constructive elements in jazz improvisation

8/12/2019 Constructive Elements in Jazz Improvisation

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Constructive Elements in Jazz ImprovisationAuthor(s): Frank TirroReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp.285-305Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/830561 .Accessed: 22/10/2012 10:11

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Constructive Elements in Jazz Improvisation*By FRANK TIRRO

SMPROVISATION, he somewhat mystical art of performing music as an'immediate reproduction of simultaneous mental processes, s but the

daily fare of the practicing jazz musician. Just as the ability to improvisewas a prerequisite kill for the Renaissance nsemble nstrumentalist, hejazz improviser gains recognition and stature after a long apprenticeshipthat both "pays his dues" and teaches him his craft. Although theproducts of artistic creation are reverently studied and savored, the

process of artistic creation receives much less attention because it isseldom documented.' Since process and product tend to fuse in im-

provisation, it is commonly assumed that jazz improvisations do notachieve the same heights as the products of notating composers;2 and

* A portion of this study was originally read at the Sixth International Congressof Aesthetics in Uppsala, Sweden, 1968, and an abstract appears in the Proceedings

of that meeting (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, series Figura, n.s., Vol. X [Uppsala,1972]).

It is included here with the kind permission of Professor Teddy Brunius,editor of the Acta. I also wish to express my appreciation to the American Societyfor Aesthetics and the American Council of Learned Societies for the financial grantawarded the original paper, "Jazz Improvisation."

1 There are, of course, many insightful studies on this subject. Successive stagesin the composition of the development section of Beethoven's Andante from Op. 68are analyzed by Joseph Kerman, "Beethoven Sketchbooks in the British Museum,"Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, XCIII (1966/67), 77-96. Also, see hisThe Beethoven Quartets (New York, 1966). Lewis Lockwood orders three sets ofsketches and a rudimentary score with "cue-staff" n "Beethoven's Unfinished PianoConcerto of 1815," The Musical Quarterly, LVI (1970), 624-46. Beethoven's workslend themselves better to this kind of analysis than do those of other composersbecause of the existence of his sketchbooks, but a similar method of inquiry isapplied to the music of Bach by Robert L. Marshall, The Compositional Process of1. S. Bach (Princeton, 1972), and his "How J. S. Bach Composed Four-PartChorales," The Musical Quarterly, LVI (0970), 198-220. Most studies on improvisa-tion, however, such as Ernst T. Ferand, Die Improvisation in der Musik (Ziirich,1939) and his article, "Improvisation," MGG, Vol. VI, cols. o1093-135, as well asrelated studies on performance practice, concentrate on embellishment and the appli-cation of appropriate formulas rather than on the method of simultaneous composi-tion and performance.2Andr6 Hodeir's excellent critical study, Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence (NewYork, 1956) errs in this regard. He divides jazz melody into two types, theme phraseand variation phrase, and divides the latter in two again, [theme] paraphrase andchorus phrase [improvisation]. Of the improvisation, he says, "It is conceived . . . incomplete liberty. Freed from all melodic and structural obligation, the chorus phraseis a simple emanation inspired by a given harmonic sequence" (p. 144). He disavowsthematic relationships in the improvisation, and, using Coleman Hawkins's solo on"Body and Soul" as an example, says, "the only thing the theme and the variationshave in common is the harmonic foundation" (p. 144). His example in musicalnotation (Fig. 8, p. 145), supports an opposite view. Gunther Schuller supportsHodeir's thesis saying, "[jazz] 'variation' s in the strictest sense no variation at all,


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286 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

since nothing remains to be scrutinized by the eye, most musicians do notbother to question that assumption.

Musical development and the expansion of motivic material in theextended improvisation of a great jazz performer is comparable to thatfound in notated compositions of Western music. The best jazz solosare indeed constructive in nature and may be evaluated syntacticallyas are other teleological compositions of the notating Western composer.Considered from a formalist point of view, most jazz has in commonwith most Western music a goal orientation that distinguishes beginnings,middles, and ends. The means by which these ends are achieved can,within the norms of the substyle in question, be achieved in a variety of

ways with an equal variety of degrees of success. Both the traditionalWestern composer and the jazz improviser proceed by attempting tocontinue an antecedent musical situation in such a way that the piecefulfills the latent expectations implied by the beginning while traversinga musical obstacle course that delays gratification and creates tension.

