ABSTRACT
Figure 2.1 is a lead sheet for the composition “Knows the Thyme,” which is similar in many ways to Charlie Parker’s composition “Now’s the Time.” Consisting of only a melody and chord symbols, it is a typical example of a lead sheet; it provides a melodic/harmonic frame work for the musicians to work within in performance. In its simplest form, a performance of “Knows the Thyme” would involve inter actions like those we encountered in the analysis of the Charlie Parker Quintet’s performance of “Now’s the Time” in chapter 1: the bassist would define and connect the roots of chords, the pianist would fill out harmonies in a rhythmic manner, and the front line would either play the composed melody or improvise new ones. While this descrip tion of the performance process is an oversimplification-we will see later in the chapter that the lead sheet itself cannot be taken as a fixed entity-it will give us a place to start our examination of the processes that musicians use to create a performance.
