This is a great bebop melody written by jazz composer Tadd Dameron. It is actually based on the chord changes to an older jazz standard called What Is This Thing Called Love by Cole Porter.
Many jazz standards use the chord changes of an already existing piece, the product of which is known as a contrafact. A contrafact is a musical composition built using the chord progression of a pre-existing song, but with a new melody and arrangement.
This tune features many interesting chord progressions, utilizing half-diminished chords and augmented seventh chords to create beautiful tension and dissonance, which is inevitably resolved when we arrive at the Cmaj7 chord.
