Confirmation - Charlie Parker Flashcards
Key Info
- recorded by the Charlie Parker Quartet on 28th July 1953 at Fulton Recording, New York City.
- originally released on the album The Genius of Charlie Parker #3 - Now’s the Time.
- Personnel: Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Al Haig (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Max Roach (drums).
Timeline/Context of Bebop
- A new music was being born around the time of this recording: the onomatopoetic ‘Bebop’ style that was to give Jazz a new direction and way forward with a new ‘language’.
- It was also a much more ‘serious’ music, in that its focus was not associated with dancing, as in the Swing era, or being in the background;
- This was ‘listening’ music and enabled musicians to explore much more technically demanding elements of harmony, tempo rhythms, energy and intricate longer melodic lines and phrases.
- It was not a music you could dance easily.
- It was a departure from the well-organised compositions and arrangements of the Swing period.
- Other key exponents and contributors were trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk and drummer Max Roach.
Deveaux and Giddins summary of social times and racial context;
- Non-musical forces (racial and economic) were driving musicians out of Swing into the unknown future, and these forces formed the basis for the notion that Bop was revolutionary.
- During the Swing Era, black bands were barred from two kinds of jobs: a sponsored prime-time radio show and a lengthy engagement at a major hotel ballroom or dance hall in New York City.
- These jobs offered a chance to rest from the riggers of travel, meaning that musicians in top white bands could unpack their bangs, rehearse new tunes, and live with their families. Forcing black bands to stay on the roads, with most touring in rattletrap buses.
- Musicians had to eat at ‘coloured’ restaurants, sit in the Jim Crow car of a railroad, and avoid eye contact with white women - or risk violence.
- Under these circumstances, musicians became bitter - especially younger ones, impatient with the hypocrisy that protected racism. The most talented quit the Swing bands, sometimes out of exhaustion, sometimes disgust.
- Increasingly, they turned towards the jam session, hoping to find some way to carry on their music outside the system. Bebop absorbed their energy; it was subversive, ‘uppity’, daring, and hell-bent on social change. ‘There was a message to our music’ proclaimed Kenny Clarke.
Who was Charlie Parker?
- Charlie Parker was born in Kansas and raised an only child, although his father was considered often absent. He took up the saxophone when he was 11, although it wasn’t until he was nearly 20 that he began practising diligently and very seriously, and in 1939 he moved to New York.
- ‘Parker was the first Jazz musician since Louis Armstrong whose innovations demanded a comprehensive reassessment of all the elements of Jazz’.
- Parker through his improvisations and compositions managed to;. Find new ways of selecting notes to be compatible with the accompaniment chords.
. Create new ways of accenting notes so that the phrases have a highly syncopated character.
. Establish methods for adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords by the selection of notes for the improvised lines.
He also had unprecedented mastery of the saxophone and his solos were densely packed with ideas. There was a multitude of notes, many of which flowed in to ‘double time’ or quadruple time figures.
Main Characteristics of Bebop;
- The preferred instrumentation for Bebop was small combo rather than big band.
- The standard tempo was faster than the previous Swing style.
- Display of instrumental virtuosity was a higher priority than in Swing.
- Bebop improvisation was more complex as it contained more ideas that were less alike, more excursions outside the original key, and a greater rhythmic diversity.
- Complex melodies and harmonies in compositions.
- Tunes that often suggested a somewhat ‘unresolved’ quality.
- More varied accompaniment figures from the rhythm section.
- Comping (varying chords and rhythms used in accompanying a soloist) was more prevalent than piano stride style and simple beat chording.
- Drummers played their timekeeping rhythms primarily on ride cymbal, in preference to snare drum, high hat or bass drum. They often ‘dropped noms’ too - unexpected bass drum expositions.
- Surprise was highly regarded.
- Bop had a more ‘agitated’ feel than the previous style of Swing.
Analysis of the Work: Confirmation
- The first 32 bars are the melody and the next 64 the improvised solo.
- Key: F major.
- Form: AABA (32 bar song form).
- There is a 4 bar improvised piano introduction by Haig, based on the harmonic changes of final 4 bars.
- It is interesting to note that ‘Confirmation’ is not a ‘contract’ tune (a melody written using the harmonic progression from a pre-existing source); however, many of his others were.
- He especially used the Blues and Rhythm Changes forms. For example, his tune ‘Anthropology’ is written based on the harmony of ‘I Got Rhythm’.
Confirmation harmonic structure can be simplified and summarised thus;
A section;
I - (ii-V in) - vi - (ii-V in) - IV - (iii-VI) - II - ii-V
A 2;
I - (ii-V in) - vi - (ii-V in) - IV - (iii-VI) - ii-V - I.
Bridge;
ii (of IV) - (ii-V in) - IV - (the new I - Bb Major) - ii - V (in) - bIIII (Db Major) - ii-V (of the original I, as a pivot).
I - (ii-V in) - vi - (ii-V in) - IV - (iii-VI) - ii-V - I.
The Melody of ‘Confirmation’.
- Martin Williams believe that it is Parker’s best tune - “Confirmation was in no way predetermined by a chord sequence; its melody dictates one of its own. But note that the song form dictates a cyclical harmonic understructure, whereas Parker’s melody is relatively continuous”.
