[Dixielandjazz] Winging solos

[willc]

Charlie Hooks wrote:
 
> . . . .   I don't
> play pat choruses--except for one that I call my Ab chorus used on Tiger
> Rag, Burbone St. Parade, and other tunes with the same chords--but I always
> need to "decide" what I'm going to play at least one bar and preferably two
> or three ahead.  Simple inspiration needs to come in bar-lengths, in
> clusters of sound comprised of the chords and the line you are heading into.
> Otherwise, you'll just play random notes--whatever holes your fingers happen
> to be covering.  I tend to "hear" a bar or two ahead and then play what I'm
> hearing.  And I agree with you that much of this comes from the feeling of
> the song, much influenced by the words of the song.  Yet I  know more than
> one good player who claims never to care about any words, even to slow
> ballads.  Go figure.
> 
> Charlie

I am in total awe of musicians who know what they're going to play in a
solo
before they play it. I don't have any consciously "preset" choruses
because 
I can't remember exactly how I played the tune the last time. 

I have a feeling that my solos are shaped by how I THINK (but do not
know) I 
acquired the ability to improvise. 

First, I have always been more internally driven to play harmony than
lead, 
which I think is probably unusual for a cornet/trumpet player. Self
taught
with almost no formal training, most of what I learned came from playing
along
with records - pop music from Ella and Sinatra and Jo Stafford, jazz
from
Louis, Tom Justice, Hackett, the Dukes, Matlock and the like. When I
play 
along like this, I rarely play the melody. I find harmonies that seem to
me
to enlarge the whole, to add something to the music I'm hearing. And
more 
often than not, on vocals, the harmonies I play take the form of
supportive
rhythmic fills.

The solos I play must surely patterned after things I've heard others
do, 
not necessarily on the same song. I don't consciously copy other folks 
solos, but I'll confess that this us not entirely because I am pure of 
heart and beyond plagiarism, but rather because I lack the technical
ability
to soar like an eagle miles above the staff or do hummingbird triplets. 
So I often play fewer notes than my peers, but I think they fit pretty
well.   

So what in my solos may occasionally sound pleasant and innovative, may 
actually be mere puttering with harmonies and an acute lack of ability.

Or possibly not. 

It sure as hell ain't planning or thinking ahead!

Kindly, 

Will ("I've fooled a bunch of people!") Connelly
River Liffey Saloon Jazz Band
Fort Lauderdale, Florida