Understanding Charlie Parker through triads

**jordanklemons** · 05-01-2018, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Here is a little bit of fun I had on Minor Swing. Pretty stylistic I think. Sorry about the terrible sound balance. Not sorry :-)

Am - Am/2 (or Am/6)
Dm - Dm/2 (or Dm/6)
E7 - E/b2
Am - Am/2
A7b9 - A/b2
Dm - Dm/2 (or Dm/6)
Am - Am/2 (or Am/6)
E7 - E/b2 or Bb/#4
Am - Am/2 (or Am/6)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fqqpoxhejmiibg/Gypsy%20Swing%20Quadrads.m4a?dl=0

I can't remember if I commented on this or not Christian... but man, this sounds great! I believe a British friend of mine would refer to this as "stone gypsy" ha

Super legit though. No fluff, no looking around for anything... just right concise and clear and right to the point. Everything sounds intentional and refined. As much as I love Django, I've never been much of a gypsy player myself... but it seems like this approach can really carry over the genre line beautifully here.

Still amazes me how the exact same thought process and methodical look at things can be a direct pathway into gypsy, swing, bebop, Rosenwinkel-style modern, Bill Evans-style harmonic ideas, and others... including non-jazz genres as well... yet it's just the simple little triad.

**jordanklemons** · 05-01-2018, 11:49 AM

By the way, the Charlie Parker study guide is about to disappear soon... and the new May study guide covering the application of melodic triads for Rhythm Changes and the fully-extended 7#9#5 tonality is getting released today.

**christianm77** · 05-01-2018, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by jordanklemons

I can't remember if I commented on this or not Christian... but man, this sounds great! I believe a British friend of mine would refer to this as "stone gypsy" ha

Super legit though. No fluff, no looking around for anything... just right concise and clear and right to the point. Everything sounds intentional and refined. As much as I love Django, I've never been much of a gypsy player myself... but it seems like this approach can really carry over the genre line beautifully here.

Still amazes me how the exact same thought process and methodical look at things can be a direct pathway into gypsy, swing, bebop, Rosenwinkel-style modern, Bill Evans-style harmonic ideas, and others... including non-jazz genres as well... yet it's just the simple little triad.

Thanks man.

So - the applicability of this technique goes earlier than you think :-)

I may even do an analysis of Django's 1st chorus here, but I think the quadrads would be similar IIRC. Obviously, here I am using it in the simplest possible way harmonically... The only US really is the Bb triad on E7, a common Django move in both his improv and writing.

So, melodically, yes, 3 triad notes + an extra make for a really manageable and coherent set of pitches.

GJ players practice triad based licks (and quadrad licks too actually) a lot, but the idea of triad + an extra tone, which can be more flexible for improvisation... I get a bit bored of super fast licky GJ playing TBH... Django doesn't sound that way to me.

In this style of music, playing the 7th too much definitely definitely definitely sounds wrong. No ifs or buts. Esp if it's a b7 on minor... (Django used this sound all the time of course, but there's a certain way to use that sounds right for this language... As with Bach harmony, he is allowed, you are not.)

So your thing about not using the 7th on bebop lines made me think of GJ... That's what I always struggled with learning to play in that style coming from a post-bop background and that's what got me into triads.

Anyway, the sevenths don't always come into play in bop either, and this I think is a strong difference between authentic (i.e. 'stone' :-)) bebop and college Berkleeoid bebop. The sevenths are used, but not always, and not all 7ths are equal.

Anyway the quadrad approach allows flexibility use 7ths (or 6ths) if you want, but not just that....

**christianm77** · 05-01-2018, 02:16 PM

So, one of my favourite tunes out of the early/trad repertoire is Struttin' with Some Barbeque, by Lilian Armstrong. This song was first recorded in 1927 by Louis Armstrong, Django's idol.

Struttin' With Some Barbecue | Sheet Music Direct

A melodic triad analysis of this is begging to made really. It really represents the things Jordan is talking about... That prominent melody E.... The real book changes give Fmaj7 for obvious reasons, but the accompaniment on the original is clearly an F triad:

(Again that separation between melody and accompaniment harmony...)

The F (or even Fm) triad against the C7 chord in the RB chart is another interesting feature - Louis does not play this in his original recording. Instead he employs Barry Harris's added note rules for an C7 scale run starting on an off beat and an even numbered note :-) (Yes, they are no more bebop scales than the C#o7 is a bebop arpeggio... anyhoo.)

Anyway, I thought I'd attach a vid transcription of Wynton's solo on the tune. It contains a beautiful example of the traditional "non-vertical" subs I've been talking about - both times it comes to Cm6 leading back to G, Wynton very emphatically outlines C#o7 (Bo7 on Bbm6, concert).

Also - notice that C# dim triad he outlines against G in the first chorus (B dim against concert F)... interesting choice...

**christianm77** · 05-02-2018, 02:16 PM

Anyway, here it is finally:

Dropbox - Joy to the World.m4a

Still getting the hang of it. But I think this is a powerful tool for playing on any type of chord change. At no point do I feel limited by using 4 notes on each chord...

**wzpgsr** · 05-02-2018, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by christianm77

Anyway, here it is finally:

Dropbox - Joy to the World.m4a

Still getting the hang of it. But I think this is a powerful tool for playing on any type of chord change. At no point do I feel limited by using 4 notes on each chord...

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