[Dixielandjazz] Soloing Next

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Gang,

Another failsafe way into a solo is to work out a number of really strong opening 2 or 4 bars for different tunes and stick to them. This was a trick used by guys like Buck Clayton, Buddy Tate, Earle Warren, Dicky Wells and Emmet Berry. If you listen to Buck's great album Songs for Swingers from about 1960 (why has it never been re-issued?) and then listen to the various live recordings made by more or less the same band on a subsequent tour of Europe and you'll hear what I mean. The first 4 bars of their solos are generally the same as or very similar to the original LP, but thereafter they vary their ideas and improvise on the hoof.

I asked Buddy about it once and he confirmed it as being an old trick from the big band days to give you a solid springboard into a solo on nights when the creative juices weren't flowing as strongly. It was also a great way round those authoritarian bandleaders who expected solos on a recording to be trotted out night after night thereafter: he'd hear that familiar opening, switch off and not notice the new stuff coming up behind.

A lot of the pioneer jazzers took this concept a whole lot further: Armstrong and Bechet worked out complete solo routines on particular tunes and, for the rest of their lives, that was the template they used on those tunes. The ornamentation and rhythmic phrasing might differ from night to night, but the substance remained remarkably consistent over the years. As a jazzer, I've always been uncomfortable with this approach, since improvisation is central to jazz performance, but I recognise the argument that perfection is hard to improve on. 

Regards,

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk