Cherokee

[nconaty at juno.com]

'Follow? "Cherokee" comes wailing up from the dance floor below, over the
hi-hat, the string bass, the thousand sets of feet .... The song playing
is one more lie about white crimes.' 
This song has probably the worst lyrics of any used as a jazz standard.
About a guy falling for a 'Sweet Indian Maiden'. Written by Ray Noble, a
British bandleader (not sure who wrote the lyrics).
Most tunes played by jazz musicians of the swing era (the one ending in
'39) have melodies built on quarter notes offset with eighth notes. The
swing comes from how you place notes in relationship to the beat. (coming
down hard on it, making you wait a bit, rushing in places. or skipping
over it like a flat rock on water.) Cherokee's melody is built on whole
and half notes. So while you're listening to the sax player laying down
this lugubrious melody, you might not notice the bass player and drummer
playing at the feverish tempo this tune is usually played at (often >300
bpm). And you might be surprised when the solo starts and the note
density increases eight-fold.

'But more musicians have floundered in the channel to "Cherokee" than
have got through from end to end. All those long, long notes . . .
what're they up to, all that time to do something inside of? is it an
Indian spirit plot? 
The main section of the tune is in Bb. The channel (or bridge) begins
abruptly with a cadence in B natural. The B becomes the beginning of a
cadence in A, which in turn becomes the start of a cadence in G. These
keys (especially B) are not often encountered in jazz, especially at
these tempos. Saxes and trumpets are transposed instruments - what's C to
them is Bb or Eb to the piano player, so for a tenor sax or trumpet the
key of B is C#, while for an alto sax (like Bird) it's G#.
The melody note at the beginning of this section is a whole note tied to
a half note. Later in the bridge there're two whole notes tied together
for eight beats of Indian Spirit Plot.

-Neil






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