Constructive Elements in Jazz Improvisation

Author(s): Frank Tirro

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp.
285-305
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society
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Constructive Elements in
Jazz Improvisation*
By FRANK TIRRO
SMPROVISATION,
the somewhat
mystical
art of
performing
music as an
'immediate
reproduction
of simultaneous mental
processes,
is but the
daily
fare of the
practicing jazz
musician.
Just
as the
ability
to
improvise
was a
prerequisite
skill for the Renaissance ensemble
instrumentalist,
the
jazz improviser gains recognition
and stature after a
long apprenticeship
that both
"pays
his dues" and teaches him his craft.
Although
the
products
of artistic creation are
reverently
studied and
savored,
the
process
of artistic creation receives much less attention because it is
seldom documented.' Since
process
and
product
tend to fuse in im-
provisation,
it is
commonly
assumed that
jazz improvisations
do not
achieve the same
heights
as the
products
of
notating composers;2
and
*
A
portion
of this
study
was
originally
read at the Sixth International
Congress
of Aesthetics in
Uppsala,
Sweden, 1968,
and an abstract
appears
in the
Proceedings
of that
meeting
(Acta
Universitatis
Upsaliensis,
series
Figura,
n.s.,
Vol. X
[Uppsala,
1972]).
It is included here with the kind
permission
of Professor
Teddy
Brunius,
editor of the Acta. I also wish to
express my appreciation
to the American
Society
for Aesthetics and the American Council of Learned Societies for the financial
grant
awarded the
original paper,
"Jazz
Improvisation."
1 There
are,
of
course,
many insightful
studies on this
subject.
Successive
stages
in the
composition
of the
development
section of Beethoven's Andante from
Op.
68
are
analyzed by Joseph
Kerman,
"Beethoven Sketchbooks in the British
Museum,"
Proceedings of
the
Royal
Musical
Association,
XCIII
(1966/67), 77-96. Also,
see his
The Beethoven
Quartets (New York, 1966).
Lewis Lockwood orders three sets of
sketches and a
rudimentary
score with "cue-staff" in "Beethoven's Unfinished Piano
Concerto of
1815,"
The Musical
Quarterly,
LVI
(1970), 624-46.
Beethoven's works
lend themselves better to this kind of
analysis
than do those of other
composers
because of the existence of his
sketchbooks,
but a similar method of
inquiry
is
applied
to the music of Bach
by
Robert L.
Marshall,
The
Compositional
Process
of
1.
S. Bach
(Princeton, 1972),
and his "How
J.
S. Bach
Composed
Four-Part
Chorales,"
The Musical
Quarterly,
LVI
(0970), 198-220.
Most studies on
improvisa-
tion, however,
such as Ernst T.
Ferand,
Die
Improvisation
in der Musik
(Ziirich,
1939)
and his
article,
"Improvisation,"
MGG,
Vol.
VI,
cols.
o1093-
135,
as well as
related studies on
performance practice,
concentrate on embellishment and the
appli-
cation of
appropriate
formulas rather than on the method of simultaneous
composi-
tion and
performance.
2
Andr6 Hodeir's excellent critical
study,
Jazz:
Its Evolution and Essence
(New
York, 1956)
errs in this
regard.
He divides
jazz melody
into two
types,
theme
phrase
and variation
phrase,
and divides the latter in two
again,
[theme]
paraphrase
and
chorus
phrase [improvisation].
Of the
improvisation,
he
says,
"It is conceived . . . in
complete liberty.
Freed from all melodic and structural
obligation,
the chorus
phrase
is a
simple
emanation
inspired by
a
given
harmonic
sequence" (p. 144).
He disavows
thematic
relationships
in the
improvisation,
and,
using
Coleman Hawkins's solo on
"Body
and Soul" as an
example, says,
"the
only thing
the theme and the variations
have in common is the harmonic foundation"
(p.
144).
His
example
in musical
notation
(Fig.
8,
p. 145), supports
an
opposite
view. Gunther Schuller
supports
Hodeir's thesis
saying, "[jazz]
'variation' is in the strictest sense no variation at
all,
286
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
since
nothing
remains to be scrutinized
by
the
eye,
most musicians do not
bother to
question
that
assumption.
Musical
development
and the
expansion
of motivic material in the
extended
improvisation
of a
great jazz performer
is
comparable
to that
found in notated
compositions
of Western music. The best
jazz
solos
are indeed constructive in nature and
may
be evaluated
syntactically
as are other
teleological compositions
of the
notating
Western
composer.
Considered from a formalist
point
of
view,
most
jazz
has in common
with most Western music a
goal
orientation that
distinguishes beginnings,
middles,
and ends. The means
by
which these ends are achieved
can,
within the norms of the
substyle
in
question,
be achieved in a
variety
of
ways
with an
equal variety
of
degrees
of success. Both the traditional
Western
composer
and the
jazz improviser proceed by attempting
to
continue an antecedent musical situation in such a
way
that the
piece
fulfills the latent
expectations implied by
the
beginning
while
traversing
a musical obstacle course that
delays gratification
and creates tension.
