Embraceable You
Barry used Embraceable You to show tritone substitution as Charlie Parker played it on the tune, and as his example of why horn players should know a ballad’s words. He also wrote his own lyric to it, which he sang on stage under a punning title.
- moments in class
- 11
- recordings
- 5
- Barry plays it
- 7
What he teaches through it
Playing G minor to C7 in Embraceable You, Barry swapped the C7 for its tritone, F♯7. Bird did this on the tune: on F♯7 in place of C he played the tonic, the fifth and the ninth, which Barry preferred to call a second: tonic, fifth, second.
Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You1:482:333:14Bird’s tritone line on Embraceable You0:000:32
Then he turned it into a drill for a trumpeter: on C7, play the tonic, then the second climbing chromatically to the third; on F♯7 do the same but start straight on the second. The pianist plays his plain two-five, G minor to C7, while the soloist moves between C7 and its tritone. Barry found tritone notes unbelievable and was frustrated that horn players making records don’t play them.
Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You4:014:405:155:50
Horn players should know the words of the ballads they play. Barry once heard a fine musician play a song in a way he would not have if he had known the words, and he used the opening of Embraceable You to show that a phrase should be said as naturally as speech, not stretched out.
He told how Bud Powell once played Embraceable You from morning until night: friends who called for him in the morning, and came back that night after a day out, found him still playing it. For Barry it showed how special Bud was.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award8:30
Barry wrote his own words to the tune on a flight back from Japan and sang them on stage under a pun on his name, calling it Embarrassable You when it went badly. Introducing it at North Sea in 2005, he gave the pianist some changes: in C, after the G minor go to A♭7 and D♭ major, with G♭7 at the end of the first sixteen bars.
Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands1:12:241:12:571:13:33Barry Harris Live In Rennes1:11:121:11:48
In his own words
Tonic, 5th, 9th. I don’t like to call it 9th, I call it 2nd. Tonic, 5th, 2nd.
I’m playing G minor to C here, but I took that C7. I changed it to F sharp 7.
I’m beginning to insist that some of the horn players, especially on ballads and things, I want them to know. I would like them to know the words.
one kid had the nerve to say oh yeah barry harris he took one of them charlie parker solos and put words to it
In class
Every moment he works on it, with the ideas of the method it shows.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers
Singing a ballad: Embraceable You
- 1:21
Bologna 2018: on singing the tune as a ballad; mentions the sixth; captions garbled.
Barry plays it
- Embraceable You2023, 4 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Trio - 2003-06-13, Le Franc Pinot, Paris, France2023, 2.1 h YouTube
- Barry Harris, Red Rodney, Charles McPherson, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley - 1992-08-29, Riverside ParkNew York City, 1992, 35 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Trio - 2005-07-08, North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands2022, 80 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Live In Rennes2021, 77 min YouTube
- Barry Harris, Kenny Barron Confirmation2021, 73 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Trio - Embraceable You2017, 4 min YouTube
In the method
The ideas of the method these moments show, and how many moments each.