Charlie Parker's Yardbird Suite's chord analysis

[cyberlp23]

Hello,

What would be the best approach to Charlie Parker's "Yardbird Suite" chord progression?



Should the 2nd measure be seen as a II - V borrowed from C minor (or Eb) ?
Then the C7 as a secondary dominant? (V/IV)
What's the second Bb7 then?
A7 = V/II ?
D7 = V/V ?
Then a regular V, followed by a II-V / II and a regular II - V of C major?

Thanks!

Mat

[egbert]

It's a ii-V-I in C. The Bb before the A D G (cycle of 5ths) could be seen as a tritone sub for E. The 6 2 5 leads into the turnaround (which is a 3 6 2 5). Pretty standard stuff.

[cyberlp23]

Ok thanks, I get everything but the Fm7 / Bb7 part: it's a ii / V in Eb, not in C, isn't?

[stringtapper]

Measure 2 is indeed a ii-V in Eb (bIII), not C. The Eb chord that would have occurred after the Bb7 is instead reharmonized a third below on C7.

Then the Bb7 to A7 can be seen as a tritone sub for a V-I in the key of A (VI) as egbert noted, and again the resolving harmony is dominant.

The A7-D7-G7 can be viewed as an altered ii-V-I (all dominant chords) in the key of G (V), or just a circle of fifths motion on dominant chords to get us to the dominant in the key of C (G) and set up the final iii-VI-ii-V.

[egbert]

Sorry - got too focused on the rest of the tune. Your read on the Fmi/Bb7 looks sound - it is a ii V in Eb Major. The structure resembles an 8 bar variant on a C blues ( a 12 bar with bars 4 -7 omitted) with C and F being the first two bars and A D and G being the three bars before the turnaround.

so at a basic level
C7 F7 C7 A7
D7 G7 [turnaround] eg [3 6 2 5]

cut down from

C7 F7 C7 C7
F7 F7 C7 A7
D7 G7 [turnaround)

in these structures any of these 7ths can be substitued by a ii V or some other system of substitution.

[cyberlp23]

Ok thanks!
So can the C7 be seen as the secondary dominant of the IV of C major (V/IV)?

[stringtapper]

If you at it like an altered blues like egbert mentioned then the C7 is just the I7 from a blues. In other words it's not really functional but rather an idiomatic part of the standard blues progression.

You could consider the C7 as a the dominant of F if you read the C7-Bb7 as an elided form of an altered ii-V-I in Bb.

So Cmin7–F7–Bb (ii-V7-I) is abbreviated to C7–Bb7 (V7/IV–I7).

[egbert]

In a jazz blues ANY chord can be a 7th. Trying to shoehorn the harmony into strict diatonic harmonic stucture is kind of missing the freedom that jazz players have to play fast and loose with the harmony. The point of all the 7ths is to give forward movement to the harmony and the tritone (3-b7) gives you a skeleton that clearly identifies the harmony to the ear.

[cyberlp23]

Ok. Sorry, I'm not entirely familiar with all of this, but slowly grasping the theory

[stringtapper]

In a jazz blues ANY chord can be a 7th. Trying to shoehorn the harmony into strict diatonic harmonic stucture is kind of missing the freedom that jazz players have to play fast and loose with the harmony. The point of all the 7ths is to give forward movement to the harmony and the tritone (3-b7) gives you a skeleton that clearly identifies the harmony to the ear.

But chords being reharmonized as dominants doesn't detract from the functional connections present in the example.

The final turnaround has the very common alteration of a standard iii-vi-ii-V progression where the vi chord is made a dominant (iii-VI7-ii-V7), creating a descending harmonic sequence with a ii-V in the key of the the supertonic (II) before the ii-V in I. It's still functional harmony.

[nordickvr]

Fmin7 Bb7 C7 = IV min to I maj resolution.

[Hooj]

do your own damn homework!

[egbert]

@ stringtapper - of course you are right about the functional harmony. The fact that 7ths are commonly substituted for minor sevenths and half diminished sevenths and major sevenths doesn't negate the more conventional harmonic stuff when it is there.

If you look at the charts in the JA playalongs they love dropping a ii V into a bar where there was originally a 7th and even if they play the head on the original changes, under the solos they might have a more dense chart with ii Vs subbed in for the 7ths and tritone subs (eg a ii V a tritone away leading chromatically down to the next chord [so Ebmi7|Ab7 bar leading to Gmi7 or G7) inserted in place of the original chords. I have the defrancesco hammond trio books for eg and they do this stuff a lot.

[stringtapper]

I have the defrancesco hammond trio books for eg and they do this stuff a lot.

Is that an Abersold book?

DeFrancesco is a beast!

[egbert]

His guitarists ain't too shabby either. There are three sets with him on the B and his guitarist and drummer: Now's the Time, Groovin Jazz and Feelin' Good which is B3 blues set which is, coincidentally, on special right now. Scroll down that link to see the other two.