In my opinion and experience, this request underscores the basic problem
with the usual study of jazz improvising and harmony:
one tends to require and use "predigested" things to draw on. A
person is accomplished in direct relation to their ability to draw on a
stock of vocabulary, melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic, in a playing
situation.
Perhaps the starting point theoretically speaking, is:
see the chords as the tune's identity,
and, therefore, "hipping up" the chords is the way
to go.
It is interesting to note that it is not the chords, but the
melody, that:
1.] is what may be copyrighted
2.] is often neglected as the true identity of the tune
[with lyrics, especially]. In fact, it is indeed the melody that contains
or implies the harmony and the rhythm. Neither of those two imply the other
two as melody does.
It is also interesting to note that we are supposed to be
improvising with a jazz feeling or improvising jazz, but what does that
mean? Is it expressed most profoundly by using formula on a theoretical and
technical level or is it more deeply expressed as a lifelong pursuit of
expressing one's feeling in the moment, relating to the music, the
musicians, even, perhaps the audience? [I mean, we are performing artists
and we do feel the audience at least on an energy level.]
This is not to say that one should not study the great art of the great
improvisers, a study that is as indispensable as it is lifelong and joyous;
however, the crux of the issue is:
1.] Which material?
2.] how is it studied?
Without trying to get into the entire subject, the basic issue with point
#2 is similar to the problem with much of the music business:
the music ends up being in service of the business
[whereas the business should be in service to the music!]
In music study, people try to derive feeling [if they even consider it!]
from technique, when it is, in my experience, preferable to let feeling
stretch out and the technique that is allowed to happen is far superior in
every way.
Much of the material may even be similar or the same [ a C major scale, for
example], but it is the manner that is used to get into the material that
is the issue.
I am not just saying all this stuff lightly: my resume and bio are on my
web site and that doesn't even include the fact that I've checked out the
work of practically every major jazz theorist in the canon of pedagogy.
In my opinion, what Lennie Tristano came up with is the first and best
scene in stretching out as an artist in jazz improvising.
Thanks for writing.
Keep in touch...
Best wishes for a happy life in a peaceful world.
Sincerely,
Richard Tabnik, Jazz Alto Saxophonist
e-mail: <rctabnik@inch.com>
WWW Page: <http://www.inch.com/~rctabnik>
"The jazz musician's function is to feel." -Lennie Tristano