Freddie Freeloader Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt Valid harmonic variant

Form: 12-bar blues · Bars 1–12

Bb7 | Eb7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | F7 | Eb7 | Ab7 | Bb7

Bar 11 is the ♭VII7 resolving up into I7 in bar 12 — the second-time reading. On the first pass both closing bars stay on A♭7.

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

Bb major

Tonal center

Bb

Confidence

Low

Chords analysed

12

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Bb7	I7	Tonic	Bb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway. Also readable as V7/IV.	Medium
Eb7	IV7	Predominant	Eb7 is the IV of a blues, built as a dominant seventh. In this context that is its normal quality, not a dominant of anything.	High
Bb7	I7	Tonic	Bb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.	High
Bb7	I7	Tonic	Bb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway. Also readable as V7/IV.	Medium
Eb7	IV7	Predominant	Eb7 is the IV of a blues, built as a dominant seventh. In this context that is its normal quality, not a dominant of anything.	High
Eb7	IV7	Predominant	Eb7 is the IV of a blues, built as a dominant seventh. In this context that is its normal quality, not a dominant of anything.	High
Bb7	I7	Tonic	Bb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.	High
Bb7	I7	Tonic	Bb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.	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
Eb7	V7	Dominant	Eb7 is the dominant of Ab. Its third and seventh form a tritone, and that tritone is what makes the tonic feel due.	High
Ab7	V7/IV	Dominant	Ab7 is functioning as V7/IV: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of Db, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at IV instead. Also readable as I7.	Low
Bb7	V7/V	Dominant	Bb7 is functioning as V7/V: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of Eb, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at V instead.	Medium

What the analyzer found in it

TonicizationAb major

Bars 10-12 lean towards Ab major without settling — a tonicization rather than a new key.

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 I7 – IV7 – V7 – V7/IV – V7/V. Inside those 12 chords there is at least one secondary dominant. The shortest way in is a two-voice reduction: third and seventh only, slowly. Bb7 contributes D and Ab, 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 Freddie Freeloader goes

A twelve-bar blues that is entirely conventional for eleven of its bars and then does one thing: instead of the expected turnaround, it steps to a dominant a whole tone below the tonic and resolves from there. One substitution, in one place, repeated every chorus. Because everything around it is standard, that single alteration is completely audible, which makes the tune an unusually clean demonstration of how little it takes to change the character of a form.

Freddie Freeloader on record

Also from Kind of Blue. It is the one track on the album where Bill Evans does not play — Wynton Kelly takes the piano chair, and the difference in touch and in comping is the reason the track sits apart from the rest of the record. The title refers to a Philadelphia acquaintance of Davis’s. Of the five pieces on that album this is the most conventional, and it is usually the one a student can play first.

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 →

Freddie Freeloader — 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 Freddie Freeloader goes

Freddie Freeloader on record

Analyze this progression

Related

Secondary dominants

Roman numeral analysis

Now’s the Time

Billie’s Bounce

Straight, No Chaser

Jazz chord progressions