[Dixielandjazz] Tidbits while searching the internet

[Ken Gates]

Very few takers on my request for comments as to criteria for
"good" solos.  So----I'll make an observation.

It doesn't take much searching to find interesting comments as to the
"science" or "art" of improvising.  There is the "vertical" vs "horizontal"
 -----the "melodic" and the "chromatic"  and the "modal" and on and on.
Look at these quotes by Thelonious Monk for example--------------
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 Robin D G Kelley's biography of Monk reports that Monk was so keen
that----" horn players should continue to have the composition in mind
while soloing, that he was known to stop them in mid solo during public
performance."
 -------  and this, also from Monk     ------
"At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They
speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself,
to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling
a lot of notes one on top of the other. There’s no beat anymore. You can’t
keep time with your foot. I believe that what is happening to jazz with
people like Ornette Coleman, for instance, is bad. There’s a new idea that
consists in destroying everything and find what’s shocking and unexpected;
whereas jazz must first of all tell a story that anyone can understand."
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A "moldy figge" might say something similar..  In any event, Monk may
well be a genius, but his  music is way over my head (or ears)..

Methinks that for our kind of music, those with musical "ears" however
inherited or acquired, along with willingness to practice and experiment,
will become good players. Some will become really good players.
 A very few will become great.  May all of us improve.

Ken Gates