REFERENTIAL SETS, REFERENTIAL TONICS, AND THE ANALYSIS OF CONTEMPORARY JAZZ by Scott Alexander Cook B.Mus, McGill University, 2004 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2006 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Music) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2012 © Scott Alexander Cook, 2012 ABSTRACT While jazz has become more integrated into academia, the repertoire that is commonly examined is out of date. Today's leading jazz scholars tend to focus on a handful of musicians who made their mark in the '50s and '60s. But jazz writing has continued to evolve in the last fifty years, particularly in regards to harmony. Though many rooted chords—including MM7, mm7, and Mm7—can be heard in succession, the relationships between adjacent chords are obscure, and rarely manifest the standard II–V–I progression found in classic jazz. Often, successive chords belong to different diatonic sets. Some composers have eliminated chord symbols from their lead sheets altogether, leaving harmonic interpretation and relationships even more open-ended. Since the inception of modal jazz in the late '50s, priority has been given to groups of notes and the ways that they can interact, as opposed to specific chords, keys, and function. This presents a challenge not only for harmonic analysis but also for improvising on these changes in performance. Nevertheless, pitch-class organization can often be heard to promote a hierarchical ranking amongst the chords, resulting in strong points of reference. This dissertation develops and applies a theory of referential sets, for analyzing and improvising over representative examples of chromatic chord successions found in some contemporary jazz. By treating pitch-classes outside the collection as alterations, this theory provides a way to hear successions of seemingly unrelated chords as derived from such collections, which are in turn supported by global referential tonics. This is analogous to traditional, hierarchical ways of hearing secondary dominants and other chromaticism, but with different restrictions on the types of alterations allowed. It therefore describes more variegated progressions, and also allows referential sets to be different and larger than diatonic sets, while still providing the traditional benefits of ii harmonic analysis, such as the identification of continuities, recurring patterns of root successions, cadences, and other formal processes and relations that remain paramount in much of today's jazz writing. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract...........................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents...........................................................................................................iv List of Examples ............................................................................................................vi Acknowledgments........................................................................................................xiii Dedication..................................................................................................................... xv Chapter 1: Toward a Theory That Can Be Played .......................................................... 1 Overview................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2: Survey of Literature and Analytical Methodology......................................... 9 A Survey of Analytical Approaches........................................................................... 9 Concerning Improvisation.................................................................................. 20 Concerning Structure and Ornamentation .......................................................... 23 Intermediate Remarks........................................................................................ 29 Chord/Scale Theory, Russell, and the "Modal" Approach........................................ 33 The Lydian Chromatic Concept ......................................................................... 45 The "Modal" Style: A Compositional Approach ................................................ 51 Referential Set Theory: Methodology and Sample Analysis..................................... 56 Analytical Notation............................................................................................ 68 An Example of Determining a Referential Set.................................................... 70 Chapter 3: Post-Bop, Modal Jazz, and the Application of Referential Set Theory......... 77 Post-Bop Jazz and the Suppression of Function....................................................... 78 Modal Jazz and the Absence of Functional Harmony............................................... 92 Referential Set Theory and Contemporary Jazz: A Complete Tune........................ 104 Chapter 4: Changing Times, Changing Sets: Kenny Wheeler Revisited ..................... 117 Kenny Wheeler's "Kind Folk"................................................................................ 118 Kenny Wheeler's "Quiso" ...................................................................................... 139 iv Chapter 5: The New (York) School: Jazz in the 21st Century...................................... 162 Adam Rogers's "Labyrinth"................................................................................... 163 David Binney's "Von Joshua"................................................................................ 185 Chapter 6: Playing the Theory ................................................................................... 205 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 212 Discography................................................................................................................ 219 v LIST OF EXAMPLES Example 2.1: Basic voice leading in a jazz, II → V → I, progression ............................ 14 Example 2.2: Chord substitution in a II → V → I progression....................................... 15 Example 2.3: Smooth voice leading in a non-diatonic progression by Wayne Shorter.............................................................................................. 16 Example 2.4: A II → V → I in G major (a) elaborated with "Coltrane Changes" (b)...................................................................................... 18 Example 2.5: Parsimonious voice leading between major and Mm7 chords, based on "Giant Steps" changes........................................................................................ 19 Example 2.6: Schenkerian analysis of Evans's performance of "The Touch of Your Lips" (reproduced from Larson 1998) ......................................................................... 25 Example 2.7: Voice-leading analysis of an excerpt from Parker's solo on "Shaw ‘Nuff" (reproduced from Martin 1996).......................................................................... 27 Example 2.8: Hypothetical re-harmonization of Parker's melodic line ........................... 28 Example 2.9: CMaj9(add 11,13) expressed melodically ("R" = root, 3 = third, etc.) ............ 33 Example 2.10: CMaj7 filled in with passing tones (P = passing tone) ............................ 34 Example 2.11: Dmin7 expressed as a supertonic chord scale (II/C major) ..................... 35 Example 2.12: A7 expressed as a secondary dominant chord scale................................ 35 Example 2.13: Grant Green's solo, "All the Things You Are" (1:06-1:18) ..................... 36 Example 2.14: Lead sheet for "All the Things You Are"................................................ 37 Example 2.15: The tonal scheme of "All the Things You Are" ...................................... 38 Example 2.16: Roman numeral analysis of A Section (mm. 1-8), "All the Things You Are"........................................................................................................... 39 Example 2.17a: Parallel 10ths in the opening phrase of "All the Things You Are" (mm. 1-8) .......................................................................................................... 40 Example 2.17b: Compound melody and conjunct motion in melody (mm. 1-8)............. 40 Example 2.18: Chord scales in "All the Things You Are" (mm. 1-8) ............................. 41 Example 2.19: Chord scale analysis of Green's solo, "All the Things You Are"............. 43 Example 2.20: Dmin7 expressed linearly as D Dorian................................................... 44 Example 2.21: Modal analysis of Green's solo............................................................... 45 vi Example 2.22a-d: Russell's bias for the Lydian mode (with C tonic).............................. 47 Example 2.23: Russell's six scales for improvising........................................................ 48 Example 2.24: Green's solo on "All the Things You Are," prioritizing Ab Ionian and C Ionian ...................................................................................................... 51 Example 2.25: Miles Davis, "So What," mm. 1-3 (~0:33-0:41)...................................... 53 Example 2.26: Miles Davis, solo on "So What" (1:31-1:44) .......................................... 53 Example 2.27: Joe Henderson, "Inner Urge", B Section (mm. 17-24) ...........................