Moose the Mooche Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–4

Bb G7 | Cm7 F7 | Dm7 G7 | Cm7 F7

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

Medium

Chords analysed

8

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
G7	V7/ii	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
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
Dm7	ii/ii	Predominant	Dm7 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with G7 it prepares C, so the pair tonicizes ii without leaving the key. Also readable as iii.	High
G7	V7/ii	Dominant	G7 is functioning as V7/ii: a secondary dominant. It is the dominant of C, not of the home key, so it borrows the pull of a V-I and points it at ii instead.	High
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

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7Cm7 - F7

A ii-V pointing at Bb, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

ii/ii - V7/ii - iiDm7 - 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.

ii - V7Cm7 - F7

A ii-V pointing at Bb, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

half cadenceF7

The progression stops on the dominant of Bb — a half cadence. It is unfinished on purpose.

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 Bb major the passage numbers as I – V7/ii – ii – V7 – ii/ii. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and at least one secondary dominant. 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. The excerpt above is note for note the same as the one quoted on Oleo, Anthropology and Rhythm-a-ning, so the reading below is identical on those pages too. That is not a shortcut: these tunes really are built on the same harmony, and what separates them is the melody written over it. Once you can hear it here, it is hard to miss in Stella by Starlight, How High the Moon and Ornithology.

How the rest of Moose the Mooche goes

Rhythm changes with a head that is unusually angular even by its composer’s standards — the A sections leap where most bebop lines step, and the phrase endings land on weak beats often enough that the form can slip away from you on a first reading. The bridge is the standard cycle. What makes it worth learning after Anthropology is that it demonstrates the same harmonic ground can carry a line built from intervals rather than from scales.

Moose the Mooche on record

Charlie Parker recorded it in 1946 in Los Angeles. The title refers to Emry Byrd, known as Moose the Mooche, who dealt to Parker on the West Coast and to whom Parker signed over half his royalties — a piece of biography that has followed the tune ever since and is usually mentioned when it is called. The recording comes from the period immediately before Parker’s Camarillo breakdown, which gives the session a documentary weight beyond the music.

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Moose the Mooche — 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 Moose the Mooche goes

Moose the Mooche on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Stella by Starlight

How High the Moon

Ornithology

Jazz chord progressions