[Dixielandjazz] melody vs chords & the importance ofwords

[David Story]

How one improvises depends, I think, on the genre. OKOM is generally pretty
simple harmonically, but complex rhythmically. The history of jazz is partly
about harmonic and rhythmic growth. Playing around the chords is cool,
playing with the melody is cool, but developing a melodic line which
expresses the music while keeping us interested requires a mature knowledge
of chords, style, chord scales, melodic development. To be able to do this
without being obvious or pedantic is the real deal.

Some do this intuitively, others, like myself have to work hard at it.

David "practicing like hell" Story


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jazz hell

The bassist, the pianist, and the guitarist are negotiating live on stage in
front of a paying audience whose chords are going to dominate (a favourite
variation is doing a tune "Latin" the resulting cacophony coming from the
rhythm section picking their own "Latin" country or continent to emulate ),
while that train wreck is building, the jazz singer decides it is a perfect
time to try a chorus "like Ella or Louis", (take your pick the crime is
coming just the same), begins to scat, completely oblivious of the chords,
the scales, and half the time the melody.

I believe this was the original inspiration for free jazz.