Thanks for sharing.
New Articles On Jazz Improv
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Interesting article. I like the idea of making serious listening part of your practice and immediately after picking up your horn and trying to play in a similar way to what you just listened to. That strikes me as being a good test for your ears. Also the idea of listening to Bach and then trying to play Bach-like non-jazz lines. I'd also like to try that with Mozart 
If I understand correctly he avoids memorization in order to stay a flexible improviser. My first teacher was kind of like that. He taught improv by developing the ear via arranging. He never gave me jazz-lines or told me to transcribe. OTOH he never said he was against transcribing, but he was not a great fan of pattern books. So for many years I avoided patterns and just learned to improvise by playing along with Aebersolds. However I found progress slow and felt I needed something else to make it faster.
So after finding SOTW I started working on jazz-lines, transcribing, and taking tunes and patterns through all keys. I also got the best teacher I could find who is giving me jazz-lines. Since getting a teacher I feel happy about where my playing is going. However I am also finding that I am playing some of these jazz lines a lot when improvising, so now feel the need to work out some new lines by shedding over tunes. As I see it this is the conventional way of continuously changing your playing. That's what the greats did. So I don't necessarily see memorization as being bad for improvisation, providing you keep working out new things in your playing.
If I understand correctly he avoids memorization in order to stay a flexible improviser. My first teacher was kind of like that. He taught improv by developing the ear via arranging. He never gave me jazz-lines or told me to transcribe. OTOH he never said he was against transcribing, but he was not a great fan of pattern books. So for many years I avoided patterns and just learned to improvise by playing along with Aebersolds. However I found progress slow and felt I needed something else to make it faster.
So after finding SOTW I started working on jazz-lines, transcribing, and taking tunes and patterns through all keys. I also got the best teacher I could find who is giving me jazz-lines. Since getting a teacher I feel happy about where my playing is going. However I am also finding that I am playing some of these jazz lines a lot when improvising, so now feel the need to work out some new lines by shedding over tunes. As I see it this is the conventional way of continuously changing your playing. That's what the greats did. So I don't necessarily see memorization as being bad for improvisation, providing you keep working out new things in your playing.
Neil - thank you for quoting the Sonny interview. I'd never seen that before. It's really very inspiring and it kind of made my day.
Humility and the Eternal Quest
Hello All, I too thank Neil Sharpe for sharing the Rollins comments. To hear such humility from someone so great is really refreshing. I had the great pleasure of hearing him at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1996, after years of revelling in his wonderful recordings. At that festival, he was easily the most modern sounding of all the saxophonists I heard there, including the usual lineup of very proficient younger players still struggling to emerge from Coltrane's shadow. Rollins also played the longest set, demonstrating both physical and creative endurance eclipsing much of the other offerings at the festival. This is not to diminish the competence of the others, but to highlight Mr Rollins' musical majesty. Another important point in Rollins' comments is the reference to continuous improvement: Coltrane too was always earnestly trying to get better, and although Parker was less overt about it, I think even Bird had expressed some frustration at getting caught up in repetitive licks and the like. There is no doubt that improvisation is a lifetime quest, but it is important to ensure that we all have fun along the way. Cheers.
Hello All, I too thank Neil Sharpe for sharing the Rollins comments. To hear such humility from someone so great is really refreshing. I had the great pleasure of hearing him at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1996, after years of revelling in his wonderful recordings. At that festival, he was easily the most modern sounding of all the saxophonists I heard there, including the usual lineup of very proficient younger players still struggling to emerge from Coltrane's shadow. Rollins also played the longest set, demonstrating both physical and creative endurance eclipsing much of the other offerings at the festival. This is not to diminish the competence of the others, but to highlight Mr Rollins' musical majesty. Another important point in Rollins' comments is the reference to continuous improvement: Coltrane too was always earnestly trying to get better, and although Parker was less overt about it, I think even Bird had expressed some frustration at getting caught up in repetitive licks and the like. There is no doubt that improvisation is a lifetime quest, but it is important to ensure that we all have fun along the way. Cheers.
my teacher told me to play by ear.find "my" recording of a song and learn it by ear first.not only the "solo" but the bass to .find the cord`s.and than he got my to write it down.. .he is like a norwegian gerry mulligan ,amazing..when i was 15 years i started playing tunes by ear.but then some years later i just got tired of everything,and tired of playing ..Then there was some guy`s that made me wanna play again.. now i listen to recordings of gerry mulligan,lars gullin etc .and trying to learn by ear.for me it`s more easy doing that..
find the different prashes...
.he is like a norwegian gerry mulligan ,amazing..when i was 15 years i started playing tunes by ear.but then some years later i just got tired of everything,and tired of playing ..Then there was some guy`s that made me wanna play again.. now i listen to recordings of gerry mulligan,lars gullin etc .and trying to learn by ear.for me it`s more easy doing that..find the different prashes...
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