[Dixielandjazz] Improvisation

[Stephen G Barbone]

While not strictly OKOM, here's an interesting snip about  
improvisation. Note the last paragraph about improvising on Cherokee  
in all 12 keys. Takes a master jazz musician to do that coherently.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

NY Times - April 3, 2008 - By Nate Chinen
Composing on the Spot, With Help From a Master

Jazz improvisation is often misconstrued as merely a blank-slate  
scrawl, its basic substance involving something clever made up on the  
fly. The reality has more to do with shorthand strategies, half-tested  
hypotheses, a resourcefulness in the realm of what-if. Only in rare  
instances does a group manage coherence without prescriptions,  
speaking freely and spontaneously but in whole paragraphs, with proper  
syntax and a persuasive argument.

You’d have a good chance of catching one such instance this week at  
the Jazz Standard, courtesy of the alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and  
several inventive but exacting sidemen: the pianist Danilo Pérez, the  
bassist Rufus Reid and the drummer Matt Wilson. Their second set on  
Tuesday night was an astonishment of collective attention and  
unmannered epiphany. . . . (snip to)

Then came “Cherokee,” a tune once held as the ultimate test of mettle  
for jazz improvisers. Mr. Konitz sought to make it so again, imbuing  
his solo with harmonically restless phrases, and finishing with a step  
up into a new key. Without missing a beat, Mr. Pérez and Mr. Reid  
shifted with him, resetting the tonality of the song.

Mr. Pérez took this premise further in his solo, nudging each new  
chorus up a smidge, until the song had made its way through all 12  
keys. At that point Mr. Konitz rejoined the action, as if stepping  
onto a moving Ferris wheel.