Basin Street Blues Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A · Bars 1–5

Bb | Bdim7 | Cm7 | F7 | Bb

This is a short excerpt, not the full chart. The composition dates from 1928 and is old enough that it is very likely in the public domain in the United States, which is why the excerpt runs longer here — but copyright status varies by territory and by edition, so treat that as context, not as legal advice.

The books behind this page

Every one of these tunes is assembled out of the same handful of harmonic resources. Jazz Harmony is those resources, explained in the order in which they build on each other.

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Harmonic analysis

Key

Bb major

Tonal center

Bb

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

5

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Bb	I	Tonic	Bb is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Bdim7	vii°7/ii	Dominant	Bdim7 is a leading-tone diminished seventh resolving to Cm7. It is G7 with the root removed and a b9 in its place, which is why it pulls like a dominant. Also readable as bii°7.	Medium
Cm7	ii	Predominant	Cm7 is the ii chord of Bb: the classic predominant. It prepares the dominant and almost always moves to it.	High
F7	V7	Dominant	F7 is the dominant of Bb. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Bb	I	Tonic	Bb is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

I - vi - ii - VBb - Bdim7 - Cm7 - F7

A I-vi-ii-V turnaround: the four-chord loop that sends a section back to its beginning.

ii - V7 - ICm7 - F7 - Bb

A complete ii-V-I in Bb. Predominant, dominant, tonic: the sentence jazz harmony is built out of.

V - IF7 - Bb

The progression closes with an authentic cadence in Bb.

High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →

Why this example matters

Read in Bb major, these bars come out as I – vii°7/ii – ii – V7. Inside those 5 chords there is a complete ii-V-I, a diminished chord used as a connector and a turnaround. The shortest way in is a two-voice reduction: third and seventh only, slowly. F7 contributes A and Eb, and where that pair resolves is the whole story of the passage. You will meet the same move again in Now’s the Time, Billie’s Bounce and Straight, No Chaser, transposed and at a different pace.

How the rest of Basin Street Blues goes

Not a twelve-bar blues despite the title. It has a distinctive introduction that is played as part of the tune rather than before it, and a main strain whose harmony descends chromatically from the tonic through a series of chords that function as passing sonorities rather than as cadences. That descending chromatic movement is the whole identity of the piece, and versions that straighten it out lose what makes it recognisable.

Basin Street Blues on record

Spencer Williams wrote it in 1928, naming it after the street at the centre of the Storyville district in New Orleans. Louis Armstrong recorded it that year and again repeatedly over four decades; the later versions with the spoken introduction are the ones most people know. It is a fixture of traditional jazz and appears rarely in modern small-group repertoires.

Analyze this progression

The excerpt is loaded and editable. Swap a chord for its tritone substitute, delete the preparation, borrow one from the parallel minor, and watch which numerals change and which do not.

Open in Jazz Harmony Analyzer →

Basin Street Blues — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of Basin Street Blues goes

Basin Street Blues on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Roman numeral analysis

Now’s the Time

Billie’s Bounce

Straight, No Chaser

Jazz chord progressions