{"id":869,"date":"2015-04-11T16:16:56","date_gmt":"2015-04-11T20:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/?p=442"},"modified":"2026-02-17T00:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:49:17","slug":"442-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/2015\/04\/11\/442-2\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ornithology’: the memory palace of two bebop masterminds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent news story described how publishers who represent songwriters Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty contacted publishers for singer\/songwriter Sam Smith<\/a> about\u00a0 a four-bar similarity between the melody and chord progression of Lynne and Petty’s 1989 hit song \u2018Won\u2019t Back Down\u2019 and Smith\u2019s recent hit \u2018Stay With Me\u2019.\u00a0 Part of the settlement for this case was that in addition to receiving a financial settlement, Lynne and Petty will also be credited\u00a0as co-composers of Smith\u2019s tune.\u00a0 The stunned reaction of Smith and his collaborators, who said they were not familiar with Lynne and Petty’s tune and that the resemblance was ‘a complete coincidence’, is common among rock and pop songwriters who are informed about musical similarities between their work and previously copyrighted songs.\u00a0\u00a0 In the classic case<\/a> where the publishers of ‘He’s So Fine’ accused George Harrison of plagarizing their tune in his hit ‘My Sweet Lord’, a judge used the term ‘subconscious plagarism’ to describe Harrison’s process.<\/p>\n

In the case of many classic tunes from the bebop era, the question of who composed them is still a subject of open debate, but musical analysis shows that they contain deliberate and artful borrowings from multiple sources.\u00a0 In many cases, such as ‘Donna Lee’, usually attributed to Charlie Parker but more recently claimed as the work of Miles Davis, the connections between tune and composer are enveloped in the mists of jazz history.\u00a0 This lack of certainty about composer credits has led many scholars of music from the bebop era to examine the tunes themselves for clues about their origin.\u00a0 In some research I did recently about the bebop anthem ‘Ornithology’, I found that the closer I looked, the more I heard the tune as being a musical collage that deliberately draws on multiple sources but is assembled artfully enough to sound like the work of a single hand.<\/p>\n

In a recording from a live Boston concert in 1952<\/a>, when a radio announcer asks Charlie Parker who composed \u2018Ornithology\u2019, he answers \u2018Benny Harris\u2019, without mentioning his own name.\u00a0 This answer, straight from Parker\u2019s own mouth, contradicts a number of widely circulated published charts of \u2018Ornithology\u2019 which list Parker as the sole composer.\u00a0 Benny Harris was a lesser known trumpet player of the bebop era who played and recorded with a number of the luminaries of the era, including Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.\u00a0 Among the evidence pointing to Harris as the primary composer of Ornithology is that two of his best-known tunes, ‘Reets and I’ and ‘Crazeology’ (aka ‘Little Bennie’) are anthologies of licks by Gillespie and Bud Powell.<\/p>\n

After doing some historical research, I\u2019ve concluded that it is most accurate to list Harris and\u00a0 Parker as co-composers (as a few published charts do), and that the sources of the tune likely extend beyond the two of them.\u00a0 While it has been well established that \u2018Ornithology\u2019 is based on the chord progression of \u2018How High The Moon\u2018 by Morgan Lewis, the origins of the individual phrases in the tune are less often discussed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the course of my research I looked at established theories on origins of phrases in ‘Ornithology’ and developed a few of my own.\u00a0 I\u00a0 also found that looking at relationships\u00a0 between \u2018Ornithology\u2019\u00a0 and other tunes composed by Parker (or attributed to him) can highlight some general concepts that are helpful in the process of memorizing bebop tunes (and incorporating their concepts into one\u2019s own improvisational vocabulary.)<\/p>\n

In his book Yardbird Suite<\/a>, Lawrence Koch demonstrates that measures 1-2 of Ornithology were taken by Benny Harris from the opening\u00a0of Parker\u2019s solo on the 1942 recording of \u2018The Jumpin\u2019 Blues\u2019 by the Jay McShann Orchestra<\/a>.\u00a0 Right off the bat, the first phrase of this seminal bebop tune shows the crucial \u00a0process\u00a0of extracting licks from great solos and transposing them to other keys, as it transposes the lick from ‘The Jumpin’ Blues’ from its original E \u00a0flat\u00a0to G major, the key of ‘How High the Moon’:\"Ornithology<\/a><\/p>\n

