Lazy Bird is a musical composition

Musical composition

Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 by John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

, first appearing on his 1957 album Blue Train

Blue Train (album)

Blue Train is a hard bop jazz album by John Coltrane, released in 1957 on Blue Note Records, catalogue BLP 1577. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, it is Coltrane's second solo album, the only one he recorded for Blue Note as a leader, and the only one he conceived...

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Its name is most likely a play on the title of the Tadd Dameron

Tadd Dameron

Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland,...

 composition "Lady Bird": Coltrane biographer Lewis Porter has proposed a harmonic relationship between "Lady Bird" and the A section of "Lazy Bird". (The bridge of Coltrane's song is apparently a variation on the standard "Lover Man

Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)

"Lover Man " is a 1941 popular song written by Jimmy Davis, Roger Ramirez, and James Sherman. It is particularly associated with Billie Holiday, for whom it was written, and her version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1989. Holiday's version reached #5 on the R&B chart and #16 on pop...

"). The chord progression

Chord progression

A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...

 of "Lady Bird" may be transformed into that of "Lazy Bird" through chord substitution

Chord substitution

In music theory, chord substitution is the use of a chord in the place of another related chord in a chord progression. Jazz musicians often substitute chords in the original progression to create variety and add interest to a piece. The substitute chord must have some harmonic quality and degree...

 using the backdoor progression

Backdoor progression

In jazz and jazz harmony, the chord progression from iv7 to VII7 to I has been nicknamed the backdoor progression or the backdoor ii-V. This name derives from an assumption that the normal progression to the tonic, the ii-V-I turnaround is, by inference, the front door...

 and tritone substitution

Tritone substitution

In classical music, a substitute dominant is "a chord sufficiently akin to the dominant to be reasonably set against the tonic, and yet remote enough to give a chromatically expressive, large-scale dissonance to the structure"...

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The A section of "Lazy Bird" also features two tonal centers a major third

Major third

In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the largest of the two: the major third spans four semitones, the minor third three...

 apart, an idea that would later be expanded into what are known as Coltrane changes

Coltrane changes

In jazz harmony, the Coltrane changes are a harmonic progression variation using substitute chords over common jazz chord progressions...

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While the bridge may resemble that of "Loverman" it is also very, very close melodically and harmonically to the second strain of Sydney Bechet's "Petite Fleur". Coltrane revered Bechet and this could well be his homage to the great jazzman.