The
jazz
improviser
reuses and reworks material from
previous per-
formances; and,
as will be
demonstrated,
musical ideas evolve
through
the
passage
of time and
during subsequent performances.
The skilled im-
proviser begins
with neither a
completely
free or
totally
blank situation
nor rambles
aimlessly
to an inconclusive
termination,
but instead
develops
motives with
cyclic
treatment. The demonstration of this
process may
be seen on three different architectonic levels. On the
lowest,
the im-
proviser
creates new
phrases
whose
continuity overlaps
cadences and
elides normal
phrase
structure;
on a
higher plane,
the
improviser
con-
structs
consequential
choruses out of antecedent
situations
which are
relatively
close in
proximity, usually
the
preceding
chorus;
on the
highest
level
identified,
the
improviser manipulates
musical ideas
stemming
from
remote
past
events. Both the
composer
and the
improviser attempt
to
create new solutions
which,
through
their
grace,
inventiveness,
and bal-
ance,
avoid both the most
probable
and the most diffuse routes.
Improvisation
is one element
usually present
in
every performance
in
every
jazz
style.
It consists of the simultaneous acts of
composition
and
performance
of a new work based on a
traditionally
established schema-
since it does not
proceed
from the basis of
varying
a
given
thematic
material,"
("Sonny
Rollins and Thematic
Improvising,"
Jazz Panorama,
ed. Martin Williams
[New York,
1964], p. 240),
but
acknowledges exceptions
in a few
great
solos
(it
is
amusing
that he cites Hawkins's second chorus of
"Body
and Soul" as an
excep-
tion). Schuller's fine
analysis
of Rollins's "Blue
7"
demonstrates that this work "is an
example
of a real variation
technique.
The
improvisation
is based not
only
on a
harmonic
sequence
but on a melodic idea as well"
(p. 248). However,
this
per-
formance is
clearly exceptional
in Schuller's
view,
for he
says,
"In this Rollins has
only
a handful of
predecessors, notably Jelly
Roll
Morton,
Earl
Hines,
Fats
Waller,
and Thelonious
Monk,
aside from the
already
mentioned Lewis and Giuffre"
(p. 248,
fn.
5).
"The
average improvisation
is
mostly
a
stringing together
of unrelated ideas"
(p.
240).
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
287
a chordal framework known as the
"changes."
The
jazz improviser
works
from a standard
repertory
of
changes
derived from
popular songs,
blues
riffs,3
show
tunes,
and a few
jazz "originals."
As a well-constructed tonal
melody implies
its own
harmony,
these chord
patterns imply
their own
pre-existent
melodies.4 The
implication
is
specific
at
any point
in the
progress
of a
piece,
and
consequently
the educated and sensitive listener
is at all times oriented with
regard
to the
temporal progress
of the
piece.
So is the
performer,
whether
playing
solo or in
ensemble,
whether
play-
ing
chords,
rhythm, melody,
or
countermelody.
The Harvard Dic-
tionary's
definition of
improvisation,
"The art of
performing
music as an
immediate
reproduction
of simultaneous mental
processes,
that
is,
without
the aid of
manuscript,
sketches,
or
memory,"5
is somewhat
misleading,
for
although memory
is not used to recall in detail a
once-learned,
notated
composition
for a
present-time performance, memory
is used
to recall the details of the
style
in which the
improviser
is
performing;
and it will be demonstrated that
memory
recalls,
consciously
or sub-
consciously,
musical
events,
patterns,
and sound combinations that have
become a
part
of the
improviser's
musical self. Sketches are used-some-
times written and sometimes memorized.
Schemata,
or
models,
exist in
jazz,
and these are the
patterns,
collections of
patterns,
or modifications
of
patterns
which form the framework
upon
which,
or
against
which,
the
improviser
builds his new
compositions.
Jazz
improvisers
commit the
changes
to
memory,
and these soloists
depend upon
the
rhythm section-usually piano,
bass,
and drums-to
maintain this structure
throughout
the
performance
of a
piece.
In this
way,
the soloist becomes
responsible
to "make the
changes,"
adjust
the
temporal progress
of his solo to coincide
exactly
with the
temporal
progress
of the harmonic foundation.
Likewise,
the
rhythm
section has
its own
responsibilities.
