Put the ii chord awayThe soloist thinks of the dominant

Barry compared a jazz performance to classical music: it is a whole, not a bar-by-bar affair. You can’t think of it as one measure of C minor 7 to F7; sometimes the B-flat major comes in early, or the F7 does. He said he didn’t believe in ii chords at all and that they should all be put away.

Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle18:4719:20

Barry said the important minor chord is always found on the fifth of the dominant. F-sharp minor 6 is found on the fifth of B, which tells you the F-sharp minor belongs to the B7. That is why, he said, you can’t really practise F-sharp minor 7 to B7: if it is B7, you practise B7. He felt this was taught wrongly and wished he could hold a big session with all the teachers.

Jazz theory, part 7: Monk and Stella by Starlight12:3113:07

Barry admitted he used to say there was no such thing as a half-diminished chord, until someone corrected him. He passed on Monk’s view: Monk never called it half-diminished or minor 7 flat 5, but a minor chord with its sixth in the bass. D half-diminished, for example, is just F minor with D, its sixth, in the bass. So the progression is not II-V but minor IV to V to I. In the same way, D minor 7 is really the major IV going to V to I.

The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are6:006:347:10

Why play E-flat 7 in bars where the sheet says G half-diminished to C7? Because G half-diminished is the chord built on the third of E-flat 7. So Barry played the E-flat 7 scale there, not a G minor idea, and then changed to C. His rule: when you see a half-diminished chord, play the seventh chord whose third is its root. He quizzed his class on other half-diminished chords this way, and said that if he believes in sevenths he has to find a way to play everything with sevenths.

Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 13:003:334:415:13

A run Barry said he likes when playing over what the caption suggests is a G half-diminished: take E-flat 7, start on the root, put one half step between the root and the seventh, and run down to the third of C. He wanted the E-flat itself in the line, not just the D-flat.

The 1998 workshop, part 30:001:13

A guitarist who spoke at Barry’s funeral recalled a Barry workshop: after showing how to start singing a tune from any point in the bar, Barry turned to improvisation and told the room there is no such thing as a ii-V. The pianist plays the ii-V for colour, but the horn player plays the V, the dominant, into its tritone.

Barry Harris Funeral56:05The Great Pianist Barry Harris’ Funeral At Abyssinian Baptist Church In Harlem42:16

Barry showed a spot in Back Home Again in Indiana where, while the pianist plays E-flat minor 7 to A-flat 7, Charlie Parker (Bird) played a phrase built entirely on the tritone: a whole D7 line against the E-flat minor to A-flat 7. Barry called it really effective and said it should be written out.

Bird’s D7 line on Indiana0:341:11Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You0:00

Practise the tritone versions, not only the written ones. Barry said horn players who only practise E-flat 7 into A-flat 7 should also practise A-flat 7 into D7, or D7 played right against the pianist’s E-flat minor to A-flat 7. He demonstrated a phrase running E-flat 7 into A7; over E-flat 7 he played A7, then tried running that A7 on into D7. He was frustrated that horn players on records so seldom play tritones.

Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You0:001:105:50Bird’s D7 line on Indiana2:54

While the pianist plays his ii-V, G minor to C7, the soloist turns the C7 into F-sharp 7. Barry’s exercise for a trumpet player: play the tonic of C, then go from the second chromatically up to the third; do the same thing on F-sharp 7; then, arriving at F, hit the second instead of the tonic. He called the tritone notes unbelievable notes.

Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You2:334:014:40

When Barry worked with Coleman Hawkins, Hawkins told him he did not play chords, he played movements. Barry drew the lesson that chords are only part of the picture: we have to be movement players and know all the movements, how one chord moves to the next.

Jazz theory, part 2: drop voicings1:07Jazz theory, part 2, with score1:20Stella by Starlight14:34Be movement players1:09

Barry criticised players, and even some famous arrangers, who are only ii-V thinkers. A song is a beautiful thing that is not merely connected by ii-Vs; if you just go ii-V you miss the real movements the strings and reeds play in a good arrangement. He used Stella By Starlight and Night and Day to show passages that do not simply jump from one chord to the next.

Stella by Starlight0:0014:01Be movement players0:33

In Stella By Starlight, Barry says what is wrong with the A chord is that it does not really take you to the C chord. He hears a C-sharp diminished there instead, and you can still put the A in the bass; that diminished is what gets you there so prettily. He compares it to a spot in Polka Dots and Moonbeams that most people play plainly, while Bud Powell heard it more like the C7 going to the diminished.

Stella by Starlight5:566:287:03

Barry played a passage of simple, pretty little chords from Bud Powell and asked the class to explain it: why, in the key of B-flat, does Bud suddenly come up with a C chord? His only explanation was that those chords belong to the key of F, as if Bud had switched keys in midstream; a student added that it moves from F toward C. Barry contrasted these small chords with the big, many-note chords most players use, and said understanding what such simple chords mean is what the class had to explore.

Bud Powell’s sudden change of key0:170:491:282:00

Barry had a pianist play F in the left hand with D and A above. You may think that is an F chord, but those three notes are really G minor 7; put G in the bass and you hear G minor going to C. His conclusion: what the ear really hears is movement, the voice that moves, however many notes you stack, so three notes are often all you need.

Passport: teaching a blues by ear13:2313:5714:30

Barry spoke about a line being uninterrupted: going from one point to another is just a line, and other notes simply come in around it. You have to find the lines in the songs you play.

Passing It On10:13