The importance of the II V I progression in jazz!

2021-03-01T10:38:03+00:00

The II V I progression is the harmonic motor of jazz music! Jazz harmony is based on the cycle of fourths and II V Is are the king of fourths... Understand the II V I and you understand jazz! Let's face it. Jazz is a style of music that moves in cycles and is quite predictable from a harmonic point of view. Even though chord movements in jazz are predictive and reasonably straightforward, many melodic and harmonic variations can be created on the spot. So within a predictive and 'set' framework, we have the freedom to make things less predictive and [...]