DISCUSSION OF 'CONFIRMATION' Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 11:09:38 -0700 From: frankj@curran.Eng.Sun.COM (Frank Curran) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 20:59:09 -0700 From: reed kotler Subject: Re: [Fwd: Composition books and articles] : reposting Jim Kroger wrote: > > I hope this is an appropriate question for this mailing list. > Please correct me if I'm out of line (again). > > I've been told that two songs had revolutionary effects on jazz, > due to their innovative approach to composition. One is > "Cherokee" by Charlie Parker, the other is "Giant Steps" by > John Coltrane. Can anyone explain what is important or > revolutionary about these songs? > > Thanks > Jim Well Giant Steps is important for the interesting chord changes it used, for all the other tunes written using the same idea, and for providing a reharmonization technique that has been applied to lots of other tunes. First of all though it is generally thought that Giant Steps is derived from the bridge to the tune "Have You Met Miss Jones" by Richard Rodgers. When the tune is played in F, the bridge starts in Bb and goes: Bbmaj7 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | Emi7 A7 | Dmaj7 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | ... So we see the key change from Bb to Gb to D to Gb. In other words the key centers are changing in major thirds. To my knowledge this was the first tune to do this. If we rewrite the bridge in B we get; Bmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 | ... So the key changes from B to G to Eb to G . Now lets look at the changes for giant steps. Bmaj7 D7 | Gmaj7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 F#7 | Bmaj7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | Ami7 D7 | Gmaj7 | C#mi7 F#7| Bmaj7 | Fmi7 Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | C#mi7 F#7| So the key also changes in major thirds: B to G to Eb to G to Eb to B to Eb to G to B to Eb and turnaround back to B. You should read the chapter on "Coltrane Changes" in Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory Book". He gives alot of examples and talks about the history and importance of those changes. His jazz piano book discusses this too. I haven't personally studied all the ramifications of that reharmonization because the players I have studied (Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Chet Baker, etc) never got into that. Although writing this post has piqued my interest. I think the basic idea is that it provides another way to get to a major chord without the need for ii/V I or iii/VI ii/V I or whatever. For example in place of |Dmi7 G7 | Cmaj7| you could try. Emaj7 G7 | Cmaj7. So the key center goes from E to C. Or say if you had |Dmi7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | you might try Abmaj7 B7 | Emaj7 G7 | Cmaj7 | Here the key goes Ab to E to C. In major thirds again. What Coltrane did in fact was to write tunes that were based on reharmonizations of other tunes using this technique. For example, Countdown (also from the Giant Steps album) is based on the Miles Davis tune Tuneup. The Changes to Tuneup are: Emi7 | A7 | Dmaj7 | | Dmi7 | G7 | Cmaj7 | | Cmi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | Ebmaj7 | Emi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 | So what Coltrane saw was four bars starting with Emi7 and ending with Dmaj7, four bars starting with Dmi7 and ending with Cmaj7 and four bars starting with Cmi7 and ending with Bbmaj7. He left the last four bars alone and even duplicated the melody from tuneup. So he just backed up from the target chords, i.e Dmaj7 for the first four, Cmaj7 for the second four and Bbmaj7 for the first four. Emi7 ?? | ????? | ????? | Dmaj7 | Dmi7 ?? | ????? | ????? | Cmaj7 | Cmi7 ?? | ????? | ???? | Bbmaj7 | Emi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 | So the first line will first go from F#(Gb) key center to D. Emi7 ?? | ????? | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 | Then we get to Gb key center from Bb. Emi7 ?? | Bbmaj7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 | Now we just add a V chord into Bb. Emi7 F7 | Bbmaj7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 | The second two lines are reharmonized in the same manner, yielding the changes in total: EMi7 F7 | Bbmaj7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 | Dmi7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 B7 | Emaj7 G7 | Cmaj7 | Cmi7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 A7 | Dmaj7 F7 | Bbmaj7 | Emi7 | F7 | Bbmaj7 | A7 | Coltrane wrote several other tunes in this manner. In addition he reharmonized parts of existing tunes like Body and Soul (the bridge, see New Real Book vol 2), and Everytime We Say Goodbye just to name a few. Sometimes he modified the melody slightly to