I will wade in here at suggest that you take the freebie Introduction to Jazz Improvisation from Berklee, taught by none other than Gary Burton.

It's free. It's Gary Burton. It's also hard for someone who hasn't studied jazz before.

But then again, it's free and it's Gary Burton teaching the class. Yes, that Gary Burton.

https://www.coursera.org/course/improvisation

Session starts February 2, 2015. No excuse not to join in, no spam, and Gary Burton teaches you jazz improvisation and deals with exactly the topic of this thread. Eventually.