The drummer
"keeps
time,"
that
is,
"lays
down
the beat." If ever a
concept
of invariable tactus were
valid,
its
practical
application
is demonstrated
by
the
jazz
drummer. All
percussive
sounds-
proportional, syncopated,
and metric-are
adjusted
to an
unswerving
pulse,
and this is a constant the
jazz improviser
relies on as he works
3
"Blues" has several
meanings,
and the
improvisational
schema discussed here
should be
recognized
as different from the AAB form of the text of most
sung
blues
and from the AAB form of
many
blues melodies. A
fascinating
but
unconvincing
argument tracing
the
origins
of the blues to the
i6th-century
Italian
passamezzo
is
made
by
Otto
Gombosi,
"The
Pedigree
of the
Blues,"
Music Teachers National
Association
Proceedings,
XL
(1946), 382
ff. "Riff" has three common
meanings:
(i)
a blues
melody,
(2)
a short
(two-
to
four-measure)
passage repeated
to accom-
pany
a
solo,
and
(3)
a melodic
passage improvised by
one
jazz
musician and
copied
by
others.
4
See Frank
Tirro,
"The Silent Theme Tradition in
Jazz,"
The Musical
Quarterly,
LIII
(1967), 323-24.
SWilli
Apel, "Improvisation,"
Harvard
Dictionary of
Music
(Cambridge,
Mass.,
I944),
p.
240.
288
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
through
time. The concrescence of
piano
and bass with the drum com-
pletes
the substructure which
organizes
and measures the
improvisation,
for the bass sounds roots at structural
points
and the
piano
adds
complete
chords in a
variety
of manners
depending
on the
style
and the individual.
The exact
makeup
of a
rhythm
section
may vary-guitar
instead of
piano
or
piano
and drum without
bass,
but two elements of a schema which
define form are invariable: time and
changes.
Jazz
can be
perceived
on
many
levels,
but to
comprehend fully
those
jazz
creations which transcend
the
ordinary,
those which are works of
art,
one must
grasp
the informa-
tion
supplied by
the
rhythm
section to
put syntactical
order to the
language,
statement,
and
grammar
of the
jazz
solo.
The minimum
professional requirement
of the
improvising jazzman
is that he
play everything correctly.
Technical
mastery
of an instrument
is assumed. Then he has the task of
constructing
an
unusually
clever
solution,
of
creating
an
unusually
beautiful
result,
of
accomplishing
an
unusually
difficult
feat,
or of
completing
a
process
in such a manner
that it
expands
the
very
framework of the
original
task. It is in relation-
ship
to these
concepts
that one is measured as
virtuoso, artist,
or
genius;
hence the stress and
emphasis placed upon
the listener's
responsibility
to
learn to
perceive
the schema.
These
patterns
have become so much a
part
of the subconscious of
the
jazz performer
that it is not uncommon for a soloist to "take a
stroll,"
continue an
improvisation
to the
changes
of a
piece
while the
rhythm
section is silent or
"laying
out." This
process might
be seen in
Examples
1-3.
The "chord chart" for "Cherokee"
by Ray
Noble is followed
by
an
improvisation
to this schema
by trumpeter
Clifford Brown.6 His solo
was
performed
with standard
rhythm
section
accompaniment,
but that
which
follows,
Example
3,
is a stroll
by
alto
saxophonist Bunky
Green.
Notice that the last
improvisation implies
all the
changes
in their
proper
sequence.
Even without the concrete
support
of the
rhythm
section,
this
style
of
improvisation
is locked
tightly
to
chronological
time. Even
though
the schema is
silent,
it is not omitted. The
goal
orientation of
both solos is
specific,
and the series of notes
may
be
thought
of as a
stochastic
process,
a
sequence
of notes that
occur according
to a certain
probability system
called a
style.
At
any point
in
time,
the
present
event
can be seen to have
proceeded
from
past
events,
and so the solo is indeed
a Markoff chain." Because both the listener and the
improviser
are ori-
6
Traditional Western
notation,
which is somewhat
imprecise
for the
recording
of the standard
repertory,
is
quite inadequate
for
transcribing
the
jazz repertory.
Microtonal
pitch
variation,
characteristic
articulations,
and
tempo-dependent rhythmic
patterns
are
only
a few of the
jazz performance-practice peculiarities
that are essen-
tial to the
style
but have
developed
no
explicit
notation. For a few of the
assumptions
made
by
me for the
transcription
of
jazz
solos,
see the
appendix
to
my
article,
"The
Silent Theme
Tradition,"
p. 334.
All of the
transcriptions
in the
present
article are
my
own.
SSee Leonard B.
Meyer, Music,
the
Arts,
and Ideas
(Chicago, 1967),
especially
Chap.
i,
"Meaning
in Music and Information
Theory," pp.
5-2
1.
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
289
Example i
"Cherokee"
("Indian
Love
Song"), by Ray
Noble
Bb
F-
Bb7
Eb
Ebm
Bi
III.
II
F7 Bb
F
9
F#7 B+7 B7
1 2. I ..
TI I
I g
"
Bm7
E9
A
D9
D7
G
I
G7
C7
Gm7
C7
Cm7
F+-
Bb F+
Bb7 Eb Ebm Bb
-10 a
--t-- i.- I-
Copyright
MCMXXXVIII
by
Peter Maurice Music
Co., Ltd., London, England.
