A lot of chord progressions in jazz are based in the circle of 5ths.

The basic layout of a tune say for the Beatles "Let it Be" is

I - V - vi - IV

If you wanted to jazz it up then you have some options.

1. Enter the chords, and space them how you hear the changes. I often will pen a little phrase or catch phrase for fun, and put the changes to the line. Just one line to start.

Something like "Bill Clinton as first lady, will have an easy life, won't be any worries, won't be any strife."
LOL Its a joke folks.

Anyway if you can fit the above progression to that and run it as 12 bar blues and pick a blues style.

Next you can expand it, figure out the chord progression from Let it Be and go from there. Band in a box will make a melody. Then, depending on what instrument you play, you can go to the soloist and have it generate a solo.

To be honest a couple of times a day I load a popular song, kill the melody. Have Band in a Box make me a new melody. Then I mute it and improvise over it. Great practice. And if you get stuck for creative ideas just get the soloist to give you a hand. I have solo pages printed for some songs and my wife is always asking where I got that variation from. It was just that, my ears, the circle of 5ths and some variations.

It doesn't hurt to listen to 4 or 5 artists do the same jazz piece, and then figure out what's going on.

To some extent the Audio Chord Wizard can give you great results and ideas as to the chord changes. At times it's not spot on but you come to 'get it'.

Best to retire or win the lotto so you have time to use all the pieces and parts.

And find on-line libraries of Band in a Box files, almost everything except really new stuff is there.

John Conley
Musica est vita