Evolution of the Jazz Blues Form - Page 3

by Kerry Galloway Jazz musicians, seeking new horizons harmonically, begin to embellish the blues form. Decoration begins to flourish. The more Europeanised Major 7th chord begins to become a frequently explored sound. The blues has come a long way. Soloists like Charlie Parker seek to write blues with more challenging changes to "blow" over.

The use of "back cycling" becomes common. In a nutshell, it means "well, we know we have to end up HERE (say at the F chord in bar 5) so we can work bacwards and put THESE changes in bar 4".

Check out the back cycling in bars 4 and 8. These are "II-V-I" progressions that give a very strong harmonic indication of where you are going in bars 5 and 9.

By this point, it's getting harder to just use a "blues scale" to get throught the progression. Some knowledge of harmony starts to become necessary to play over the changes without playing notes that clash with the harmonie