This week features an awesome jazz lick for you to use which I call the “Ornithology Lick”. This lick refers to Charlie Parker’s bebop composition Ornithology. This tune is actually what we call a contrafact to the jazz standard How High the Moon. Contrafact meaning that it uses the same chord changes of an existing composition, but a completely different melody.
This lick uses the last 3-4 bars of Ornithology and works over a iii-VI-ii-V-I chord progression but is originally over a substitution to those changes. Essentially it’s a series of chromatic minor 7 chords starting on the iii and moving to the I chord.
Time to practice! Make sure to learn it in all 12 keys and be sure to download your free pdf handout of this lick in all 12 keys by clicking the button below!
Jazz Lick of the Week #17
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