Blue Bossa Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A · Bars 1–8

Cm7 | Cm7 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Dm7b5 | G7 | Cm7 | Cm7

This is a short excerpt quoted for analysis, not the full chart, and this composition is very likely still in copyright. Published versions and recordings disagree with each other about the rest of the tune, and often about these bars too.

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

C minor

Tonal center

C

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Cm7	i	Tonic	Cm7 is the tonic of Cm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Cm7	i	Tonic	Cm7 is the tonic of Cm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Fm7	iv	Predominant	Fm7 is the iv chord of Cm: the minor subdominant.	High
Fm7	iv	Predominant	Fm7 is the iv chord of Cm: the minor subdominant.	High
Dm7b5	iiø	Predominant	Dm7b5 is the iiø7 of Cm: the predominant of a minor key.	High
G7	V7	Dominant	G7 is the dominant of Cm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
Cm7	i	Tonic	Cm7 is the tonic of Cm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Cm7	i	Tonic	Cm7 is the tonic of Cm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

iiø - V7 - iDm7b5 - G7 - Cm7

A complete minor ii-V-i in Cm, with the half-diminished ii and a dominant that borrows its leading tone from harmonic minor.

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

Against a tonic of C minor the passage numbers as i – iv – iiø – V7. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I. Strip it to two notes per chord, the third and the seventh, and play it under tempo. G7 gives you B and F; follow that pair from chord to chord and the voice leading becomes audible in a way the root motion never makes it. Once you can hear it here, it is hard to miss in Autumn Leaves, All The Things You Are and Tune Up.

How the rest of Blue Bossa goes

Sixteen bars, which is half the length of most standards and part of why it is taught first. The excerpt covers the minor cadence that opens and closes it; the part not shown is the middle, where the tune lifts without warning into D♭ major — a key a semitone above the tonic — stays just long enough for the ear to accept it, and is pulled back by a single minor ii-V. That modulation is the whole lesson. It is the shortest distance in the repertoire between “this is a minor tune” and “this is a minor tune that has been somewhere else”.

Blue Bossa on record

Kenny Dorham wrote it and it first appeared in 1963 not on one of his own records but on Joe Henderson’s debut Page One, with Dorham playing on the date. It arrived at the moment the bossa nova was moving through American jazz, and it has stayed in the teaching repertoire ever since, largely because it does in sixteen bars what most tunes need thirty-two to demonstrate. Almost every version follows the Page One tempo and feel closely, which makes it one of the few standards with a genuinely settled performance tradition.

Analyze this progression

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Blue Bossa — 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 Blue Bossa goes

Blue Bossa on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Autumn Leaves

All The Things You Are

Tune Up

Jazz chord progressions