[Dixielandjazz] Diary of an Improviser

[Larry Walton Entertainment]

I too enjoyed reading the piece but nothing of the sort is running through 
my mind when I improvise.  No wonder a lot of guys sound like they are 
reading an Arbin's book on their solos.

When I improvise it just happens.  How and why it happens I haven't a clue. 
What I do know is that it's akin to a Zen state where everything goes away 
including the horn.  I also know that there is an adrenalin rush because I 
can't sleep after many of my jobs  and I have to unwind afterwards.  It used 
to bother my wife a lot.

I don't think key or scales however I am locked into the sound of the chord 
progression and where it's going. I do think rhythm sometimes or more 
accurately feel it.  That way I can lock into what a drummer is doing.  It 
makes for some interesting give and take.  Knowing the tune helps but it 
isn't 100% required.  If I stopped and thought about any one of the things 
in the paper I couldn't do what I do.

I think it is a great analysis of what might go on but it looks like a 
recipe for technically correct but mechanical playing.  There's too many of 
those around right now.

Improvisation is composition on the fly and IMHO shouldn't have a cook book 
approach.

There is a young lady who is now a freshman at a very well known school in 
Texas with a great music program.  She is technically proficient and reads 
like crazy.  She is also awfully nice to look at but when she solos I want 
to cry.  Every note is correct but mechanical and tears my soul out.  When 
she is done her dad and others tell her how well she did and encourage her 
because after all she's a very nice young lady.  She walks away thinking she 
did jazz.  A twist on the whole thing is that her dad knows better.  The 
really sad thing is that she will graduate and go out and teach kids to do 
the same thing.

I was playing in a band and a trumpet player got up to solo.  He sprayed 
notes by the zillion - he was fast.  It was the only time that I ever in my 
whole life heard a guy play a solo and hit exactly every note wrong.  The 
closest thing that I can think of is that he was a half beat off and because 
he was thinking scales and all that other stuff what he was playing didn't 
line up and was basically 180 degrees out of phase.  The part that amazes me 
is that he didn't know it.  This guy should have been in the Guinness book 
of records but it probably wasn't a record.
Larry
StL

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Allan Brown" <allanbrown at dsl.pipex.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 2:36 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Diary of an Improviser


> Dear Kent,
>
> Thank you very much for sharing your musical insights. I greatly 
> appreciated them and will endeavour to implement them. I need all the help 
> I can get.
>
> Best,
>
> Allan Brown
>
> On 23 Mar 2011, at 16:00, Kent Murdick wrote:
>
>> I'm a "Classic Jazz" banjo player who took up the alto saxophone at age 
>> 60 (I am now 64).  I did this because I wanted to participate more in the 
>> melodic aspect of the music.  It's been an interesting journey, and I 
>> have written a brief diary about how  I went about learning to solo. 
>> The diary is not yet finished and neither is the journey, but I thought 
>> it might be of interest to teachers or others who wish to do what I did. 
>> If you go the site below and click on the document "Dairy of an 
>> improvise+", it will come right up.
>>
>> http://www.southalabama.edu/mathstat/personal_pages/murdick/stuff/Community%20Music%20School/
>>
>>
>>
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