U.S.A.
Copyright
renewed and
assigned
to Skidmore Music
Co., Inc.,
666 Fifth
Ave., N.Y.,
N. Y. Used
by permission.
ented to the schema which limits the
probabilities
allowable for a solo in
a
particular style,
and since initial statements in the solo
carry implica-
tions for what is to
follow,
prediction
and, hence,
musical
meaning
are
possible.
Listener
expectation, analysis,
and criticism
go
hand in hand.
One further statement about schemata needs to be made before
pro-
ceeding.
Models have some
degree
of
flexibility
built into them. Green's
solo in
Example
3
added and subtracted redundant beats without
altering
the
identity
of the model or
destroying
the
concept
of time-invariable
pulse.
Harmonic
speed may
also be varied while still
maintaining
a basic
framework if the choice of chords at structural
points
remains consistent
with the model.
By inserting
a more
complex
harmonic
progression
into
the normal blues
framework,
musical tension can be increased
by raising
290
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example
2
"Cherokee,"
solo
by
Clifford
Brown,
EmArcy
Records,
DEM-2
Fast
Bb
F4
Bb7
ti.
Trpt.
Eb Ebm
Bb
Dm
eJ
.-
,-
C9
Cm7
Fdim
Eb
F7
' I
.I
I-m
I I
-
::I F B1
Eb Ebm
Bb
Dm
C9
Cm7 F7 Bb
BbF+ 3
.
the level of
difficulty
of correct
performance. Examples 4a
and
4b
might
be
compared
to a downhill run on
skis,
the first with an occasional turn
and the second
along
a
path
woven
through
slalom
flags.
If the beat
remains the same for both
performances,
the second is the more difficult.
Trumpeter
Chet Baker
accepts
the
challenge
of the thickened
progression
in his
performance
of "Bea's Flat"
(Ex. 5)-
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
29I
Example 3
"Marshmallow"
("Cherokee"),
solo
by Bunky
Green
(private tape)
Fast
Bb
Faster
F7-Bb7
lto
sax.--n-
Eb>
Ebm
S
PABb
L
IDm
C
.I
Ng 5- T .
I.
-
I -2T
Z9
vCmI I I
&
,
..
,..I

W, V
,,w
S Bb
BDm
C9,
If
IFL.!
-
:
-

'

,
'
,
!
.
-
.
A % 4 I J
,J
l I
"
4 I 7
.
4
,
"r '
-k"
I ' I
,.t
.
'
Had a
single
chord been held for the first four
measures,
as in
Example
4a,
Baker could have had more freedom and less chance of error. The
goal
orientation between measures
i
and
5
is much
stronger
in
Example
4b
than
4a,
because each intermediate
goal
further limits the
possible
stylistic paths
which must end on an
Eb-major
chord in measure
5.
Baker's
series of notes is but
slightly
ornamental and is instead
principally
con-
Example 4
Two Blues schemata
Bb Eb Bb
F
Bb
I 2
3 4 5
6
7
8
9
Io II
12
a.I// // ////
//// I ////
I
//// ////
I
////
I
////
I
//// I
////
I
////
I
o
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0
0 0
BM7
BbFgm7
Em7A7Dm7Bm7E7Eb7BbdimA7BbCm7Dm7G7Cm7 F7 BbG7Cm7 F7
b.I//// I
////
I
/
///// ////I////
I////
I/////
////
II//// ////I
rr rr :r r:
0
:r r r r
0 0
rr rr
292
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example
5
"Bea's Flat"
(Bb Blues),
as
played by
Chet
Baker,
Pacific
Jazz Records, PJ
12o6
Bb Fm7 BM7 Em7 A7
Dm7
Trpt.
Bm7
E7
Eb7 Bbdim
A7
Bb Cm7 Dm7
G7
toI
, i... BElI.-
G1
Cm
, F,
a
T.-
.
.
,
..,.J I-
? 7 I
b-
4. . .
J
3
;
,1
-
Ak0
pI o"e':j -
Cm7 F7 BA B G7
Cm7
F7
h
II
I
-k-
,,
'" i
t
, ,
J,
,
i
UY
,,
.,
,. ,,.
t t
,
I I
t i i I I i
I. . . .
. .
i
. . .
I
, ,
,,
. ., -V - J : : - -
ft
. . . .. . . . . . . . ..
Cm7-
F7
B"b "
G7
" Cm7"'-
F-7,.d
'
structive. It is a line that is at once
melodic, harmonic,
and
rhythmic,
and the selection of notes is made
frequently
from the
upper partials
of
the harmonic series of the chords of the schema.
