July 2017 - Caravan

**M-ster** · 06-30-2017, 12:40 PM

Our standard for July 2017 will be Caravan - by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington (1936).

Background:
Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Caravan)

If you're in the US, enjoy your Independence Day festivities!

**Durban** · 07-01-2017, 03:06 PM

Caravan i lived in one for 5 months still not as good as Django,

remember its Diminished kids, not 7b9 watch this space

**Durban** · 07-01-2017, 05:36 PM

whilst cooling one Errol Garner (incredible) playing Laura on BBC Jazz 1965 anyway i hear Oh my Goodness ...................
i whizz over to my son, he says Dad did you hear that, i said yes, rewind YT, @ 1.47 as i heard a chromo diminished line travelling downwards, then a thought like my Daughter "I see I want " only my line is " i can hear i'll steal "

Then remembered you guys Practical Standards Caravan , and thought you guys check it out and weave it into your Caravan, but make a game of it enjoy it. beautiful line, just modify it to suit. but that is the nucleus or a start point.

**orri** · 07-02-2017, 09:54 AM

I had a go at it:
caravan.mp3 - Google Drive

(used drum loops and played both bass and guitar).

**Hep To The Jive** · 07-03-2017, 12:06 AM

Here's my late night take! Just having fun with a new Gretsch. Inspired by... you know who

**Tomcat** · 07-11-2017, 10:04 AM

another fast one:

**pkirk** · 07-11-2017, 10:10 AM

bass/drums/guitar:

**ragman1** · 07-11-2017, 07:59 PM

I liked that. I don't think it's easy. Good bass riff

**ragman1** · 07-18-2017, 06:52 AM

Originally Posted by fuzzthebee

Didn't notice anything like what you mentioned, but he does a very cool augmented triad thing:

A, Bb, D, F#, C, E, G#, followed by descending that tasty "altered-minus-the-b5" scale:
Db, C, Bb, Ab, E, Eb, Db, C.

To me, it sounds like a "simple" Gm vamp (6/9 with M7 or m7), plenty of G blues scale, followed by a bar or two of some kind of C7#5b9#9 etc. The Gm sounds tonic and doesn't reveal itself as a iim7 until the C7alt. At least that's how I hear it.

As for me, I just tried to play h/w diminished.

Have we seen this? Might clarify things a bit. I do notice there's a l-o-t of natural D's. Which doesn't seem to go with C7b9 or G dim. So I don't think the background is that at all.

**christianm77** · 07-18-2017, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by fuzzthebee

Still sounds like Gm to me. Wes is using loads of Gm "activity" and the piano is doing the classic dorian chord pattern (Bb/G, C/G, Dm/G, C/G). Yes it's a lot like C7(9,13), but here the strong beats have the F note. On the last A, after the bridge, they sound like they've gone C7, as you suggest.

Well according to Barry Harris that it's all C dominant scale and F's don't matter - but I agree that Wes is focussing on a Gm sound on C7 here.

It's something Charlie Christian did on dominants in minor keys - important minor of the dominant going to minor tonic, for instance Em on A7 going into Dm - listen to his solo on I Found a New Baby... Wes may have got the idea from there and run with the ball...

An interesting approach to Caravan I hadn't really considered.... Thanks for flagging up this recording.

**christianm77** · 07-18-2017, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by fuzzthebee

Didn't notice anything like what you mentioned, but he does a very cool augmented triad thing:

A, Bb, D, F#, C, E, G#, followed by descending that tasty "altered-minus-the-b5" scale:

This lick pops up in a few of Wes's solos. Here's where I first heard it. 0:42. Also on Gm:

It's whole tone on dominant, right? Neat trick.... Whole tone is just a short step away from melodic minor....

Db, C, Bb, Ab, E, Eb, Db, C.

This is, of course, the infamous Reg Minor on F - albeit without the F or the G

F G Ab Bb C Db Eb E

How Wes came up with that line is anyone's guess - the tetrachord H-W-H (E-Eb-Db-C) is a very common trope in jazz lines though, especially on the 5th like this.

To me, it sounds like a "simple" Gm vamp (6/9 with M7 or m7), plenty of G blues scale, followed by a bar or two of some kind of C7#5b9#9 etc. The Gm sounds tonic and doesn't reveal itself as a iim7 until the C7alt. At least that's how I hear it.

Needless to say one of the most important things to understand for an improviser is how one chordal sound can be used on another chord. ii/V is a classic one. IV on V7 is another. I on #IVm7b5 and so on (Some might understand these as chord subs, others might use scalic understanding.)

