bebop language.

It doesn't directly answer your question though, but it will help your playing no doubt.

If I were to pick four heads to learn, I'd pick these two blues heads:

Bloomdido
Blues(fast)

And these two rhythm heads:

Moose the Mooche
Anthropology

My personal favorite Bird heads on blues and rhythm changes, and they can be found in the Omnibook.

[Helgo]

Hi Amund.

Thank you for your response. I checked out "My kind of bebop". I like the idea behind it but as of today I still haven´t developed positive feelings when listening to Andreas Ö. He is a terrific player, of course, but you know how it goes: Some stuff just doesnt speak to you...

Thanks for the other tips, too. I wasn´t even aware of the tune Bloomdido, checked it out and like it a lot (I have a more souljazzy background, maybe that´s why....)


Thanks,
Bye,

Helge

ps: Anyone interested, I found a transcription of "My Kind of bebop" here.

[JakeAcci]

Anthropology
Blues for Alice
Confirmation
Dexterity
Eternal Triangle
Perhaps
ANY of Charlie Parker's blues heads are worth learning. Always good to have a bunch of blues heads in your arsenal for gigs and jam sessions...

[M-ster]

Originally Posted by Helgo

... ps: Anyone interested, I found a transcription of "My Kind of bebop" here.

Thanks, Helgo. I question the TAB on this, but the lines are interesting.

Dug the Honeysuckle Rose down-a-tritone sequence over the ii-V in bars 29 and 30 and the playing off the B major 1-2-3-5 over the ii-V in bars 47 and 48.

[cosmic gumbo]

Donna Lee.

[whatswisdom]

Originally Posted by Helgo

Which two to four bebop heads do you recommend to begin with?

Now's the Time. Scrapple From the Apple. Cool Blues. Oleo.

[pierre richard]

Birks Works
Buzzy
Tenor Madness
Jumpin With Symphony Sid
SKJ
Mr Pc
Move
Bessies Blues
Blue Monk

to mention just a few...

I think Bert Ligons site has a list (great list) of tunes we all should know..

time on the instrument..pierre

[JonnyPac]

When I got into bebop and post-bop I learned

Hot House
Lady Bird
Oleo
Now's the Time
Billie's Bounce
Blue Monk
Straight, No Chaser
Well, You Needn't
Tenor Madness

There are lots of good ones... but just few will give you the skills and feel. Learn some bop outlines and licks too. Bird's licks go a long way!

[randalljazz]

...is there any meaningful difference between "bebop head" and "blues line"?

...is there any meaningful difference between "bebop" and "hard bop"?

[JakeAcci]

Are the answers to rhetorical questions generally "yes?"

[coolvinny]

Ornithology

[Helgo]

Thank you for your suggestions, everyone.

It is really interesting to see, which tunes are considered to be bebop tunes at last.

I´ll start with Oleo, which I find incredibly hip and I have played it before and then work my way through a couple of more Rhythm Changes, I think Anthropology and then maybe a blues or two. I´ll try to give them all the David Baker Vol. 3 - treatment.

I´ll let you know how it goes!

Thanks,
Cheers,

Helgo

[FatJeff]

Originally Posted by Helgo

I´ll try to give them all the David Baker Vol. 3 - treatment.

I´ll let you know how it goes!

Thanks,
Cheers,

Helgo

What is "the David Baker Vol. 3 - treatment"?

[JakeAcci]

Originally Posted by Helgo

Thank you for your suggestions, everyone.

It is really interesting to see, which tunes are considered to be bebop tunes at last.

I´ll start with Oleo, which I find incredibly hip and I have played it before and then work my way through a couple of more Rhythm Changes, I think Anthropology and then maybe a blues or two. I´ll try to give them all the David Baker Vol. 3 - treatment.

I´ll let you know how it goes!

Thanks,
Cheers,

Helgo

I don't think of Oleo as bebop perse, but I'm no historian. Even JP pointed out his list is in part "hard bop" which really is a different genre.

Just my personal perspective, the following tunes have been mentioned, but I do not personally think of them as bebop heads, or at least not at all quintessential bebop heads. Sorry to pierre and JP, please no offense intended, just throwing out my $.02 on what is or is not classic bebop hopefully to be helpful to Helgo.

Lady Bird
Oleo
Now's the Time
Blue Monk
Straight, No Chaser
Well, You Needn't
Tenor Madness
Birks Works
Jumpin With Symphony Sid
SKJ
Mr Pc
Move (maybe...)
Bessie's Blues

I think of real classic bebop as Charlie Parker, Dizzy, Bud Powell, etc, but not all heads by these folks I would consider bebop. For example, Now's the Time I would not call a quintessential bebop head. You can certainly play it in a bebop set no problem, and play bebop lines or the changes, but I don't feel that the head has a lot of bebop vocabulary. Oh, Groovin High is another good one that I would consider bebop, that hasn't been mentioned.

I guess I think of bebop as a lot of relatively logical chromatic ornamentation of chord tones, a certain time feel implied, and generally a quicker tempo. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. As I said, I'm no jazz history buff.

[Helgo]

Originally Posted by FatJeff

What is "the David Baker Vol. 3 - treatment"?

Hi Jeff.

David Baker wrote a trilogy of method books on bebop.

Check it out.

Volume 3, "Techniques for Learning and Utilizing Bebop Tunes" concentrates on learning tunes and developing bebop vocabulary, and it is written in a very structured manner.

In enjoyed the read, as I stated before, reading about jazz for me is a large part of the hobby. The book made me understand better what "bebop is a language" means.

It´s nothing magical or fancy, just the usual "do your arpeggios", "practice your bassline", "practice your licks", "sing the melody, sing the bassline" etc. approach, but as I said, it seems to be very thorough and systematic, which appeals to me.

You can look at the index and some sample pages over at amazon.

You are in a jazz school, if I remember correctly (opposed to which I am fairly the rookie player), so I don´t know if you really would learn that much from it.
But if you like books, like I do, it´s a very interesting read and an interesting method presented and imho it´s totally worth the 11 USD or so, that it costs (assuming that you are in the US...).

Cheers,
H.

[Strickland]

Originally Posted by coolvinny

Ornithology

I agree with this one. Easy melody to hear. The easiest tune I've picked up from the Genre was probably Boplicity, whether you classify it as Bop or Cool is another thing, but it's easy to get under the fingers and very easy to hear the melody.