With the onset of Free
Jazz,
the blues have become less
used,
but
Example
6,
a tribute to Charlie Parker
by
Ornette
Coleman,
demonstrates
how aware the listener must be of the standard twelve-measure
period
to
perceive
that this distorted structure combines both blues and
pop-song
form. The overall form is
AABA,
but each A is a blues variant. After
a two-measure
introduction,
the first A uses the first nine and one-half
measures of a blues
chorus;
the second A uses eleven
measures;
and the
last uses ten.
At first
glance,
the blues schema
appears
too
simple,
almost
naive,
incapable
of
sustaining
melodic fabrics of artful
design.
Charlie Parker
clearly
demonstrates this is not the
case,
for the
ingenuity
and
artistry
of the
phenomenal performer
created an
imposing variety
of riffs. The
ostinato
pattern
of "Now's the Time"
(Ex. 7)
is
diametrically opposed
to the
continuously unfolding
line of
"Cheryl"
(Ex. 8).
The
heavy,
four-
beat drive of "Air
Conditioning"
(Ex. 9)
finds little
similarity
in the
light,
off-beat articulations of "Visa"
(Ex.
io).
Even more
significant
in this
regard
are the hundreds of
improvised
solos which followed these
and other riffs and
which,
as
yet,
remain untranscribed and
unpublished.
They
demonstrate the true
variety possible
within the
tight
confines of
a
short,
constantly repeated,
fixed form. In these
creations,
one finds the
true measure of the
jazzman's genius.8
8
A
transcription
and
analysis
of Parker's
"Perhaps,"
theme and three-chorus
solo,
may
be found in William W.
Austin,
Music in the 20th
Century
(New York,
1966), pp. 289-91.
A detailed and
perceptive analysis
of Parker's solo on "Slam Slam
Blues" is offered
by
Richard
Wang,
"Jazz
circa
1945:
A Confluence of
Styles,"
The
Musical
Quarterly,
LIX
(0973), 542-44. Wang's comparison
of blues solos
by Teddy
Wilson,
Flip Philips,
and
Dizzy Gillespie (pp. 534-41)
is
particularly
instructive,
and
one
might
see in these excellent
transcriptions,
constructive
development
in con-
trasting styles.
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
293
Example
6
"Bird
Food,"
by
Ornette
Coleman,
Atlantic
Records,
i
327
Alto sax.
Bb
Gm Cm
Fm9
Bb
F~dim7
Trpt.
8'" and unisoni
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294
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example 7
"Now's the
Time,"
by
Charlie
Parker,
Verve
Records,
MG
V-800oo5
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The means
by
which the traditional Western
composers
have at-
tempted
to achieve their
goals
and communicate with their audiences has
been discussed at
length
and sometimes with
great clarity.9
The need
to demonstrate the existence of that
process
in
jazz improvisation
where
Example
8
"Cheryl," by
Charlie
Parker,
Le
Jazz
Cool
Records, JC-
102
-..oom I MOOR
1 1 -qm Ole ML ad
4AW rim i w w ga I I
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I do
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3 rIft"
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ff rr%
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m h no 10
?ff
-
ti
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GF
9
Eduard
Hanslick,
The
Beautiful
in
Music,
trans. G. Cohen
(New
York:
Novello,
Ewer,
189i);
Heinrich
Schenker,
Der
freie Satz,
trans. and ed. T. H.
Kreuger
(Ann
Arbor:
University Microfilms, 1960), pub.
no.
6o-i558;
Felix
Salzer,
Structural
Hearing (New York, 1952);
Leonard B.
Meyer,
Emotion and
Meaning
in Music
(Chicago, 1956);
and Suzanne
Langer, Philosophy
in a New
Key (New York, 1959),
focus most of their discussion on
purely
musical
relationships.
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
295
Example 9
"Air
Conditioning," by
Charlie
Parker,
Dial
Records, 207
?I ,
,
k I i !( ?12. I
A I I
motives are
developed
and ideas revised exists not
only
because the
process
is not often
recognized,
but also because the
opposite
is
frequently
argued.
Charles M. H.
Keil,
referring
to
jazz
and some non-Western
music,
attacked the
applicability
of Leonard B.
Meyer's
contention that
"music must be evaluated
syntactically."10
Keil
argues
that
jazz improvisa-
Example i
o
"Visa,"
by
Charlie
Parker,
Verve
Records,
MG V-8ooo
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pool
112
o10
Charles M. H.
Keil,
"Motion and
Feeling through Music," Journal of
Aesthetics
and Art
Criticism,
XXIV
(1966) 337-49. Meyer's
statement is in Leonard B.
Meyer,
"Some Remarks on Value and Greatness in
Music," Journal of
Aesthetics and Art
Criticism,
XVIII
('959), 496.
296
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
tion is unlike traditional Western
composition
in that it does not
depend
heavily
on
syntactical relationships
and can be understood better
through
a
study
of
process (by
which I take him to mean
something
akin to
per-
formance
practice,
the acts of
producing
the sound that is
jazz).