Much of the sound of Wes's playing on dominants (to me) is the preferential use of those minor and major sounds on dominant sounds with a 4th/11th degree on the dominant - so Dm7, Fmaj7, Dm11 etc on G7 for instance. Basically he wants all dom7s to be 7sus chords! How 60's :-)

Contrast this to Charlie Christians heavy use of the m6/m7b5 sound, or the use of melodic minor modes on the dominant etc...

**ragman1** · 07-19-2017, 01:36 AM

Originally Posted by fuzzthebee

Still sounds like Gm to me. Wes is using loads of Gm "activity" and the piano is doing the classic dorian chord pattern (Bb/G, C/G, Dm/G, C/G). Yes it's a lot like C7(9,13), but here the strong beats have the F note. On the last A, after the bridge, they sound like they've gone C7, as you suggest.

Absolutely, it's unquestionably G melodic with little asides here and there, including your augmented thing. It's the repeated presence of the G mel - and its natural D not clashing with the background - that made me think C7. Plus it sounds like it :-)

**christianm77** · 07-21-2017, 05:23 AM

Originally Posted by fuzzthebee

The F's I was referring to were in the piano chord pattern (Bb/G, C/G, Dm/G, C/G). I'm familiar with the concept you're talking about, however, I was suggesting the possibility that they weren't just playing Gm ideas on C7, but that the chart may have actually read "Gm7" or Gm or whatever.

Gotcha.... Yes I agree quite possible....

(But I think as other players will agree or have mentioned many times - playing around with that kind of Gm dorian style arpeggio on C7 and bits of it such as Gm7, Bbmaj7 etc... Kind of avoiding too much use of the E (leading note) - really gives the Wes sound to me... Everything sus!)

As an aside - interestingly something I was told recently refers to Gospel vocal harmonisation in which everything is harmonised with the notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 of the scale in parallel with the melody to be harmonised. Obviously that results in V7sus - I and IV-I style cadences, and I wonder if that churchy/souly connection was there with Wes? The way that also links up with modal stuff is interesting too. Anyway, one for another thread.

Thanks for this exploration BTW. I find this type of thing really interesting, checking out recordings for ideas and so on.

**christianm77** · 07-21-2017, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by fuzzthebee

Wholetone on minor = phantom V

In the Caravan example, it's possible he was transitioning from Gm ideas to Dbm ideas, and not thinking wholetone scale. He plays the Bb aug (GmMa7, C9#11) and then the C aug (DbmMa7, C7#5b9) but he does not go back to anything with a D note or F#, instead he plays the descending 6 note line (hard to call it "F" Reg minor without the F or the G), solidifying the #9, b9 sound (Db, C, Bb, Ab, E, Eb).

Or - maybe he was just playing wholetone, transitioning to Reg minor.

Yes, of course. There's so many possibilities by using 'phantom V.'

Of course it's possible that your interpretation is how was thinking, but the whole tone scale had been pretty mainstream in jazz for a few decades by this point and I tend to think whole tone because of the influence of Barry Harris who himself was influenced by Bud Powell and Monk who used it heavily. Whole Tone scales with chromatic neighbours are part of the material us Barry-ites are meant to practice (looks shifty.)

To me Bb aug + C aug = wholetone. The whole tone scale includes the tritone sub 7#5 chords among others.

In any case this is a lick that is used practically verbatim in Wes's solos of this era.

Anyway, so called Reg Minor (it's such a pain in the arse that there is no short standardised name for simply playing the notes from the minor key over the dominant chord of that key) is for me always going to be the default interpretation because it's pretty much the most diatonic and I tend to always go to diatonic as a default in my own changes playing.

Taking a key centric analysis this line (Db, C, Bb, Ab, E, Eb) has only one accidental when compared to F natural minor (F G Ab Bb C Db Eb) which is the E. This is the same accidental (natural 7 of the key) that pops up again and again in bop lines often with the b7 as well... Eb against C7 is pretty common, for instance.

Very often you have the descending S T S tetrachord E Eb Db C or 7 b7 b6 5. It's a real bop cliche.

I have no idea how they were thinking of this as it fits so many different interpretations. But it's not that far away from the prevailing key. That said running 7 b7 in a row does seem a slightly odd thing to do if you are thinking diatonically. I don't think it's something you'd find in say, Bach, but I might be wrong.

The use of the b2 melodically as enclosure also pops up and then that pushes you more towards the tritone sound unambiguously (and Berklee-ites would say 'altered scale' and others might say 'H-W dim')