Ko-Ko - Charlie Parker
Basic Facts
● Composer - Charlie Parker
● Year - 1945
● Style - Bebop
● Inspiration - Cherokee
Characteristics of Bebop
● Also known as bop
● Developed in the early/mid ‘40s
● Fast tempos: erratic, racing, fragmented
● Asymmetrical phrasing
● Intricate melodies and harmonies
● Smaller groups (4 - 6)
● Irregular, unpredictable rhythms
● May include references to other music
● Instrumentation - saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, percussion
● Improvisation - theme, head, with improvisation in between
● Harmonies - more complex and uses new harmonic devices
Swing Terminology
● Bombs - a drumming technique that makes use of spontaneous accented hits on the
snare/bass
● Tritone - musical interval; three adjacent whole tones
● Altered Chord - 5th and 9th raised, lowered or omitted
● Substitute Chord - using a related chord in a progression
Examples of Bebop Artists
● Dizzy Gillespie
● Charlie Parker
● Thelonius Monk
● Kenny Clarke
Musical Analysis
● Form - 32-bar pop song (AABA)
● Key - E flat minor?
● Improvisation - each instrument plays an improvised solo
● No traditional head, instead a complex intro
● No sense of chord progression
● Kick-drum thump for end of conclusion
● Coda - ends with sudden repetition of introduction again
Basic Facts
● Composer - Charlie Parker
● Year - 1945
● Style - Bebop
● Inspiration - Cherokee
Characteristics of Bebop
● Also known as bop
● Developed in the early/mid ‘40s
● Fast tempos: erratic, racing, fragmented
● Asymmetrical phrasing
● Intricate melodies and harmonies
● Smaller groups (4 - 6)
● Irregular, unpredictable rhythms
● May include references to other music
● Instrumentation - saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, percussion
● Improvisation - theme, head, with improvisation in between
● Harmonies - more complex and uses new harmonic devices
Swing Terminology
● Bombs - a drumming technique that makes use of spontaneous accented hits on the
snare/bass
● Tritone - musical interval; three adjacent whole tones
● Altered Chord - 5th and 9th raised, lowered or omitted
● Substitute Chord - using a related chord in a progression
Examples of Bebop Artists
● Dizzy Gillespie
● Charlie Parker
● Thelonius Monk
● Kenny Clarke
Musical Analysis
● Form - 32-bar pop song (AABA)
● Key - E flat minor?
● Improvisation - each instrument plays an improvised solo
● No traditional head, instead a complex intro
● No sense of chord progression
● Kick-drum thump for end of conclusion
● Coda - ends with sudden repetition of introduction again
