Caravan Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–8

C7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | Fm | Fm

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

F minor

Tonal center

F

Confidence

High

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
C7	V7	Dominant	C7 is the dominant of Fm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
Fm	i	Tonic	Fm is the tonic of Fm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Fm	i	Tonic	Fm is the tonic of Fm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

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

In F minor the excerpt reads V7 – i. There is no substitution and no borrowing in it at all, which is exactly why it is worth playing: it is the sound the substitutions are substituting for. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In C7 those are E and Bb, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Autumn Leaves, All The Things You Are and Tune Up, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of Caravan goes

The A sections hold a single dominant chord for their whole length over a repeating bass figure — sixteen bars with no harmonic movement at all, which was extraordinary in 1936 and is the reason the piece is often described as an early ancestor of modal writing. The bridge then supplies conventional cadences, and the contrast is total. A performance stands or falls on whether the static section is given enough rhythmic interest to survive its own length.

Caravan on record

Juan Tizol, Ellington’s valve trombonist, wrote the melody and Ellington arranged and recorded it in 1936. Tizol was Puerto Rican and the piece reflects that; the “exotic” framing it acquired later was mostly marketing. It has been recorded thousands of times, and Art Blakey’s 1962 version is the one that established the drum-forward treatment most modern performances follow.

Analyze this progression

Take these bars into the analyzer and interfere with them. The fastest way to learn what a chord was doing is to remove it and read what the analysis says instead.

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Caravan — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

Why this example matters

How the rest of Caravan goes

Caravan on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Autumn Leaves

All The Things You Are

Tune Up

Jazz chord progressions