Caravan: An Improviser’s Guide to the A Section

By Eric • Jazz Standards • PRO

If you’ve spent any time listening, learning tunes, or performing, you’ve probably encountered the composition Caravan by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington…

1. Introduction
2. Caravan: Form & Harmony
3. Domnant in Major and Minor
4. Nine Solo Excerpts
5. Tactic #1: Play V7 in Minor
6. Tactic #2: Explore Alterations
7. Tactic #3: Diminished Options
8. Practicing These Concepts

It’s a staple at jam sessions, it’s performed by big bands, and it’s one of the Ellington tunes, along with In a Sentimental Mood, Sophisticated Lady, or Take the A Train that you should know.

But like many tunes in the repertoire, the chords that you find written on the pages of a fakebook don’t give you the entire story of the tune…in fact, they leave out a lot of the details.

And Juan Tizol’s melody along with Ellington’s harmonies are all about the details and harmonic context…

That’s why in today’s PRO lesson we’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of the harmony in this tune and explore some specific improvisation tactics to use in your solos.

Think of it as a reference to come back to over time as you work on this standard. Inside we’ll:

Breakdown the form and harmony
Isolate one scale that gives you the perfect starting point
Explore diminished sounds, alterations, and substitutions
Dig into nine solo excerpts from legends like Tommy Flanagan, Thelonious Monk, Joe Henderson, Roy Hargrove, and more

Let’s get started…

Caravan: Form & Harmony

Caravan form and harmony

Like many standards in the jazz repertoire, Caravan has a typical 64 bar AABA form: a 12 bar ‘A’ section with a 12 bar bridge.

The A section begins and sustains a C7 sound and resolves to F minor in the final four measures:

Caravan A section2

And the progression continues with a bridge that moves around the cycle, like you find in Rhythm Changes, leading to Ab major:

Caravan bridge 1

Looking at the larger form, you can see the relationship and movement from relative minor to major or major to relative minor – F minor in the A section to Ab major in the Bridge.

Check out this lesson for some musical ideas on the bridge: 10 Levels of Playing the Bridge to Rhythm Changes

Chord confusion

When you look at the A section of the tune, it can be confusing why the chord progression simply has a “C7” when the melody is emphasizing Db…

Melody and chord confusion caravan

And if you look up a chart you’ll find a number of variations and chord suggestions. Some charts have a C7 or C7b9, while others have C7 alternating with Db7, and some have a Gº7 chord or Eº chord:

Caravan chord confusion

Why all the confusion in the A section?? (*hint: these chords are all essentially pointing to the same sound)

This is because Ellington’s original harmonies can be tricky to define or boil down into a lead sheet with one melody and a clear set of chord changes:

Ellington original Caravan score — *Caravan Score.1937, National Museum of American History Archives

The process often leaves out a lot of subtlety and important details. To get the full picture of the sound and the specific notes that go into it, you have to know where the harmony is coming from…

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