This is my point.
It's not just Chet Baker.
They are all like that. I have a whole filing cabinet full
of transcriptions. Clifford Brown, Bill Evans, Wes Mongtomery,
Tal Farlow, Jim Hall, Charlie Parker, Grant Green, Hamtpon Hawes,
Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Kenny Baron, Harold Land, Bud Powell,
Richie Powell, .....
For example I submit :
a) The first chorus as played by Bill Evans on thr "Trio 64"
for the tune "Little Lulu". http://www.justjazz.com/billfrag.pdf
b) The first chorus as played by Charlie Parker on the "Nows
The Time CD" for "Confirmation". http://www.justjazz.com/charliefrag.pdf
They essentially play in one key for long parts of the tune
whenever possible. At certain places they may outline a chord
or some other chord superimposed on the main chord. For example
Fmaj7 arpeggio over a Dmi7 chord (producing the Dmi9 sound).
IMHO most of the great soloists arent thinking about chords much
at all and definitely not guide tones. (BTW, when I say thinking
I'm referring to musical thought which doesnt mean that in their
head they are say now play the 3rd of dm7).
They are playing melodies and melodies are essentially diatonic,
with of course added chromatic embelishment using approach notes
and other such techniques.
While I havent read your book yet, your table of contents seems
to be right on to me as far as the basic techniques of thematic
development and the presence of chord outlines at some points.
I just can't understand where this guide tone notion fits in.
I'm going to just have to read the book because perhaps I'm
missing something.
To me, these players are just creating melodies against the
background of chords and I don't see how playing 3rds and 7ths
is ever going to contribute to that end.
>I presented a solo to a graduate theory class once that was almost totally
>constructed using motivic development. No guide tones, no outlines, no
>paraphrasing of the melody. One of my students brought in a solo in which
>he tried and tried to find motivic development, and was quite frustrated.
>There was no motivic development in the solo. In analysis of any kind one
>asks questions. Sometimes the answer is "no." Then you move on to the next
>question.
>
>In the introduction to my book I wanted to be clear about where the subject
>of the book fit into the larger scheme of things. Outlines and guide tones
>are a part of improvisation, but in no way the whole. I included a chart of
>what I feel the choices are when approaching improvisation. I want to
>include that here and relate it to the Chet excerpt.
>
>Improvisation Choices
>
>I. Paraphrasing
>
>This includes adding to the melody, changing the rhythmic character and
>ornamentation and elaboration.
>
>Often this is the only approach used. Miles takes some great solos where he
>is actually playing variations and elaborations on the theme. Not exactly
>unique to jazz. Reed exhibits this is some of his posted solos. This often
>neglected area of improvisation should be practiced more.
>
>II. Playing with the Harmony
>
>Sometimes jazz improvisers never refer to the melody after playing it once,
>instead relying on the harmony as a vehicle for their improvisations. There
>are variations by Bach, Beethoven and others where the variation is more
>about the harmony than the original theme, so again this approach is not
>unique to jazz.
>
>Under the category of Harmony are some subdivisions:
>
> A. General
> 1. blues lines as generalization
> 2. triadic generalization (Dm7-G7-C all in the key of C,
>playing C triadic melodies and embellishments not necessarily referring to
>each individual chord in the progression.) It is this approach that Chet
>seems to use more than being specific in this particular excerpt.
>
> B. Specific
> 1. using specific arpeggios
> 2. using guide tones and outlines
>(guide tones can refer to the 7ths resolving to the 3rds but also to 5ths
>and 9ths.)
>
>III. Motivic Development
>
>Motives may be derived from the melody or newly invented. List of devices
>follow:
>
>There is a little motivic development at the end of the Chet excerpt. (He
>sounds almost like he's going to quote "Tenderly.")
>
> A. Repetition
> B. Transpose
> C. Mode Change
> D. Fragment
> E. Add to (Before, in the middle, after)
> F. Sequence
> G. Embellish or ornament (keeping the general contour, using
>neighbor-tones and other devices, still keeping the motive recognizable)
> H. Augmentation (making the rhythmic unit or the pitch
>interval larger)
> I. Diminution (making the rhythmic unit or the pitch interval
>smaller)
> J. Invert (upside down: what goes up comes down)
> K. Retrograde (play backwards)
> L. Retrograde inversion (upside down and backwards)
> M. Displacement (pitch and & octave displacement; rhythmic
>displacement)
>
>These three areas answer the question "on what do you improvise?" Many
>improvisations will focus on one area more than another, but others may
>have elements of all three in some kind of balance. Most of theory
>discussion will point back to one of these areas.
>
>Analysis of a Clifford Brown solo may yield more outlines and guide tones;
>analysis of a Stanley Turrentine solo yields more blues generalizations;
>analysis of Sonny Rollins, Coltrane and some Miles may yield examples of
>motivic development that may ignore the harmonic implications. So I do not
>have nor advocate a unified singular approach to jazz improvisation. I
>agree with Reed that transcribing solos that you find meaningful will help
>you sound the way that you want to sound. I like Reed, am not interested in
>statistical analysis type theory. But, I find it helpful to sort out what I
>find and put it into some categories which help me incorporate the ideas
>into my playing.
>
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>_______________________________________
>Bert Ligon
>Director of Jazz Studies
>_______________________________________
>School of Music
>University of South Carolina
>Columbia, SC 29208
>Voice: (803) 777-6565
>Fax: (803) 777-6508
>bligon@mozart.sc.edu
>_______________________________________
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