Tenor Madness Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Form: 12-bar blues · Bars 1–12

Bb7 | Eb7 | Bb7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Eb7 | Eb7 | Bb7 | G7 | Cm7 | F7 | Bb7 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

High

Chords analysed

15

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
Fm7	ii/IV	Predominant	Fm7 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with Bb7 it prepares Eb, so the pair tonicizes IV without leaving the key.	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
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
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
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/IV - I7 - IV7Fm7 - Bb7 - Eb7

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

ii - V7 - I7Cm7 - F7 - Bb7

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

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

In Bb major the excerpt reads I7 – IV7 – ii/IV – V7/ii – ii – V7. Inside those 15 chords there is a complete ii-V-I and at least one secondary dominant. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In Bb7 those are D and Ab, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Now’s the Time, Billie’s Bounce and Straight, No Chaser, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of Tenor Madness goes

A twelve-bar blues with a riff head and no complications whatsoever — the chart could be written on a napkin. That was the intention. The tune was made to be a container for extended blowing, and its historical value lies entirely in what was blown over it on one occasion. Structurally it sits alongside Bags’ Groove and Blue Monk in the group of blues heads that exist to get a band playing quickly and then get out of the way.

Tenor Madness on record

Recorded by Sonny Rollins in 1956 with the Miles Davis rhythm section of the moment. John Coltrane, then in Davis’s band, joined for the title track, and it is the only recording of the two tenor players together — the reason the album is remembered and the reason the tune is still called. The two solos are routinely used to demonstrate the difference between the players at a moment when they were close in age and far apart in approach.

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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Tenor Madness — 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 Tenor Madness goes

Tenor Madness on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Roman numeral analysis

Now’s the Time

Billie’s Bounce

Straight, No Chaser

Jazz chord progressions