Barry HarrisThe method

Tunes he taught

Body and Soul

No captioned class in the archive shows Barry working through Body and Soul, but both of his workshop videos use it for chord movement on the sixth diminished scales, and in talk he held up Coleman Hawkins’s recording of it as the greatest ever made.

moments in class
4
recordings
3
Barry plays it
6

What he teaches through it

Both workshop videos use the tune for moving chords. The first, in its chapter on movable chords for piano and guitar, where his approach to voicing and movement is shown on several standards, takes up Body and Soul after Alone Together. The second has a section on sixth diminished movements in Body and Soul in its harmony chapter.

Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video ¶7Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video ¶19Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part 2: product page and 156-page workbook table of contents ¶20

Howard Rees, applying Barry’s method to tunes in Keyboard magazine in 1998, used Body and Soul as one example. He harmonises the melody with chords moving in contrary motion along the D major and D minor sixth diminished scales, voices F♯m7 as A6, Em7 as G6 and B7 as C minor 6, gives A7 first its diminished chord and then a related dominant, and puts a dominant root taken from the diminished chord in the bass.

Howard Rees, Evolutionary Voicings ¶3Howard Rees, Evolutionary Voicings ¶4Howard Rees, Evolutionary Voicings ¶21

He dated the golden age of jazz from Coleman Hawkins’s return from Europe and his recording of Body and Soul, which he called the greatest recording ever made. To him Hawkins was a bebop player too.

Interview: Detroit and after6:226:54

He marvelled that such an abstract record became a hit. When it comes on the radio, he said, it is sometimes like the sun coming out, and he said the same of Bird on the radio.

Interview: Detroit and after10:5911:33

In his own words

The Golden Age probably began when [Coleman] Hawkins came back from Europe... [Body and Soul] is the greatest recording ever made by any man.

Interview: Detroit and after, New York City, 2004. Artists House interview, 2004, on his influences 6:54 Watch on YouTube at 6:54

I’ve always been amazed that body and soul was such a hit because it’s so abstract... when you listen to it when it comes on the radio, sometimes it’s like the sun comes out.

Interview: Detroit and after, New York City, 2004. Same interview, on jazz audiences knowing the songs 10:59 Watch on YouTube at 10:59

In class

Every moment he works on it, with the ideas of the method it shows.

Interview: Detroit and after

New York City, 2004

  1. 6:54

    Interview: the golden age began with Hawkins back from Europe and his Body and Soul, the greatest recording.

    15.4

    Watch on YouTube at 6:54

  2. 10:59

    Interview: amazed so abstract a record was a hit; on the radio it is like the sun coming out.

    Watch on YouTube at 10:59

Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland

USA (NPR), 2002

  1. 23:10

    Piano Jazz: the tune and Hawkins come up before it is played; the captions do not separate the speakers.

    Watch on YouTube at 23:10

Body and soul by barry harris

  1. 0:00

    A clinic in Spain, posted as Barry playing the tune; the captions are almost all music.

    Watch on YouTube

Barry plays it

In the method

The ideas of the method these moments show, and how many moments each.

  1. 15.4The lineage1