Perdido Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A1 · Bars 1–4

Bb6 | Bb6 | Cm7 F7 | Bb6

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

High

Chords analysed

5

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Bb6	I	Tonic	Bb6 is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Bb6	I	Tonic	Bb6 is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.	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
Bb6	I	Tonic	Bb6 is the tonic of Bb. It is where the progression is at rest.	High

What the analyzer found in it

ii - V7 - ICm7 - F7 - Bb6

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

V - IF7 - Bb6

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

Against a tonic of Bb major the passage numbers as I – ii – V7. Inside those 5 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. F7 gives you A and Eb; 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 Perdido goes

A thirty-two-bar riff tune whose A sections are essentially one ii-V-I stated and restated, with a bridge that runs the standard cycle of dominants. Structurally it is very close to rhythm changes without being one. It is called constantly at jam sessions for a simple reason: everyone knows it, the key is comfortable, and the head takes ten seconds to state, so a session can get to playing almost immediately.

Perdido on record

Juan Tizol wrote it in 1941, his second contribution to the standard repertoire after Caravan, and the Ellington orchestra recorded it the following year. A lyric was added later but is rarely sung. Its enduring role is as a session tune rather than a concert piece, which is why it appears on far more live recordings than studio ones.

Analyze this progression

Load the progression and start altering it. Every edit is re-read from scratch, so you can test a hunch about one chord without rewriting the rest.

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Perdido — 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 Perdido goes

Perdido on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Autumn Leaves

All The Things You Are

Tune Up

Jazz chord progressions