[Dixielandjazz] Re:WHERE DO WE DRAW THE OKOM LINE?

[Bill Biffle]

This is an almost continuous subject of discussion on the barbershop harmony
list.  What is bbshop and who decides?  One of the characteristics offered
most often is simply the chord structure of the songs, that is, a featured
occurrence of II7 or VI7 (as opposed to ii7 or vi7) with lots of harmonic
variety resolving - generally - through the circle of fifths.  There are
other ingredients, of course, but these seem to me to be most closely
related to OKOM.

Might we say that the music of "traditional jazz" is much the same?  After
the big band era, more minor 7ths crept in - ii7 and vi7 and the like.  OKOM
songs were generally written before some date, were they not - say, 1940?

Instrumentation comes into it, too, of course, but I'm wondering if the song
themselves - and their implied harmony - is not one of the most important
characteristics of the style.

Bill Biffle
Albuquerque, NM USA