Chameleon, from Herbie Hancock’s 1973 album Headhunters, is an iconic and frequently played jazz tune in which the first section of the tune is based on just two chords, B flat minor seventh and Eb dominant seventh (aka ‘major-minor seventh’), each of which last for four beats or one measure in the tune’s funk groove. This is commonly known in jazz theory as a ii-V progression. Although the original version includes a later section where the progression changes (I have a link to a keyboard video of this section below), most of the live and cover versions I mention below only use the first section.
While Chameleon is probably the best-known jazz tune to use this kind of progression, it was not the first composition in the jazz repertoire to do so. Tito Puente’s composition Oye Como Va, first recorded in 1962, is based on Am7 moving to D7 with the same harmonic rhythm (i.e. the same chord durations, one chord per bar). The chord progression and comping rhythm of Oye Como Va was borrowed from Chanchullo by Israel Cachao Lopez, who in turn borrowed it from Mambolandia composed by the pianist Peruchin for Julio Gutierrez y Su Orquesta. I know of two pop tunes from the 1980s that also use this type of progression: Holding Back The Years by the band Simply Red (which like Oye Como Va uses a ii-V progression exclusively), and 20/20 by George Benson, which uses the progression for a guitar solo at the end where Benson’s trademark singing along with his improvised solo is virtuosically doubled by vocalist Patti Griffin, who follows Benson’s line at intervals that alternate between a third and a fourth above. If you can think of a tune that uses a similarly simple (two to four measure) chord progression, please mention the title in the comment section and add a link to a recording.
A number of well-known solos on this type of ii-V progressions involve a limited pitch collection (often the Bb minor pentatonic or blues scale, with some Bb dorian scale thrown in) and extensive display of the soloist’s technique and endurance. In the hands of a great soloist like saxophonist Bennie Maupin on the original Headhunters version of Chameleon, this approach can yield a solo with great melodic invention and a deep sense of groove. Maupin’s solo also contrasts scalar playing earlier in the solo with playing later in the solo that is more intervallic and motivic, based on the rhythm of the bassline. In the hands of less skilled soloists, a one or two scale approach can lead to dull results, and in my experience, this is unfortunately the most frequently imitated approach. A number of other great solos on this type of progression balance a ‘one scale fits all’ approach with other less frequently imitated approaches, including ‘making the changes’ (i.e. using the improvised melodic line to outline the change from one chord to another) and using bebop-style chromaticism.
In Hancock’s synthesizer solo from the original version of Chameleon, he works with 16th note phrases that include bebop chromaticism before moving on to exploiting the tone of the synth (and what sounds like amplifier distortion) with a series of long notes. (Hancock’s solo on Rhodes piano later in this version, during which the second chord in the progression becomes Abm7/Db, includes bop chromaticism as well as the technique known as ‘planing’ or ‘sideslipping’, which means using one’s chord voicing and/or improvised melodic line to imply a chord which doesn’t match the root, and then returning to the tonal center.)
On his 1994 version of Chameleon, guitarist Stanley Jordan begins in the minor pentatonic scale before making a number uses of F-F#-G, or what Barry Harris called ‘the half step between the fifth and sixth’ of the dorian scale. On a live version by Hancock’s band the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2010, a short solo fill by bassist Tal Wilkenfeld before Hancock’s solo and a phrase at the end of Hancock’s solo employ bop chromaticism. On a live version of Oye Como Va the tune from the YouTube show Live At Emmet’s Place, guitarist Dan Wilson’s solo uses what Jerry Coker identifies as the ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’ lick, and makes multiple uses of a lick from Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce solo. (The vocal solo by Cyrille Aimee that precedes Wilson’s solo is also well worth hearing as an example of effective diatonic and intervallic improvising.) On George Benson and Patti Griffin’s tandem solo at the end of 20/20, just before the fadeout he plays a long phrase that first descends the F# dorian scale and then ascends, incorporating a bebop-style ‘half step’ (E-F-F#) . In all these solos, the chromaticism provides a kind of relief from diatonic uniformity elsewhere in the solo. These solos demonstrate that, as Vermont educator Rich Davidian mentioned in an improvisation workshop I recently attended, having multiple strategies for approaching a solo allows one to move to a new strategy when the current one has played out its usefulness. If you can find exact timings in the linked recordings where the licks mentioned are played, please leave the timings in the comment section. If you can think of another improvised or composed melodic line that use chromaticism, and/or that use two contrasting approaches at different points in the line, please leave the title, a description of the approaches and (if possible) a link to a recording in the comment section.
I composed and recorded Boptosaurus as a short, concentrated example of bop chromaticism in a melodic line over a ii-V progression accompanied by a Chameleon-type funk groove. (Click on the title to hear a recording; a chart is below.) The phrases of the melody are inspired by melodies and solos by Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Denzil Best and Billy Strayhorn. The comping in the acoustic piano and Rhodes parts uses what I call ‘evolutionary voicings’, or an alternation of voicings that create an eight-measure melodic arc over a repeated two-measure chord progression and ‘crossless voice leading’, or voicings that avoid ‘voice overlap’, for example, the lowest voice of a chord moving above the middle voice’s previous note. The melody also uses ‘dialogic phrasing’, or melodic motion that follows the arrival of a chord, rather than moving simultaneously with it. I also tried to write a line that ‘makes the changes’, in other words, outlines each chord, rather than moving within a single scale that fits both chords (as the melody of Chameleon does so effectively).
I started the piece initially by notating it on Sibelius, entering the lines and chords using a USB keyboard. I then exported a MIDI file of the notation which I opened up in ProTools to create the basic melody, chord, bass and drum tracks. I used a MIDI keyboard to record ‘live’ comping and soloing tracks and to add fills to the drum part. Amber recorded vocal tracks doubling the instrumental melody (in the style of the solo section on 20/20) and also taking a improvised vocal solo between the piano and accordion solos. The solos follow a pattern of ii-V progressions ascending by major thirds. The V chord in each ii-V becomes the tritone substitution for the V chord leading to the ii chord in the next key. This was inspired by the progression from the first four measures of John Coltrane’s ‘Countdown’, where a series of V-I progressions outline major keys descending by major thirds. I encourage you to share a either a link to a recording of an original piece along with a description of the technological and/or compositional process you used to create it, or a link to a piece by another artist with some description of the technology and process used to create it.
