~ 1939 ~

"Music should always be an adventure."

Arpeggio jazz kings. In our Americana history it turns out that there's three jazz artists whose use of the arpeggio figure in their improvisations became a catalyst to change the music of their day. And in doing so provided a base to build up on for what would come after. These three are honored here as the 'arpeggio kings.' Historically in order, first is Coleman Hawkins, then Charlie Parker and then John Coltrane.

Coleman Hawkins. Our beginning point becomes 1939 in NYC, when Hawkins' recorded the popular song of the day "Body And Soul" as an instrumental on tenor saxophone. For in his recording, Hawkins' arpeggiates nearly all the changes in the tune. There's bits of the melody, some very cool bluesy turns, but the single note melody of the horn line is 90% arpeggio pitches, created from each chord as the song's progression moves along.

No artist had ever done this before, created an almost pure arpeggiated approach to the changes, and not worry too much about the melody, just super clear outline the harmony by creating an 'arpeggio melody line' from the pitches of each chord. 'Spell the chords.' And once the sound of this got around, and historically from this point forward, the changes become enough of a stimulus and backing for creating single note line lines. And for single line instrument players, this means articulating accurate arpeggios of each chord and its color tones. Example 6.

This 'outlining each chord with the pitches of its arpeggio, presented to rhythmically swing with the band, becomes a model of modernization of improvisation; that the form of a song and its harmonic progressions can form a soloist's basis for blowing.

~ 1947 ~

"Learn your horn and then forget it and play jazz."

Charlie Parker. In our Americana history and its evolutions, Mr. Parker's musical genius lives between Bach and Coltrane. For Herr Bach, in the 1720's, begins to show us the harmony potential of the then newly adopted 'equal temper tuning, of what's diatonically available, with the 12 equal temper tuned pitches, in the Baroque stylings of his day. And thanks to his two volume "Well Tempered Clavier" of 1722 and 1741, we get a quite a thorough going over of the 12 paired key centers.

Parker's genius comes historically about a decade or so before Coltrane's evolutions. In a similar fashion to Bach, Parker conquers near every nook and cranny of the diatonic realm, of Americana melody and harmony in the coolest styles of his day generally called bebop, all of which is written into his fifty five compositions and improvisations of the Charlie Parker Omnibook.

Parker shows how each of the 12 pitch positions of the chromatic scale are now available, to create some sort of chord, both diatonic and passing, thus providing a basis and support for a melodic line. Each chord's pitches anchor his melodic lines. Deftly woven into purely joyous Americana songs with freely swinging rhythms at any tempo, Parker's compositions retain the 'diatonic' of his era yet still 'nick' pure blues and gospel somewhere along the way, of near every phrase that comes along.

Parker's ever present bluesy, gospel Americana flavored melodic line, and often working this through the fastest tempos every attempted, sets the bar for Coltrane to better, to search deeper into these initial '12 tones within the diatonic positions' and what the theory can generate in the tonal convergence of modern musical art.

From art, its theory. In Parker's early years as a pro, the popular music that surrounded him in the late 30's knew of Hawkin's arpeggiated approach to creating improvised art and cats were doing it. Parker simply builds on this basis but to an exponential degree that folks had never heard before. Ridiculed at first, trying out his new idea still yet not fully formed, Parker goes on to solve this problem by playing everything 'necessary' in theory, to make his licks work.

For like Hawkin's, Parker arpeggiates most every chord in a song's progression, then while that harmony is still in play, jazzing it up with his own signature sound and ideas. Add in brighter tempos that swing deep and we come to the bebop style, Americana's most complex ever created. Theory termed to 'hear the changes in the line', 'if it ain't a blues lick', then Parker will include every note needed to clearly hear 'the chord changes' in his improvised lines.

Mr. Parker fully expressed this technique through the chromatic magics of '12 tone equal temper Euro pitch potential' of our own indigenous Amer Afro Euro Latin jazz. Lest we ever forget that this jazz was at one time our collective 'pop' music. As an Americana composer and saxophonist, and 'here too fully crowned as an 'Arpeggio King', Parker and Co., pioneered this new approach to jazz in the early 40's. Mostly termed 'bebop' now by historians, 'bop' was both the most difficult music to play and the most exciting improvised music NYC had ever heard since ... :)

Mr. Parker was said to have also heard pianist Art Tatum perform. Enough so that over a year or so of his own diligent practice, Parker deftly applied what Tatum was doing in his right hand to the whole range of his alto saxophone. To make sense of it all, Parker uses arpeggios, from the root up through all its color tones, to ensure that the changes are heard in his lines.

"Cherokee." According to legend, the jazz standard song titled "Cherokee" becomes Mr. Parker's initial portal into the evolution of our harmony and resulting melodic lines. Some say it was in the bridge, with its fast moving modulations with subtle half note melody pitches within Two / Five / One progressions, that Parker's epiphany occurred; five key centers either landed to or implied, through 13 chords over 16 bars.

For legend has it that Mr. Parker, then in his early 20's, was warming up prior to a performance by 'running the changes' of this 1938 classy Ray Noble jazz burner, "Cherokee." And that it was in this 'moment' that things 'clicked' and Parker's new vision appears and begins to take shape.

In theory, Mr. Parker simply realized that to play the 'new ideas' he was hearing, he would first have to fully arpeggiate the supporting chord tones to make all of the pitches in his improvised melodic lines 'sound correct.' As the chord progressions of his songs gradually 'filled in' with more diatonic and passing chords, cadential motions and chord substitutions, Parker, through articulating arpeggios, redefined the music of his day as he stayed perfectly 'inside' the changes, regardless of their complexity, and always kept some gospel feel and blue colors close at hand. In doing so, Parker leads us on a pathway to a new apex of our Americana jazz during the 1940's and forward into the 50's.

"Cherokee's" written melody note rhythms are mostly whole and half notes, which gives the artist 'time to think', however briefly, as the music scoots along. For there's a neat trick in up tempo songs; that by sounding a long note value in time through changes, we give our imaginations time to momentarily reflect, to 'suggest' other notes and ideas, which we then try to play.

We get to rhythmically 'push off' from a bar line, floating a sustained note, create some space. Have time for a breath, and give our minds a window to conjure the next phrase. This 'push off process' works like a charm, and not just in jazz music. Phrasing is the term we musicians use that can describe this two way process.

This 'long note' improv idea is explained in the book Forward Motion by jazz pianist Hal Garper. Mr. Garper tells us that he learned it from Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet virtuoso, bebop and Latin pioneer who stood elbow to elbow with Mr. Parker.

A synopsis of this work is included at the close of the discussion of musical time included in this book. It creates a way into Mr. Garper's idea of where a phrase begins and ends, which in his discoveries ties us right back up to J.S. Bach, whose experiments with the 'new' temperament of the day helped to usher in the then 'new' era of stacking up pitches into chords. That far back huh? Yep, way back to 1725 or so :)