Measures 3-4 of \u2018Ornithology\u2019 show Harris engaging with another process\u00a0essential to the improviser: altering or developing a learned melodic idea to adapt to a different harmonic context (in this case, a different chord progression.) \u00a0\u00a0 In this case Harris adapts Parker\u2019s idea in a way that fits the move to the parallel minor in m.3 of the progression to \u2018How High The Moon\u2019.\u00a0 \"Ornithology<\/a><\/p>\n

(A more recent example of this can be heard in a recording of \u2018Anthropology\u2019 by Parker\u2019s \u00a0friend\u00a0Sheila Jordan.\u00a0 <\/a>In her solo, Jordan takes a phrase from Benny Harris\u2019 tune \u2018Reets and I\u2019, a tune based on \u2018All God\u2019s Children Got Rhythm\u2019, and develops it in a way that fits the progression of \u2018Anthropology\u2019.)<\/p>\n

I have noticed that the last\u00a0five notes\u00a0of measures 5-6 are a motive which Parker uses with a one-note alteration in the opening\u00a0of \u2018Anthropology\u2019:\"Ornithology<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"Anthro<\/a><\/p>\n

David Baker<\/a> is among those who have pointed out that the motive used in measures 7-8 in ‘Ornithology’ is the same figure seen the last two measures of the bridge of ‘Anthropology’ (although, as with the ‘Jumpin’ Blues’ lick, Harris had to transpose the lick to make it work in ‘Ornithology’.)\u00a0 (Measures 9-10, like measures 3-4, adapt the borrowed lick to a different set\u00a0of chord changes than those with which it originally appeared.):<\/p>\n

\"Anthro<\/a>\"Ornithology<\/a>\u00a0 Of these two tunes, \u2018Anthropology\u2019 was recorded first, and given the many stories of Parker composing tunes shortly before they were recorded (or even the same day), it would suggest that Benny Harris took these from \u2018Anthropology\u2019 and used them in \u2018Ornithology\u2019.\u00a0 Given the competing historical \u00a0accounts\u00a0of when Parker tunes originated, there is no way to be sure of this theory, but in any case, noticing similarities between two tunes makes it easier to learn both of them.<\/p>\n

I think it is possible that measures 11-12 show a knowledge of Parker\u2019s career that goes beyond a familiarity with his licks to a detailed knowledge of his playing career.\u00a0 These measures bear a strong resemblance to the main motive of \u2018Robbins\u2019 Nest\u2019<\/a>, a tune composed by Sir Charles Thompson, a pianist and bandleader with whom Parker worked a number of times.\"\"\u00a0 (The link above is to a 1990s recording of the tune by the composer; there is also a great version by Milt Buckner<\/a> which demonstrates his mastery of ‘locked-hands’ technique, a technique which by some accounts he originated, although it is commonly associated with George Shearing.)\u00a0 Although Parker\u2019s one recording session with Thompson did not include \u2018Robbins\u2019 Nest\u2019, it is likely that he would have played it in the course of his work with Thompson, as it was one of the bandleader\u2019s best known tunes.\u00a0 In a reversal of\u00a0 measures 1-4 and 7-10, where a lick is first stated in a way that exactly matches its appearance in another context and is then followed by a transformation, the \u2018Robbins\u2019 Nest\u2019 theme is used first with a minor key alteration in m. 11-12 and is then returned to its original major-key context in measures 27-28.\u00a0 (The minor-key alteration of the ‘Robbins’ Nest’ motive in m. 11 also matches the first four notes of the jazz standard ‘Cry Me A River’<\/a>, which as Greg Fishman demonstrates<\/a> is the source of a frequently used and multipurpose lick.) \"\"If, as seems likely to me, these two phrases are references to the Thompson tune, \u2018Ornithology\u2018 begins to look like a highly detailed (one might even say ‘nerdy’) tribute to Parker that references three stages of his career: his early work with the Kansas City pianist Jay McShann in m. 1-4, and his collaboration with by Dizzy Gillespie (who some scholars think had a hand in the composition of \u2018Anthropology\u2019) in m. 5-10, and\u00a0 his work in Washington D.C. and later in New York with Charles Thompson in m. 11 and 27.\u00a0 One could use this non-linear tour of Parker’s mid-life career as a structure for remembering the tune (in a process akin to the ‘memory palace’ technique <\/a>demonstrated in the PBS series Sherlock<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

