Many of the reharmonization techniques of the musicians of the 1940s centered around

superimposing or substituting progressions, most commonly through the use of ii-V7s, over the
existing progressions of traditional standards. These traditional pop-tunes were predominantly
composed of basic harmonies: Major chords (triads), minor chords, & V7 chords, and contained
simple chord progressions that had little harmonic motion.
The progression below is an example of a static V7 chord commonly found in these traditional tunes:

Instead of playing over a static V7 sound for two bars, bebop musicians would play a ii-7 chord for
one bar and the V7 for the second bar:

Or, the original V7 chord could be replaced with its tri-tone substitution:

Reharmonizing standards
Replacing V7 with ii-V7
As the above example shows, its a simple, but important concept to substitute a ii-V7 for a plain old
V7 chord (E7 > B-7 E7). This concept works equally well whether youre implying it through the
lines of your solo or actually reharmonizing the chords of a tune. Scores of players since the bebop era
have used this technique effectively over countless harmonies.
The examples below illustrate how bebop musicians utilized this ii-V7 reharmonization over the
popular songs of their day to create new compositions:
Whispering, a traditional standard written by John Schonberger in 1920, is composed of mostly static
V7 chords. Take a look at the first 16 bars of the chord progression:

Dizzy Gillespie based his 1945 tune, Groovin High, on the changes to Whispering. He did this by
adding substitute chords to the static V7 chords, thereby creating a progression with more motion.
Below are the first 16 bars of Groovin High:

Instead of staying on the

V7 chords for two bars, he
simply puts a ii-7 chord in
the first bar and resolves to
the V7 chord in the second
bar. For example the | D7 |
D7 | in mm. 3-4 becomes |
A-7 | D7 |. The same technique is used in mm. 7-8 and in mm. 11-12, | V7 | V7 | becomes | ii-7 | V7 |.
Rhythm Changes
The chord progression to Gershwins I Got Rhythm, or rhythm changes as its commonly referred to,
has been one of the most used chord progressions in jazz. Ever since George played the progression
himself, as he does in the clip above, hundreds of melodies have been written over these familiar
changes.
The Eternal Triangle This tune is from the famous record Sonny Side Up with Diz, Sonny Rollins,
and Sonny Stitt. Here, the bridge of rhythm changes is reharmonized using the concept again of
descending ii-Vs over a static V7 chord. Instead of the standard progression of V7s on the bridge:

On the bridge of Eternal Triangle, we have the following progression:

For this reharm, a sequence of descending ii-V7s is used for the entire 8 bars of the bridge. The
progression starts a half-step above the root and descends by half-step until the final B7.

Tri-Tone substitution
Another important device used by the musicians of the bebop era was the use of tri-tone substitutions.
Frequently, the V7 chord was substituted with a V7 chord a tri-tone away (Db7 instead of G7). This
accentuates the b5 and b9 of the dominant chord and creates a descending bass line in the context of a
ii-V7-I: | D-7 Db7 | C |. Below are some examples of tri-tone substitutions found in The Eternal
Triangle and Groovin High.
Eternal Triangle Bridge:

Take a look at the last bar of the bridge. The next chord after this bar is Bb, the I chord beginning the
A section. Normally, you would see a V7 or ii-V7 of the tonic, leading back to the I chord:

or

But, in Eternal Triangle the ii-V7 to Bb is substituted with a ii-V7 in E, (F#-7 B7), a tri-tone away:

Groovin High
Another example of tri-tone substitutions used in chord progression reharmonizations is the 9th bar of
Groovin High. The chords starting in the 9th bar of the original tune, Whispering, look like this:

Instead of staying on the I chord (Eb) for two bars and moving to the ii-V7 (F-7 Bb7), a iii VI
progression is implied over the static two bars of Eb:

Simple enough, but on top of this he uses a tri-tone substitution for the VI chord and the V7 chord:

The result is a chromatically descending bass line that resolves to the I chord, Eb.