On
the basis of his
observations,
he
suggests
that
"engendered feeling,"
an
undefined
term,
be substituted in the
analysis
of
jazz improvisation
for
Meyer's
"embodied
meaning,"
the
meaning
that arises "within the con-
text of a
particular
musical
style
[when]
one tone or
group
of tones in-
dicates-leads the
practiced
listener to
expect-that
another tone or
group
of tones will be
forthcoming
at some more or less
specified point
in the
musical continuum."" In
place
of a definition for
"engendered feeling,"
Keil constructs a list of
polarities, opposing
composed
with
improvised,
repeated performance
with
single performance, syntactic
with
processual,
coherence with
spontaneity,
and so on. He contends the former are
applicable
-to Western traditional
composition
and the latter to
jazz.
He admits that "all music has
syntax
or embodied
meaning,"
but he
argues
that in "African-derived
genres,
an illumination of
syntactical
relationships
or of form as such will not
go very
far in
accounting
for
expression."12
I would
argue
that Keil has confused
compositional process
with its
result,
the notated version or
performance
of a traditional Western com-
position:
a confusion of
process
and
product.
In
jazz,
process
and
product
are simultaneous. When the
analyst
deals with
syntactical relationships,
he is
dealing
with the results of the
compositional process,
the music itself.
When,
as Keil does in his discussion "Motion and
Feeling through
Music,"
an author describes the motion of
rhythm-section
attacks,
verbalizing
the action of drummers who
"lay
back" or
play
"on
top
of the
beat,"
he is
dealing
with
performance practice,
not
compositional process. They
affect each other to a certain
degree
because
they
are somewhat inter-
related,
but
they
can be dealt with
separately
and should not be confused.
Example
5,
"Bea's Flat"
played by
Chet
Baker,
is a
good example
of a
jazz
piece
that creates tension
syntactically.
The
relationship
of musical
sounds does account for
expression.
It is true that an
improvisation
occurs but
once,
but each
improvisa-
tion has a
history
of
similar,
related
performances.
The creative
process
stops
once the
composition
is notated and once the
improvised per-
formance is
over,
but if the same tune or schema is
performed again
with
new
improvisations
at a later
date,
both versions can be studied as
separate,
interrelated
compositions.
Since
jazz
tunes are
frequently
rerecorded,
sequential performances
can be studied.
I have made some studies of this kind with the aid of commercial
recordings.
But in order to
provide
a kind of
laboratory
check
against
11 Meyer,
Music,
the
Arts,
and
Ideas,
p. 7.
12
Keil, "Motion and
Feeling," p. 338.
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
297
results thus
obtained,
a
five-piece jazz
combo was
given
an unfamiliar
and difficult
piece
to
prepare
for
public performance.
All members of
the
group
had extensive
professional experience
in
Chicago
and
elsewhere,
and
two,
the alto
saxophone
soloist,
Bunky
Green,
and the
drummer,
Jerry
Coleman,
were
regularly employed
in the
Chicago recording
studios
at the time. The
pianist,
Richard A.
Wang,
has the
qualifications
of both
a
professional
musician and a
jazz authority.13 Recordings
of all the
rehearsals and two
public
concerts of this same
composition
made over
a two-month
span
were
compared.
A
single passage
was selected for
observation to determine if ideas were
repeated
and evolved or free and
ever
changing,
as the
spontaneous approach
to
improvisation might
lead
one to believe would be the case. The results of this
laboratory
situation
were
compared
with
recordings
of
parallel
situations in which the
per-
formances were on commercial
recordings
and
played by recognized
jazz
masters. These studies show
clearly
that the
jazz improviser's
final
version,
his latest
revision,
is the
product
of a
reworking
of
formerly
used
syn-
tactical elements and
can, therefore,
fairly
be
discussed, criticized,
and
evaluated as can traditional Western
composition.
As
explained
above,
composers
create,
within their
respective stylistic
norms,
music that is a
process
in which
present
events
proceed
out of
past
events within a
complex probability system
that
implies
a defined
goal.
This is the case in
jazz
as well. The constructive nature of a
jazz
improvisation
can be demonstrated
by studying
Stan Getz's
performance
of
"Lover,
Come Back to Me!"
by Sigmund Romberg.
In
Example I I,
even in the first introduction of the
theme,
Getz
places
the structural
notes of the theme askew with reference to their
regular
metric
position-
ing.
He can communicate his
accomplishment
of an
irregular overlay
of meters and an
out-of-phase positioning
of
phrase
to his audience on
his first statement because his audience is
part
of a
larger
jazz
community
that can be assumed to know the standard
repertory.14 Example
ii is
Getz's first introduction of the thematic motive.
Examples
12 and
13
are
taken from his first
improvised
chorus and demonstrate his further re-
working
of
previously
stated material.
Example
14
illustrates musical re-
lationships
that exist in
Examples
i i-i
3.
