SWEET GEORGIA BROWN Jazz Tactics #28

Sweet Georgia Brown is perhaps most commonly recognized as the theme song for the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. It's a fun tune to improvise on because the melody has an inherent sense of swing and the chord progression combines two common harmonic elements: a dominant cycle and the modulation from relative major to minor, both of which were a focus of the three previous episodes in the Jazz Tactics series. By identifying common elements, one learns a good deal more than one tune.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
This is the 28th video in the Jazz Tactics series, exploring elements of jazz improvisation, based on my book of the same name and a university course that I taught for over thirty years. The sequential videos in this series will provide a solid foundation of understanding of the principles and practices of jazz improvisation, on both aural and intellectual levels. Below are some suggestions to get you started:
Do You Speak Jazz? • YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW T...
What Makes Jazz Jazz? • TRADING FOURS WITH FRE...
Why I Can't Teach You Jazz • WHY I CAN'T TEACH YOU ...
What's So Great About Chet Baker? • TRADING FOURS WITH FRE...
Trading Fours With Freddie Hubbard • TRADING FOURS WITH FRE...
Improvising on Autumn Leaves • IMPROVISING ON AUTUMN ...
Improvising on Sweet Georgia Brown • SWEET GEORGIA BROWN Ja...
Improvising on Rhythm Changes • IMPROVISING ON RHYTHM ...
Improvising on There Will Never Be Another You • IMPROVISING ON ANOTHER...
Improvising on All The Things You Are • IMPROVISING ON ALL THE...
ABOUT THIS CHANNEL
On this channel, jazz trumpeter, educator and author Chase Sanborn offers information and advice for musicians and music appreciators.
PLAYLISTS
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/ @chasesanborn
LEAVE A TIP
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MORE INFORMATION
For more in-depth and personal information and instruction, check out Chase's books and online lesson options on his website:
www.chasesanborn.com

[@chasesanborn]

This is the 28th episode in the Jazz Tactics series. Please give it a LIKE and leave a question or comment below. Thanks for watching!

[@petewilliams4965]

Love the replacement concept for the 4 descending V7's!! Very helpful!

[@hshlom]

Nice video. I had forgotten how accessible Sweet Georgia Brown is for the amateur jazz musician. You have some good advice about how to play it too. There are a lot of music video channels out there, but you've got yourself a Follow.

[@chasesanborn]

Welcome aboard!

[@rob-shell]

Thanks!

[@chasesanborn]

Thank you Rob!

[@dennisnajoom9387]

Love it!!

[@chasesanborn]

Thanks for the continued votes of confidence, Dennis!

[@rob-shell]

Chase, thank you once again for the education. Around 5:30 on the video you mention working with students to simplify over the chord progression plus some commentary regarding the F harmonic used over minor IIVI. Have you posted other videos or materials to help further study? Thank you!

[@chasesanborn]

The videos in the Jazz Tactics playlist are reasonably consecutive (especially once it dawned on me that I was creating a series), so watching them in sequence should help. Even so there is only so much that can be communicated in short KZbin videos, so I'm happy to answer specific questions here. Thanks for the tip!

[@joksal9108]

I always wondered where they got the awful white guys who played the Globetrotters. Here’s a non-germane trivia question-what Hall of Fame pitcher played for the Trotters? Bob Gibson, who played basketball at Creighton. Somewhere on KZbin there’s a great video of Fred Astaire dancing to Sweet Georgia Brown.

[@chasesanborn]

It's a perfect song for tap.

[@lukejuras8024]

Thanks for posting this! I have been working on my bebop dominant scales since I saw your video on it, and I've been looking for tunes to use them on! The other one I looked at was the B section of I Got Rhythm.

[@chasesanborn]

I Got Rhythm is the next video in the series. Jordu is another tune with a dominant cycle. Also, the dominant bebop scale comes into play on II-Vs which exist in almost all standard tunes.