- One might argue that there is repetition in ‘Confirmation’. For example, the last eight bars reflect the opening very strongly. Bars 3 and 4 seem to mirror bar 11 and the first part of bar 12. There is a Blues scale reference in bar 5 which is mirrored almost in retrograde in bar 13.
- The use of the Blues Scale in these bars is interesting because, while the melodic contour makes F the tonic note, that sound is then superimposed onto Bb8, creating a quasi bitonality.
- There is a healthy variation of phrase length throughout: for example, 2 bars at the opening, 4 bars at the beginning of the bridge (line 5), and 1 bar (line 4, bars 1 then 2). This provides for an interesting melodic counter.
- Arpeggios corresponding to the chords supplied are used widely throughout: bar 2, line 4 bar 2, line 5 bars 1 and 2, line 6 bar 3, line 7 bar 2.
- Extension tones (beyond the 7th degree) relative to the chords supplied are also a common feature and are emphasised in: line 2 bar 1 and line 8 bar 1 (b9), line 2 bar 3 (dominant 13 and 9), line 2 bar 4 (b9 on C7, ignoring the superfluous Gmin7 chord on the score), line 3 bar 4 (#5) line 5 bar 1 (maj7 on C min), line 5 bar 2 (both #9 and b9, then #11), line 6 bar 3 (Db suggests maj6 or maj13), line 6 bar 4 (#5).
- Surrounding techniques - (surrounding a target tone above and below it either diatonically or chromatically) are present at bar 2 (A), bar 3 and line 3 bar 3 (F), line 5 bar 3 (G), line 6 bar 3 (F beat 1, Db beat 3), line 8 bar 2 (A natural). Line 6 bar 1 could be considered a 4 note enclosure/surrounding (C beat 2 by the preceding semiquavers).
- Chromatic approach is also very common: bar 2 (beat 1 G, begun the triplet before), same for line 7 bar 2, line 2 bar 4 (Db), line 6 bar 4 (C).
The final three bars of line 8 provide a new closing statement to the original A section.
Charlie Parker Solo -
Arpeggios - are frequent and occur in: line 9 bar 3, line 10 bar 2 (beat 2+3, dim as b9), line 10 bar 3, line 12 bar 1, 3 and 4, line 13 bar 3, line 14 bar 4, line 16 bar 2 and 3, bar 19 bar 4, line 20 bar 2, line 21 bar 1,2 and 3, line 23 bar 1, 2, line 24 bar 2, 4.
Extensions - Line 9 bar 2 (b9 on A7), line 10 bar 2 (b9 on D7), bar 3 (9 on G7), line 12 bar 2 (b9 on D7), bar 3 (13 on C7), line 13 bar 2 (b9 on F7), line 15 bar 2 (b9 on A7), bar 3 (#5 on G7), bar 4 (#9 on F7 via blues scale).
Chromatic approach - line 11 bar 4 (final Eb), line 12 bar 3 (G), line 13 bar 3 (F), line 14 bar 4 (G), line 15 bar 3 (A), line 16 bar 3 (C beat 4), line 17 bar 3 (A), bar 4 (F, Eb), line 18 bar 1 (D), bar 2 (C), bar 4 (Gb, the #11 of C7), line 19 bar 3 (F), bar 4 (Eb, beat 3), line 20 bar 1 (Bb), bar 22 (D), bar 3 (C), line 2 24 bar 3 (D).
Surrounding Techniques - line 10 bar 3 (D of G7, 3 note enclosure), line 11 bar 2 (Db of A7), line 14 bar 2 (C on Ab7) , bar 3 (Bb on Dbmaj7), line 20 bar 1 (Bb on Bbm7), line 22 bar 2 (C on Ab7), line 24 bar 3 (F).
Line 17 bar 3 sounds as if Parker is delaying the A7 of the previous bar and placing it on the downbeat on bar 3, with the strong chord tones of C# and Bb (3rd, b9). He effectively catches up to the regular progression again by the Cmin7.
Semiquaver triplets or other fast groupings to emphasise certain tones or beats, e.g. line 9 bar 4 (beat 2), line 10 bar 2 (beat 1), line 13 bar 1 (beat 4).
Doubletime phrases at line 11 bars 2-4, and line 19 bars 2-4. These fast lines maintain a very diplomatic balance between scale passages, chromatic approach, arpeggios and surrounding techniques.
Sequencing of ideas is present by targeting the #11 of both G7 and C7 at line 18 bars 3 and 4, supported by the same rhythm. Line 22 bars 2-4 is also a fine example of rhythmic sequence and repetition: the pattern of two quaver beats followed by semiquaver triplet and then another quaver is creatively repeated to produce tension, with the release finally happening at line 23. Many of parker’s two-bar phrases here may be considered sequencing, as they often have a call and response quality.
Time feel manipulation by ‘laying back’ on certain bars for a temporary ‘relaxed’ effect, e.g. line 11 bar 1, line 17 bar 1.
Parker’s phrases and phrasing are often unconventional; line 22 to line 23 bar 3, could be considered one seven-bar phrase. This effectively creates tension against the original harmonic motion that is played by the rhythm section. A the end of his solo, he carries the phrase over the bar line to beat 3.
Parker also cleverly changes where to end a phrase: consider the phrase ending at line 9 bar 3, or line 20 bar 3. This juxtaposes and provides variation between longer consecutive eighth-note lines, and creates a natural, interesting use of space.