The
passage
of time is often an
important
factor in the maturation
of a musical idea. Beethoven's sketchbooks sometimes reveal
years
of
motivic transformation. This
process
can be seen in
jazz
as
well,
for the
improviser, usually
a
working
musician who often
performs
five to seven
nights
a
week,
replays
tunes and ideas with relative
frequency.
Such a
process,
which
gradually
remolds the
material,
disproves
Keil's notion
of a
jazz performance representing
a
single, unique
event. Granted that
13 See fn.
8,
above.
14
A vivid description
of the environment in which
jazz operates
is
painted by
Alan P. Merriam in "The
Jazz Community,"
Social
Forces,
XXXVIII
(i960),
211-22.
298
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL
SOCIETY
Example
i
i
"Lover,
Come Back to Me!" as
played by
Stan
Getz,
Clef
Records,
MG7-137
Getz version
"go
-
F-
J
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.do
Original melody
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A,
6
.
I
IF
IF: Ir
"-. . ..
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I L
no two
performances
will be
exactly
alike,
one must include a considera-
tion of
past
events that act as
preparation
for a
present
event.
Example 15
presents
a
passage
recorded
by
Stan Getz in
1952.
Examples
I6
and
17
are
passages
extracted from a different work nine
years
later. The latter
two are so
obviously
related to the first in
spite
of the
change
from
duple
to
triple
meter and fast to moderate
tempo
that it becomes evident
that an
improvised
idea,
once
stated,
is not
necessarily
lost
by
the im-
proviser.
In this
instance,
a similar set of
changes
revived the old motive
even
though
the remainder of the context is
quite
different.
Further evidence of the extent to which a
composer-improviser
re-
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
299
Example
12
"Lover,
Come Back to Me!"
Repetition
of A section before the
bridge
in the first
improvised
chorus
by
Stan Getz
0001~
IF
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Pol
i

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I
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I,
I
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- I
works
germ
motives is the
beginning
of Warne Marsh's solo in "Marsh-
mallow,"
which consists of three but
slightly
altered statements of the
first four notes of the silent theme "Cherokee"
by Ray
Noble,
the tune
that
provided
the
changes
for Marsh's
composition "Marshmallow."15
Example
i
presents
the
opening
of
"Cherokee,"
and
Example i8
shows
the
beginning
of the Warne Marsh solo which uses the first four notes
of the silent theme as the
point
of
departure.
Charlie Parker reworked "Cherokee" into his own silent theme com-
position,
or
improvisation,
"Ko-Ko,"
in
1939.16
For the
laboratory experi-
ment described
above,
the
five-piece
combo was
provided
the music of
15
A
transcription
of the theme of "Marshmallow"
may
be found in
Tirro,
"The
Silent Theme
Tradition,"
pp. 331-32.
16 There is a contradiction in the literature about this date. The
recording
session
for "Ko-Ko" took
place
November
26, 1945,
and it would seem that on the basis of
this
information,
the creation of this work should be dated
1945
(see
James Patrick,
"The Uses of
Jazz
Discography," Notes,
XXIX
[1972],
21). However,
Parker is
quoted
as
saying
that he worked over "Cherokee" in
1939,
and I
interpret
"the
thing
I'd been
hearing"
as an
early
version of "Ko-Ko"
(Nat
Shapiro
and Nat
Hentoff,
Hear Me Talkin' To Ya
[New
York,
1955], pp. 354-55).
300
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example
I
3
"Lover,
Come Back to Me!" End of the
bridge
and final
repetition
of A section in first
impro-
vised chorus
by
Stan Getz
-
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"Marshmallow" and not told that the
original
was "Cherokee" or that a
Parker
version, "Ko-Ko,"
existed.17 The
soloist,
Bunky
Green,
soon
began
reworking
an
opening passage
to the
bridge
which echoed one of the
Parker
passages
but never
duplicated
it.
Subsequent performances
of the
passage
restated the
general
outline of the
preceding
version,
but new
cyclic
variations resulted. Of the
twenty-two
versions recorded
by
Green,
the first two bore little
relationship
to the
eventually adopted pattern.
Then,
of the
subsequent twenty
versions,
seventeen bear the
imprint
of
the idea.
Example
19
is the
appropriate passage
from "Ko-Ko" as
played
by
Charlie
Parker,
and
Examples
20, 21,
and 22 are three of the seventeen
above-mentioned versions
by
Green
demonstrating
the
compositional
evolution of an idea.
Charlie Parker demonstrates the same
developmental process
in a
recording
which has two alternate "takes" of three choruses each. Each
17 Charlie Parker's "Ko-Ko" has been transcribed
by John
Mehegan,
Jazz
Im-
provisation,
IV
(1965), 103
if.
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
3OI
Example 14
Motive transformation in
improvisation by
Stan Getz
X X Y
=
three %4 measures Z
From Ex. I 2
; j
y
Y
From Ex. i i
X
X
X X
From Ex.