If Harris is the primary composer of the tune, as Parker\u2019s answer from the 1952 radio broadcast indicates, it starts to look like a piece of what today in popular literature is called \u2018fan fiction\u2019 – creative works in which themes or characters created by a famous author are developed by a lesser-known but nonetheless skilled admirer of the famous author\u2019s work.\u00a0 While Harris was in many ways a contemporary of Parker\u2019s, and so was well qualified to create an anthology of his licks, the fact that he was more known as a sectional player than as a soloist also suggests that, in addition to being an associate of Parker\u2019s in groups such the Earl Hines and\u00a0 Dizzy Gillespie big bands, he was enough of a \u2018fan\u2019 to pull those licks from a variety of different eras in Parker\u2019s career.\u00a0 The pun in Harris\u2019 title of the tune (i.e. taking a word that means the study of birds and using it to reference to the study of \u2018Bird\u2019) refers not just to his own study of Parker, but to a musically astute subset of Parker\u2019s fans who were devoted to preserving and studying his improvisations, such as Dean Benedetti, whose live recordings of Parker were released in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

There are two different versions of the melody in measures 13-16; in the first recorded version of the tune, a triplet lick is passed between the trumpet, alto, tenor and guitar during these measures.\u00a0 In later recordings of the tune, such as a version recorded at the Royal Roost in 1948 <\/a>and the version on ‘One Night In Birdland’<\/a>, recorded in 1950, these measures are replaced with a phrase which is melodically nearly identical to the opening of the J.J. Johnson composition Mad Bebop<\/a>, recorded in 1946.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s possible that the suggestion of adding the new phrase to ‘Ornithology’ might have come from Max Roach, who was a proficient pianist<\/a> and, according to the discographies of Powell<\/a> and Parker<\/a> at jazzdisco.org, played on both the original recording of Mad Bebop and Parker’s 1948 Royal Roost performance. When this revision is added to the tune, it makes it much more sensible as a feature for a soloist, as the original version requires an antiphonal exchange between instruments.\u00a0 (The revision also made practical sense for Parker, as live recordings of the tune demonstrate that he often played the tune on pick-up gigs with local rhythm sections, and would likely have not had the time to rehearse the original version with these groups.)<\/p>\n

Looking at the relationships between \u2018Ornithology\u2019 and other Parker tunes is a reminder of some of the main characteristics of bebop melodic concepts (i.e. licks):
\n– They are often built in two measure phrases; even phrases that sound like longer melodic units are built from two measure components.
\n– Many phrases begin on upbeats, and phrases that begin single upbeats are often contrasted with phrases that begin with multiple upbeats.
\nIt is helpful to know the source of a lick, or at least identify it with first tune in which one encountered it, and identify it when it recurs in other contexts.\u00a0 Some examples:
\n– the \u2018Jumpin Blues\u2019 lick, which is re-used by Harris in \u2018Ornithology\u2019, is also re-used in Clark Terry and Jimmy Hamilton\u2019s \u2018Perdido Line\u2019 and number of Ella Fitzgerald\u2019s solos on \u2018How High the Moon\u2019.
\n– the \u2018Cool Blues\u2019 lick (from the riff blues of the same name), an altered fragment of which appears in m. 8 of Anthropology, is used in the Parker solos on Yardbird Suite and Dewey Square which appear in the Charlie Parker Omnibook.
\n– the \u2018Honeysuckle Rose\u2019 lick (from the opening of the Fats Waller tune by the same name) shows up in m. 8 of \u2018Blues for Alice\u2019 (rhythmically altered and with one note subtracted), in m. 15 of Donna Lee, and Parker disciple Cannonball Adderley\u2019s solo on the Bobby Timmons tune \u2018This Here\u2019<\/a> (he uses the lick around 3:00, with two notes reversed.)
\n– while the second half of the \u2018Robbins\u2019 Nest lick\u2019 is used in m. 11 and 27 of Ornithology, the opening of the lick can be heard in the bridge of Parker\u2019s \u2018Dewey Square\u2019 solo.
\n– The lick from m. 5 of Anthropology was re-used by Parker in a rhythmically altered version in the last measure of Confirmation.\u00a0 Measure 2 of Sonny Rollins\u2019 \u2018Doxy\u2019 closely follows both the melodic and rhythmic pattern of the \u2018Confirmation\u2019 ending but ends on the 6th rather than the root.\u00a0 The theory that this phrase was borrowed from \u2018Confirmation\u2019 is supported by the fact that Rollins was a student of Parker\u2019s melodic language.\u00a0 However, Rollins is also a master of\u00a0motivic development, both in his improvising and his compositions, and this makes it just as likely that m.2 of \u2018Doxy\u2018 is an inversion (i.e. upside-down version) of the first measure of the tune.<\/p>\n

