So What — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Modal AABA · A section (D dorian, bars 1–16) beside the bridge (E♭ dorian, bars 17–24) — two places, not four consecutive bars

Dm7 | Dm7 | Ebm7 | Ebm7

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.

Why this example matters

Against a tonic of D# minor the passage numbers as vii – i. Inside those 4 chords there is a chord borrowed from the parallel mode. Play it slowly and hold each chord until you can sing the note that wants to move. In a progression with no dominant, that note is what carries the phrase. The excerpt above is note for note the same as the one quoted on Impressions, 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 Blues for Alice, All Blues and Impressions.

So What on record

The opening track of Kind of Blue, 1959, and the piece usually named when modal jazz has to be explained in one example. The introduction, written by Bill Evans, is played almost universally even though it is not part of the form. The bass states the melody and the horns answer it, an inversion of the normal arrangement that has been copied so often it now reads as the tune’s definition rather than as a choice.

Related

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