While contemporary improvisation primers recommend the G Dorian and C Mixolydian

scales (the same notes: C D E F G A Bb, but starting on G for the G Dorian scale)
over a ii-V-I progression in F, Parker uses nearly all the notes of the chromatic
scale in this phrase. However, he keeps very close to the basic chord changes
throughout. Each bar can be seen as an ornamented arpeggio of the basic chord. In
the first measure, the chromatic notes clearly function to lead up to very
consonant, "inside," notes. The F# is an ornament to the G Bb D F arpeggio, which
explicitly spells the basic Gm7 chord, and then Bird descends from the F through E
and D, each of which is led into chromatically from a whole step below. In bar two,
all the notes except the Db are from the C Mixolydian, and the Db is the flat
ninth, a common extension which immediately settles down to the tonic C.

While Parker's rhythmic phrasing is very creative and his technical proficiency
unprecedented, his harmonic practice in this particular example is not much more
complex than that of, say, Coleman Hawkins. Parker uses extended harmonies here
only to ornament lines which stay clearly within conventional scale to chord
relationships.

In the late 1950s, after Parker's innovations had become formulae, players such as
Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Booker Little, Freddie Hubbard, and others began
further explorations. Parker and his followers had moved the limit of harmonic
sense, had shifted the ground, so that the next generation of players could take
the harmonic deconstructions of Parker et al. as the objects of their new
critiques. Rather than playing off of the song, they could play off the
expectations listeners accustomed to Parker-style jazz brought to a performance.

For example, the Eric Dolphy phrase below (recorded in 1960) clearly follows a
Parker-like rhythm for the first three bars, with a fundamentally different
harmonic strategy.

In bar 2, Dolphy superimposes a C minor seventh arpeggio over the written B7. This
partially functions as a substitution for the B7, since the notes of the C minor
triad: C, Eb, G, are the flat ninth, third, and augmented fifth of the B7, all
acceptable extensions. Dolphy is working in an alternate space from the rest of the
band here, developing a tangent from the original piece by taking a fairly distant
relation of the written harmony as his center. This move becomes questionable when
he adds the Bb, the seventh of the C minor seventh, at the end of bar two and the
start of bar three. Playing the Bb (or A#), the major seventh in the key of B
against the B7 chord, which functionally must contain the dominant seventh A, is
not acceptable, so Dolphy concludes bar three with a Parker-like phrase that
clearly relates to the B7 tonality. He resolves his earlier use of the augmented
fifth G by bringing it up through more consonant intervals: the sixth, G#, and the
seventh, A, then using the fifth and sixth to begin the long glissando of bars four
and five, a figure whose function is more gestural and timbral than harmonic.

In this brief excerpt, Dolphy asks a question about harmony, "Can I play a Cm7 over
a B7?" and answers it, "Yes, but only in certain ways." This is clearly a form of
limit-work. Rather than obeying a harmonic system, Dolphy is testing the boundaries
of that system. The pleasure of his playing here comes from its pushing against the
boundary of harmonic sense.

Anthony Braxton represents a still later generation of improvisers, one influenced

by Parker and Dolphy. My final excerpt is from his solo on a performance of the
standard "(There is) No Greater Love" with the avant-garde collective Circle in
1972. While his rhythms are somewhat Parker-like and his use of wide intervals
reminiscent of Dolphy, his harmonic