Hi Dana

I was going to mention that very site but forgot to do so. It says much more concisely the very point about licks I was trying to get across. And as you say it's a great resource for the both the novice and the experienced improvisor looking to get out of a rut. I particularly liked the analysis of the Dexter Gordon lick in one of the articles and how you can generate 10 times the language from just one source.

Its as well to think how the greats arrived at the licks they created. They are primarily answers to recurring musical problems faced by the improvisor of outlining the harmony, marking the tempo, playing interesting chromaticism against the sound of the chord, using octave and rhythmic displacements and octave leaps to create motion and contrast. And this doesn't even begin to touch on the areas of articulation, timing, accents, playing ahead or behind the beat etc that make the difference between the same lick making an impact or not.

I feel the basics are much more about how to develop simple rhythmic melodic motifs through thematic variation techniques, so that you end up making your own phrases (paragraphs) that have a central argument or thread running through them.
Looking at it this way you might be surprised to pick out some interesting 'licks' of your own forged in the heat of the moment. However that's not how you conceived it at first and only in retrospect do they become solidified in the mind as 'licks'... this is the crucial point.

I think the problem with jazz at the moment is that rather like literal minded readings of ancient texts we've turned the products of a turbulent creative process into musical totem poles, forgetting that they were the answers to musical problems they came up with in their time. We have to discover the same 'heat of the moment' spontaneous solutions for our time rather than simply retread what has been already said. Taking music back to its elements and focussing on what is common to all musical genres is one way to achieve that.

The great jazz guitarist John Abercrombie, (perhaps the most consistently creative of all the 'big 4' with the possible exception of Frisell) is a master of adapting lines from different traditions; melding them together and playing each idea in about 20 different ways.

More importantly he is a fine exponent of the idea of improvising in a compositional way using the tune as material and building organically on small motifs and never forgetting to leave space, use his ears as a guide and let his wonderful sound make an impact. A master of the well timed intervention, even his smallest comping gestures behind other soloists seem so interactive they appear to take on a life of their own. Absolutely peerless, just ask the other big names who their top man is! So who am I to disagree!! I take him as my role model for how to improvise today by refusing to copy him!! (well okay I'm maybe influenced by his guitar tone..LOL)


Regards

Alan

Last edited by alan S.; 04/12/13 05:31 PM.