Parker\u2019s ability to use a single lick in multiple contexts, and to succeed so often at making it part of a coherent whole with its own structural integrity, was one of the factors that led to his creating such a uniquely memorable body of improvised work.\u00a0 In his Parker biography Chasin’ The Bird<\/a>, Brian Priestly writes that some of Parker\u2019s \u2018improvisations on standards…were so popular that audiences could sing along with his recorded improvisation.\u2019\u00a0 But as with the work of Beethoven, the strength of the whole in Parker\u2019s work derives in part from the strength of the motives he chose and\/or invented.<\/p>\n

Some accounts\u00a0of Parker\u2019s life indicate that, although he did not musically notate his vocabulary of licks or catalogue them in a formal sense, he did sometimes associate certain licks with symbolic meanings.\u00a0 Priestly quotes bassist and Parker collaborator Gene Ramey as saying of Parker: \u2018Everything had a musical significance for him.\u00a0 He\u2019d hear dogs barking, for instance, and he would say it was a conversation – and if he was blowing his horn he would have something to play that would portray that thought to us.\u00a0 When we were riding the car between jobs we might pass down a country lane and see the trees and some leaves, and he\u2019d have some sound for that.\u00a0 And maybe some girl would walk past on the dance floor while he was playing, and something she might have would give him an idea for something to play in his solo.\u00a0 As soon as he would do that, we were all so close we\u2019d all understand just what he meant.\u2019<\/p>\n

Some recent episodes of the radio show and podcast Birdnote describe how this symbolic use of musical phrases occurs in the world of actual birds as well.\u00a0 The black-capped chickadee uses different variations on its main call<\/a> to scold predators and announce food sources, and a markedly different call to seek a mate in the spring.\u00a0 Wood-wrens use a series of quickly alternating call-and-response phrases<\/a> which ornithologists believe \u2018reinforces pair bonds in birds that frequently lose sight of each other\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 (One of the wrens’ phrases turns out to be an ornamented version of ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’.)<\/p>\n

Naming melodic phrases based on their origin, or the context in which one initially discovered them, or a symbolic association can be a helpful \u2018hook\u2019 on which to \u2018hang\u2019 one\u2019s memory of the melody.\u00a0 If one can attach these hooks to the framework of the chord progression, it further stabilizes the tune in one\u2019s memory.\u00a0 With Sonny Rollins’ tune \u2018Doxy\u2019, for example, if I remember that the chord progression has a basic similarity to \u2018When The Saints Go Marching In\u2019 (as described in an earlier blog post<\/a>), and then remember the similarity of m. 2 to the Parker lick in m. 5 of \u2018Anthropology\u2019 and m. 31 of \u2018Confirmation\u2019, and the similarity of m. 7 to the same measure in the opening strain of Scott Joplin’s \u2018The Entertainer\u2019, memorizing the rest of the tune becomes a matter of making connections to these landmarks (m. 1 is a nearly exact inversion of m. 2; m. 3 is an alteration of m. 7 that resolves to the root rather than the V chord, etc.)<\/p>\n

‘Ornithology’ has the unusual status of being a piece of music assembled from a legendary player\u2019s vocabulary by an admiring associate which subsequently became a theme song for the legendary player.\u00a0 When I mentioned the idea of ‘Ornithology’ as a kind of musical \u2018fan fiction\u2019 to a group of students, and asked whether fan fiction has ever been used by the author who inspired it, one of them mentioned that the author J.K. Rowling has incorporated characters from Harry Potter fan fiction into her own Harry Potter books.\u00a0 But on the musical side, the question remains – have other jazz players (or any musicians for that matter) been able to incorporate music written in their honor into their repertoire as successfully as Parker did?\u00a0\u00a0 I would welcome any responses to this question in the comment section, and any other thoughts about recycling of melodic motives by Parker or other improvisers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent news story described how publishers who represent songwriters Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty contacted publishers for singer\/songwriter Sam Smith about\u00a0 a four-bar similarity between the melody and chord progression of Lynne and Petty’s 1989 hit song \u2018Won\u2019t Back … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":865,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/865"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2768,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions\/2768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/tgcleary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}