Dance of the Infidels

In the workout Barry has the class come down F major from its second, start it from its third, and run the B7 scale down from its fourth. Then they go all the way up the B7 scale, doing the same thing from each degree.

The 1998 workshop, part 11:382:142:504:00

He sets out the plan as F major going to B7. Contrasting a pianist’s chords with a soloist’s lines, he says he could make it sound like A minor seventh and G minor seventh by playing the chord on the third of F, then the chord on the second of F, then chords on the sixth and fifth of B7, and has the class play those changes.

The 1998 workshop, part 19:219:5410:27

Everything is connected: add a note to the scale you are in and a note of another scale is close by. To take the B7 where it has to go he simply surrounds the note, and he points out that the last three notes just played were already B♭7. Starting on the third of F, half the surrounding notes are already there; he adds C and C♯.

The 1998 workshop, part 15:436:146:5213:58

Where a phrase starts depends on where it belongs. Barry says he might not start on the first beat at all: the phrase he has in mind falls in the third and fourth measures, so you wait for it.

The 1998 workshop, part 112:0312:36

The half-step rules are there so you practise rhythm. Running a dominant scale down, he generally puts a half step between the tonic and the seventh, and the added notes go with the notes that fall on the beat. Each added note moves where the next one is needed. You are practising rhythm and feel, he says, not just a scale.

The 1998 workshop, part 114:4115:1716:2219:16

He wants the spots felt, not looked up: when a student straightened out a run by instinct, Barry said that proved his point. He then had the class put half steps between the tonic and the seventh, the five and four, and the two and one from each degree, to break old habits. Soloing, he said, is a half step in the right place at the right time.

The 1998 workshop, part 120:0220:3821:1122:4028:33

At a Tuesday-night piano class in New York, written up in JazzTimes, the tune was Bud Powell’s Dance of the Infidels: the session opened quietly, with a student working out chords and Barry talking him through it. He passed on Coleman Hawkins’s advice to keep chords small and low rather than high up.

Allen Morrison, Inside the Barry Harris Method ¶2Allen Morrison, Inside the Barry Harris Method ¶5Allen Morrison, Inside the Barry Harris Method ¶10

Barry recalled that Bird’s records give many solos on one song, while his generation had only one take of pieces such as Un Poco Loco and Dance of the Infidels, and still learned to play from them.

Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle4:03