“Although it was a hit for the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, ‘Cherokee’ wasn’t really considered a vehicle for jazz improvisation until Charlie Parker’s arrival in New York in the early 1940’s.” - Chris Tyle

AKA Indian Love Song Rank 39 Words and Music Ray Noble   British bandleader Ray Noble wrote and introduced “Cherokee” as the first of five movements for “Indian Suite” (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue). The following year trumpeter and arranger Billy May created a hit instrumental arrangement of “Cherokee” for Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra. The tune would rise to number fifteen on the pop charts. An extension of “Cherokee” titled “Redskin Rhumba” subsequently became Barnet’s theme song. According to Don Kennedy, host of the Big Band Jump radio show, It was, of course, based on the plunger-muted trombones, but the “melody” was simply Barnet’s ad-lib tenor sax noodlings. That way, he told me, it could be expanded or contracted to fit any situation in a “live” remote. “Redskin Rhumba” is credited to Dale Bennett, a pseudonym for Charlie Barnet. “Indian Suite” may be heard in its entirety on Ray Noble & His American Orchestra Centenary Issue: 26 Original Mono Recordings 1935-1947 2004 Asv Living Era.     More on Ray Noble   “Cherokee” was not Ray Noble’s first hit song. He had written the words and music to “Love Is the Sweetest Thing” (1932), “The Very Thought of You” (1934), “The Touch of Your Lips” (1936) and “I Hadn’t Anyone Till You” (1938). The first two songs were number one hits on the pop charts.   Chart information used by permission from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954

More information on this tune... George T. Simon Big Bands Songbook Barnes & Noble Paperback (Author/drummer Simon devotes four pages to the songwriter and the performers and includes the sheet music.) - Jeremy Wilson

This section suggests definitive or otherwise significant recordings that will help jazz students get acquainted with “Cherokee (Indian Love Song).” These recordings have been selected from the Jazz History and CD Recommendations sections.

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While Charlie Parker is perhaps the definitive soloist over the chord progression from “Cherokee,” this mostly took the form of original tunes over that progression. For actual versions of “Cherokee,” we look to other important people who crossed paths with Parker at one point or another. Don Byas offered a brilliant, virtuosic reading of the tune in 1945 (Savoy Jam Party: The Savoy Sessions), showing why he was considered one of the greatest tenor saxophonists in bebop. Bud Powell’s burning trio interpretation from 1949 (Jazz Giant) shows the extent to which the tune became a showcase for bop virtuosity. Meanwhile, Clifford Brown’s classic 1955 recording (Study in Brown) provides a stellar example of the ways in which Brown added his own nuance and clarity to the bop language.

Noah Baerman - Jazz Pianist and Educator

Noble’s lyrics are written from a male perspective, the first and last sections beginning with “Sweet Indian maiden” and “My sweet Indian maiden.” Interestingly, when the rarely heard lyrics are recorded it is usually by a female; male performers are perhaps not comfortable with the quaint tone. Sarah Vaughan performs the tune with modified lyrics on her 1955 recording, In the Land of Hi-Fi. And Keely Smith included it in Keely Swings Basie Style With Strings, Concord Records 2002. Keely Smith’s Cherokee heritage was undoubtedly a factor in her choosing to sing “Cherokee.”

- JW

Musical analysis of “Cherokee (Indian Love Song)”
Original Key	Bb major
Form	A1 – A2 – B –A2
Tonality	Major throughout
Movement	Pentatonic in both directions, with occasional chromatic embellishing tones. Interestingly, the pentatonic tonality of the melody continues through the several key changes that happen during the “B” section.
Comments     (assumed background)
This is a jam session war-horse, usually played at “tempo de bitch” (quarter note= 250 b.p.m. or more). The many long, sustained pitches and slow harmonic movement make it a vehicle for virtuosos desiring to display their technique by playing lots of very fast notes. The harmonic progression of the first eight measures is a variation of the descending series of changes found in songs like “I’m Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now” and the last eight measures of “Charleston” while the second eight measures of the first “A” do a turnaround that delays the resolution: I – II7 – ii7 – iiim7(b5) –VI7(9) – ii7 – V7(+5). The second “A” eliminates the four chords between the first ii7 and V7. The “B” section contains an interesting–and highly logical--descending progression that starts on biii9, which is the ii7 of the bII. This, in turn, becomes minor, functioning as the ii7 of the chord a step below it, and so on, until the V7 of the original tonic. In the original key, it is as follows: Dbm9 – Gb7 – B; Bm9– E7 – A; Am9 – D7 – G; Gm9 – C7 – F7(+5). This same kind of chord progression is heard in “Laura” and “How High the Moon.”
K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com

After Charlie Barnet’s success with Billy May’s arrangement, “Cherokee” was picked up by one jazz musician after another, and today it is affectionately referred to as a jazz warhorse. The song’s A-A-B-A 64-bar form and unusual chord progressions and bridge are the basis for compositions by many jazz greats including clarinetist Buddy DeFranco (“Swinging the Indian”) and Charlie Parker (“Ko-Ko”).

Parker’s interest in “Cherokee” was not just a fleeting fancy. Jazz composer and performer Gerry Mulligan is quoted on the Library of Congress website I Hear America Singing as saying,

Somebody sent me a little bit of tape that had Bird playing at home when he must have been maybe seventeen years old ... of course he was playing “Cherokee.” This was his number, man, he worked on that thing for years. Somebody said that when he did “Ko-Ko.” It was not just a little accident that it came out the way it did.

And on a related note, Mulligan explains the title of his song “Noblesse” on the liner notes for Gerry Mulligan Quartet’s Dream a Little Dream.

Ray Noble was a songwriter and a band leader for whom I had great admiration ... He wrote a number of memorable tunes of which the best known to jazz audiences is “Cherokee.” Noblesse is my tribute to Ray Noble.

-JW

Although it was a hit for the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, “Cherokee” wasn’t really considered a vehicle for jazz improvisation until Charlie Parker’s arrival in New York in the early 1940’s.

Don Byas’ 1945 version of “Cherokee” is fascinating. It’s taken at approximately the tempo of Barnet’s, but drummer Fred Radcliffe is doubling the tempo, giving the performance a feeling of being much faster. Byas’ first chorus is in regular time, but by the second chorus he is double-timing along with the drums. His solo shifts back and forth between straight-time and double-time and is technically amazing. Charlie Parker stated that “Don Byas plays everything there is to play” and Byas’ version of “Cherokee” predates Parker’s “Ko-Ko” (his version based on the chord changes) by six months.

Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian

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Don Byas Savoy Jam Party: The Savoy Sessions Savoy Jazz 268

“Cherokee (Indian Love Song)” was included in these films:

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• Jasper in a Jam (1946, Peggy Lee, Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra) puppetoon
• The Gene Krupa Story aka Drum Crazy (1959, The Gene Krupa Orchestra)
• Racing with the Moon (1984)
• Kansas City (1996) cut

And on television:

• Lush Life (1993) Showtime TV

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