Bebop
Charlie Parker, AKA ‘Bird’, is one of the best know Jazz musicians of all time. He was a saxophonist and is generally considered the quintessential Bebop musician.
Parker wrote a song called Blues for Alice which has become a Jazz Standard, and the chord progression from Blues for Alice has become known as Bird Changes.
There are 3 things you need to know about Bebop songs:
- They are fast – both in tempo and in chord changes (Harmonic Rhythm)
- They have angular, jagged and harmonically complex melodies
- They are stuffed full of II-V‘s
Bebop musicians would often take simple and well established chord progressions and then just fill them with II-Vs. And so Bird Changes is just a 12 Bar Blues with a heap of non-resolving, descending II-Vs inserted.
12 Bar Blues
Below is the basic 12 Bar Blues. As you can see, it is quite boring – there are long periods of time where nothing happens.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| F7 | F7 | F7 | F7 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| B♭7 | B♭7 | F7 | F7 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| C7 | C7 | F7 | F7 |
Bird Changes
Bird Changes is a much more interesting variation on the 12 Bar Blues, again, stuffed with descending II-V’s.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| FMaj7 | Em7♭5 - A7♭9 | Dm7 - G7 | Cm7 - F7 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| B♭7 | B♭m7 - E♭7 | Am7 - D7 | A♭m7 - D♭7 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Gm7 | C7 | FMaj7 - Dm7 | Gm7 - C7 |
Notice:
- It starts on a FMaj7 rather than the F7
- The chords in bars 1, 5, 10 & 11 (coloured red) line up with the basic 12 bar blues chord changes
- The chord progression back-cycles through non-resolving II-Vs from the FMaj7 to the B♭7, and again to the C7 which leads back to the FMaj7
- The chord progression finishes with a I-VI-II-V Turnaround in F Major
Voicing & Jazz Piano History
Because bebop songs generally have a fast tempo and angular melodies, you generally want to keep the chord voicings quite simple and sparse – otherwise it may get in the way of and clash with the melody. Try using:
- Bud Powell Voicings
- Walking Bass-lines
- Stride Piano
These voicings are much truer to the Bebop style. Rootless and Quartal chord voicings were only developed after the Bebop era.
Have a Listen to
- Blues for Alice ~ Charlie Parker
- Bluesette ~ Toots Thielemans
- Confirmation ~ Charlie Parker