Passport
Barry recorded Charlie Parker’s blues Passport on his 1958 trio album Breakin’ It Up and used it as a band tune in his workshops. In a Hague class he taught the head a part at a time and coached each player on it, from the changes to the drummer’s hi-hat and the pianist’s small chords; in Rome in 2016 he led a workshop band through it.
- moments in class
- 14
- recordings
- 2
- Barry plays it
- 3
What he teaches through it
In a Hague class on a blues in C (the clip is titled Passport Blues) he taught the band the head a part at a time, counting each part in. Then he had everyone sing it, to see whether they really knew it.
He fixed the changes in the last bars before the top: D minor to G, then E♭ minor to A♭7. He also told one player not to drop down that low if it could not be managed: just stay up there.
He asked the drummer to start the head with brushes on the hi-hat (his ‘sock cymbal’) and to play little figures on it, instead of going straight to the ride cymbal, so that everyone can hear when a soloist begins. Drummers should have all kinds of these figures down pat.
This music is in four, not cut time, he told the band: he only pats two beats when a tempo is too fast to pat all four. He wanted it light, the piano too, because this was no heavy blues.
Being beboppers, he told the class, does not mean big chords at the top; little chords will do. He had the pianist change an F7 into an F♯ diminished chord, raising only the root, and then go to C major with the fifth on top.
Then he showed how few notes a chord needs. He had the pianist play just F, D and A: you think you are playing F, he said, but it is really G minor 7. With G in the bass it became a move from G minor to C, still with three notes. What a listener hears is the movement, so extra notes are often not needed.
In his own words
That doesn’t necessarily mean big chords up at the top. Just little chords.
All the drummers think you[‘re] supposed to start on the ride [cymbal] right away. Where’s the distinction?
Now you got to learn to change that F7 to F [sharp] diminish[ed], just the way it is.
I come to [the] conclusion that what really sounds is a movement... No matter how many notes you put in it
In class
Every moment he works on it, with the ideas of the method it shows.
Passport: teaching a blues by ear
Barry Harris - Passport (Ch.Parker) Rome 2016
Barry plays it
- Barry Harris Trio - Passport2017, 4 min YouTube
- Barry Harris - Passport (Ch.Parker) Rome 2016Rome, 2010–19, 14 min YouTube
- Passport2014, 4 min YouTube
In the method
The ideas of the method these moments show, and how many moments each.