123
Y
z
From Ex. 1
3
X7
From Ex.
13 I
L J
I -I
Z
Example 15
"The
Way
You Look
Tonight,"
as
played by
Stan
Getz,
Clef
Records,
MG7-I
37
D
Gm7 C7
F
F
O Bl
Bbm
F
F7 Bb Bbm
F
Pt-
IPLoo
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302
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example
16
"Minuet Circa '6
i,"
by
Stan
Getz,
Verve
Records,
V/V6-841
8
C7
F
F7
Bb
Bbm
F
reworking
of the idea introduces
just enough change
so that the relation-
ship
of version
i
to version 6 is clear
only
if versions 2
through 5
are
known or are assumed. To know all the sources and their
chronology
is as
important
for a real
understanding
of
jazz
as it is for an under-
standing
of a
Kyrie trope
or a Beethoven
quartet.
In
Example
23,
note
Parker's remarkable
ability
to elide cadences with a
phrase concept
that
stretches from three to six measures. The freshness of the ideas which
poured
forth from his
seemingly
limitless
imagination
has
singled
this
man out above all other
jazz
musicians to this
day
as much more than
a virtuoso.
Western
composition
and
jazz improvisation
have in common a co-
herent
syntax
and a hierarchical structure which
provide
a means for
deferred
gratification through
a
perception
of the music's embodied
meaning.
In
jazz, process
and
product
occur
simultaneously
as the im-
proviser
both ornaments and
extemporizes.
Philip Gehring
writes on the aesthetics of
improvisation
as follows:
Unlike a
composition,
there is no recreative
process
in an
improvisation
whereby
it can be
experienced again
and
again.
If it
happens
that a certain
Example 17
"Minuet Circa '6
i,"
chorus
by
Stan Getz
D
G7 C7
F F7 Bb Bbm F
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
303
Example1
8
"Marshmallow,"
by
Warne Marsh.
Opening
of solo
by Marsh,
Prestige
Records,
LP
7004
.t"J'
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_
F
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I
-ft-
-
Example 19
"Ko-Ko,"
by
Charlie
Parker,
Savoy
Records, 12079
W ? i I i II
.m
'I
-..
-
Example
20
"Marshmallow,"
as
played by Bunky
Green,
version i
(private tape)
.. . . J
.
I -'IE "W , w J
.
I Lf, 1 1 --.9 I
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Example
21
"Marshmallow,"
as
played by Bunky
Green,
version 2
(private tape)
h 1 '60,01 N rft%4 I MEMO"
rp I I wm_ I 11111h.- I
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304
JOURNAL
OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Example
2 2
"Marshmallow,"
as
played by Bunky
Green,
version
3 (private tape)
0.1"
,
t
_
II # W L " I

:I ,
I
.
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Example
2
3
"An Oscar for
Treadwell,"
by
Charlie
Parker,
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,
CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN
JAZZ
IMPROVISATION
305
improvisation
is recorded and later written
down,
then it lives the rest of its
life as a
composition
rather than an
improvisation.'8
There can be little doubt that these transcribed
improvisations
are indeed
compositions,
each
following
musical laws that
govern
the
progress
of
the work. The
variety possible
is but
partially
observed when
examining
the Charlie Parker blues
melodies-Examples 7 through
io. The schema
is
extremely simple
and
rigid;
the laws of tonal
harmony
and the metric
demands of four beats
per
measure in twelve-measure
groups
are
very
limiting.
Still,
the creative resources of this
great improviser
were so vast
that he was able to
surpass
the
ordinary
and infuse with life a
pattern
that is
monotony
itself.
In
writing
about music of the
I3th century,
Rudolf von Ficker de-
clares that the works are
still
dependent upon
the old method of
improvisation,
which allowed the
performers' subjective faculty
for
development
wide latitude-a method
now,
together
with the
tradition,
quite
extinct. For the
rigid
note forms of the
manuscripts
are
only
a sort of musical
sketch,
not a
precise guide
for
tempo,
dynamics
and
agogics,
for
tonality
and accidentals. To endow it with the
breath of life was the function of the
producer,
whose task it was to add all
details needed for a finished
performance,
in
every
case
producing something
new and different
according
to his artistic
ability,
while
following
traditional
rules and
usages.19
The historian of
20th-century improvisation
is more fortunate than
the scholar who studies the Middle
Ages.
The tradition of
improvisation
is not extinct. As documents for
study,
sound
recordings provide
the
material for criticism.
They
are sources of the first rank.
Duke
University
s18 Philip Gehring,
"The Aesthetics of
Improvisation,"
Festschrift
Theodore
Hoelty-Nickel,
ed. Newman W. Powell
(Valparaiso,
Ind., 1967), p.
88.
19 Rudolf von
Ficker,
"Polyphonic
Music of the Gothic
Period,"
The Musical
Quarterly,
XV
(1929), 486.