In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice era of Classical music to the 21st century. Chord progressions are the foundation of popular music styles, traditional music, as well as genres such as blues and jazz. In these genres, chord progressions are the defining feature on which melody and rhythm are built.
Gerald Joseph Mulligan, also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz—Mulligan was also a significant arranger working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. His piano-less quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the best cool jazz ensembles. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Several of his compositions including "Walkin' Shoes" and "Five Brothers", have become standards.
Frank Rosolino was an American jazz trombonist.
In music theory, chord substitution is the technique of using a chord in place of another in a progression of chords, or a chord progression. Much of the European classical repertoire and the vast majority of blues, jazz and rock music songs are based on chord progressions. "A chord substitution occurs when a chord is replaced by another that is made to function like the original. Usually substituted chords possess two pitches in common with the triad that they are replacing."
Carson Raymond Smith was an American jazz double-bassist. Carson is the older brother of jazz musician and composer Putter Smith.
In jazz, a turnaround is a passage at the end of a section which leads to the next section. This next section is most often the repetition of the previous section or the entire piece or song.
Martin Louis Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, record producer, music director, and conductor. As a musician and arranger he worked with jazz musicians Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Kenton, Art Pepper, Buddy Rich, Ray Brown, Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Ray Charles and Mel Tormé. His long association with Tormé included one of the singer's earliest albums, Mel Tormé with the Marty Paich Dek-Tette. Over the next three decades he worked with pop singers such as Andy Williams and Jack Jones and for film and television. He is the father of David Paich, a founding member of the rock band Toto.
Claude Berkeley Williamson was an American jazz pianist.
Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of melodic solo lines or accompaniment parts in a performance of jazz music. It is one of the defining elements of jazz. Improvisation is composing on the spot, when a singer or instrumentalist invents melodies and lines over a chord progression played by rhythm section instruments and accompanied by drums. Although blues, rock, and other genres use improvisation, it is done over relatively simple chord progressions which often remain in one key.
Carl Saunders was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and educator who performed with such luminaries as Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Bill Holman, Clare Fischer, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, and Paul Anka.
Edward Joseph Bertolatus, also known as Eddie Bert, was an American jazz trombonist.
"Old Devil Moon" is a popular song composed by Burton Lane with lyrics by Yip Harburg for the 1947 musical Finian's Rainbow. It was introduced by Ella Logan and Donald Richards in the Broadway show. The song takes its title from a phrase in "Fun to Be Fooled", a song that Harburg wrote with Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin for the 1934 musical Life Begins at 8:40.
In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads".
Willis Leonard Holman was an American composer, arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working in jazz and traditional pop. His career spanned over seven decades, starting with the Charlie Barnet orchestra in 1950.
"Chelsea Bridge" (1941) is an impressionistic jazz standard composed by Billy Strayhorn.
By the end of the 1940s, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was replaced with a tendency towards calm and smoothness, with the sounds of cool jazz, which favoured long, linear melodic lines. It emerged in New York City, as a result of the mixture of the styles of predominantly white swing jazz musicians and predominantly black bebop musicians, and it dominated jazz in the first half of the 1950s. The starting point were a series of singles on Capitol Records in 1949 and 1950 of a nonet led by trumpeter Miles Davis, collected and released first on a ten-inch and later a twelve-inch as the Birth of the Cool. Cool jazz recordings by Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Stan Getz and the Modern Jazz Quartet usually have a "lighter" sound which avoided the aggressive tempos and harmonic abstraction of bebop. Cool jazz later became strongly identified with the West Coast jazz scene, but also had a particular resonance in Europe, especially Scandinavia, with emergence of such major figures as baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin and pianist Bengt Hallberg. The theoretical underpinnings of cool jazz were set out by the blind Chicago pianist Lennie Tristano, and its influence stretches into such later developments as Bossa nova, modal jazz, and even free jazz. See also the list of cool jazz and West Coast musicians for further detail.
Bernie Miller (1919–1945) was a native of Washington, DC and is best known as the composer of "Bernie's Tune", a 1950s jazz standard that was popularized by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and brought attention to the West Coast Jazz movement. In 1955, songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller added lyrics to "Bernie's Tune."
Zardi's was a venue for jazz music in Los Angeles, from the beginning of the 1950s to 1957.
Gerry Mulligan Quartet Volume 1 is an album by saxophonist and bandleader Gerry Mulligan featuring performances recorded in 1952 and originally released as the first 10-inch LP on the Pacific Jazz label. In 2001 Pacific Jazz released an album on CD with additional tracks from Mulligan's first five recording sessions.
