After The Jazz Standard Progressions Book series was published it was only natural to take a closer look at the harmonic vocabulary used in Bebop repertoire.
In the mid-1940s Bebop musicians revolutionized jazz with the use of complex harmonies, thrilling fast tempos and virtuosic instrumental technique. Charlie Parker, also known as “Bird”, would become without a doubt the most influential figure in jazz. His iconic compositions, improvisations and recordings are fundamental in the understanding of jazz and a testament of the Bebop era. Any serious jazz musician recognizes it as a transformative period in the genre.
Some fakebooks such as the Ominbook offer an account of the Bebop style based on Parker’s solos and melodies. However, they lack a fundamental element to navigate the path to improvisation: Harmonic Analysis.
The Bird Bebop Progressions Book offers an essential ingredient that has been missing until now: Harmonic Functions, Analysis, Chord-Scales and Arrows & Brackets Analysis, all of it handmade by savvy musicians who spent decades performing, teaching, researching and studying this material.
This book was designed using Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro by mDecks Music, LLC. Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro is an app that visually represents tonal harmony in an interactive map.
Each harmonic function occupies a specific spot in the map, relative to other harmonic functions. Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro includes arrows showing expected paths of resolution between the harmonic functions and many features that have proved to be an invaluable tool for the study of jazz and traditional harmony.
The scale glossary was made using another outstanding app by mDecks Music: Tessitura Pro, which is a complete audio-visual encyclopedia of scales based on the circle of fifths.
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