accomodate the reharmonization. Although I enjoy playing Giant Steps. One thing that I've always felt is that it should really be a ballad. It has been interesting to see how many musicians in the last few years have discovered the same thing and begun recording it that way. I hope this helps. I sure learned alot from writing it. reed ------------------------------ Subject: Confirmation and Giant Steps - was fwd.... Question from Jim: > Can anyone explain what is important or revolutionary about these > songs? (Confirmation and Giant Steps) Yes I agree with Reed - great question. I've studied Giant Steps more than Confirmation so I'll offer a few comments on it. Part of the innovation that Coltrane created in GS is the harmonic structure based on a cylcle of thirds. This moved away from the traditional tonic to dominant to tonic with subdominant excursions or 2-5-1 backcycling. Cycling the harmonic structure based on thirds gives the feeling of constant movement and resolution just as effectively as traditional harmony but with a new, interesting sound. Part of the revolutionary significance lies in the successful departure from the tradition of the past, not that a huge proportion of subsequent jazz followed the GS pattern. I too have to run in a few minutes, will try to send more later, perhaps from my home system (funguitar@aol.com) tonight. Specific analysis of GS harmonic structure and improv ideas would be a lot of fun. Frank ------------------------------ reed: Confirmation is a great tune and one that I studied alot because I transribed the head and the solos off the "Now's The Time" recording. I'm not sure exactly why it would be considered revolutionary except that it had the germ of something that I think Charlie Parker created and that was the kind of blues changes he later used in tunes like "Blues for ALice". (I don't seem to have a recording for "Blues for Alice" so I'm basing my analysis here on the chart in the New Real Book Vol. 2 which was derived from a Charlie Parker recording as well as a Roland Kirk recording so the changes may be somewhat modernized. I will also give the ones at the end from the Charlie Parker Omnibook which differ in a few places. The Omnibook was a momentous work but it does have alot of mistakes as I have found when transcribing the solos so I'm not 100% confident about the chord changes. If I can find a recording I'll see what I hear and have Don double check.) The first five bars of Confirmation are essentially: F | Emi7b5 A7 | Dmi7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb | So this was a way to get from a I chord to a IV chord in the right number of measures for a blues. A traditional blues is basically: F7 | | | | Bb7 | |F7 | | C7 | |F7 |C7 | What Charlie Parker did that was revolutionary in "Blues fo Alice" was to make the I and IV chords be major sixth chords instead of Seventh chords. F6 | | | | Bb6 | |F6 | | C7 | |F6 |C7 | Then there was the question of how to fill in the chords so that we logicall arrive at the proper place. The F6 to Bb6 was filled in basically the way he did it for "Confirmation". F6 |Emi7 A7 |Dmi7 G7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb6 | |F6 | | C7 | |F6 |C7 | Then he used a minor plagal cadence to get from bars 6 to 7, i.e. Bbmi6 (actual chords played being Bbmi7 to Eb7). F6 |Emi7 A7 |Dmi7 G7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb6 |Bbmi7 Eb7 |F6 | | C7 | |F6 | | Then he approached the C7 with a Db7. Db7 can be looked at as just a half step approach or else a tritone sub for G7 which is the V of C. F6 |Emi7 A7 |Dmi7 G7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb6 |Bbmi7 Eb7 |F6 | Db7 | C7 | |F6 | C7 | Next he turned the remained dominant seventh chords into ii-V7 , a common device. F6 |Emi7 A7 |Dmi7 G7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb6 |Bbmi7 Eb7 |F6 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gmi7 |C7 |F6 | Gmi7 C7 | Then he just extended the turnaround at the end substitued iii7/VI7 ii7/V7 for I ii7/V7 which is another common device. F6 |Emi7 A7 |Dmi7 G7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb6 |Bbmi7 Eb7 |F6 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gmi7 |C7 |Ami7 D7 | Gmi7 C7 | The Omnibook has: F6 |Emi7b5 A7 |Dmi7 G7 | Cmi7 F7 | Bb7 |Bbmi7 Eb7 |Ami7 | Abmi7 Db7 | Gmi7 |C7 |F7 | Gmi7 C7 | The main differences are the Bb7 in bar 5 and the F7 in bar 11. The Bb7 in bar 5 is bit alarming but most likely it was a Bb6 and because of the Ab melody note in the middle of the measure he renamed it but this is speculation since I havent heard the recording. The Ami7 in bar 7 instead of F6 is really not much of an issue. Either would work. Similarly the F7 for Ami7 D7 is just another way to do the turnraround though the F7 insread of F6 is a bit alarming. reed ------------------------------