Discussion opener for GRGR(5)

[Rick Vosper]

At 07:44 PM 11/15/96 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 96-11-15 15:40:21 EST, Ron Churgin writes:
>
>"floundered in the channel" refers to the bridge of the tune Cherokee.
> Popular songs often have an AABA structure.  

(Lottsa good stuff omitted)

  The melody is
>doubled and made up of long tones, whole notes, much longer than in the
>typical tunes of that era.  Its easy to get lost while soloing on a tune like
>that. 

(ditto)



Yeah, only more so. P's point, I believe, is that Parker took a corny,
seemingly easy standard roughly equivalent to rowboating on the Thames and
cranked it up to the point where it was roughly equivalent to Class V
Whitewater Kayacking.

The harmonic structure of Cherokee/Koko is-- and that infamous bridge,
especially-- perfectly suited to that kind of virtuosity. Tune starts out in
B-flat, the world's easiest key, with all those no-sweat whole notes, as
mentioned. Piece o' cake, right, even at Parkerian speeds. But then you hit
the bridge and those whole notes are now in the key of B-*natural* (which is
the even hairier equivalent of G-sharp for an E-flat instrument like
Parker's alto) and then flirts with F for while as a transition back to
B-Flat....and, well, Pynchons comment about floundering in channels,
especially for young players, is not just perceptive, but dead solid perfect. 

Copacetic, Jackson.