The jazz improviser reuses and reworks material from previous per-formances; and, as will be demonstrated, musical ideas evolve throughthe passage of time and during subsequent performances. The skilled im-

proviser begins with neither a completely free or totally blank situationnor rambles aimlessly to an inconclusive termination, but instead developsmotives with cyclic treatment. The demonstration of this process maybe seen on three different architectonic levels. On the lowest, the im-

proviser creates new phrases whose continuity overlaps cadences andelides normal phrase structure; on a higher plane, the improviser con-structs consequential choruses out of antecedent situations which arerelatively close in proximity, usually the preceding chorus; on the highestlevel identified, the improviser manipulates musical ideas stemming from

remote past events. Both the composer and the improviser attempt tocreate new solutions which, through their grace, inventiveness, and bal-ance, avoid both the most probable and the most diffuse routes.

Improvisation is one element usually present in every performance in

every jazz style. It consists of the simultaneous acts of composition and

performance of a new work based on a traditionally established schema-

since it does not proceed from the basis of varying a given thematic material,"("Sonny Rollins and Thematic Improvising," Jazz Panorama, ed. Martin Williams

[New York, 1964], p. 240), but acknowledges exceptions in a few great solos (it isamusing that he cites Hawkins's second chorus of "Body and Soul" as an excep-tion). Schuller's fine analysis of Rollins's "Blue 7" demonstrates that this work "is anexample of a real variation technique. The improvisation is based not only on aharmonic sequence but on a melodic idea as well" (p. 248). However, this per-formance is clearly exceptional in Schuller's view, for he says, "In this Rollins hasonly a handful of predecessors, notably Jelly Roll Morton, Earl Hines, Fats Waller,and Thelonious Monk, aside from the already mentioned Lewis and Giuffre" (p. 248,fn. 5). "The average improvisation is mostly a stringing together of unrelated ideas"(p. 240).


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CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION 287

a chordal ramework nown as the "changes." he jazz mproviser orksfrom a standard repertory f changes derived rom popular ongs,bluesriffs,3 how tunes, and a few jazz "originals." s a well-constructed onalmelody mplies ts own harmony, hese chord patterns mply their ownpre-existent melodies.4 he implication s specific at any point in theprogress f a piece, and consequently he educated nd sensitive isteneris at all times oriented with regard o the temporal rogress f the piece.So is the performer, hether playing olo or in ensemble, hether play-ing chords, rhythm, melody, or countermelody. he Harvard Dic-tionary's efinition f improvisation, The art of performing music as animmediate reproduction f simultaneous ental processes, hat s, without

the aid of manuscript, ketches, r memory,"5 s somewhat misleading,for although memory s not used to recall in detail a once-learned,notated composition or a present-time erformance, memory s usedto recall the details of the style in which the improviser s performing;and it will be demonstrated hat memory recalls, consciously r sub-consciously, musical vents, patterns, nd sound combinations hat havebecome a part of the improviser's usical elf. Sketches re used-some-times written and sometimes memorized. chemata, r models, exist injazz, and these are the patterns, ollections f patterns, r modificationsof patterns which form the framework upon which, or against which,the improviser uilds his new compositions.

Jazz improvisers ommit he changes o memory, and these soloistsdepend upon the rhythm section-usually piano, bass, and drums-tomaintain his structure throughout he performance f a piece. In thisway, the soloist becomes responsible o "make he changes," djust hetemporal progress of his solo to coincide exactly with the temporalprogress f the harmonic oundation. ikewise, he rhythm ection has

its own responsibilities. he drummer "keeps ime," hat is, "lays downthe beat." f ever a concept of invariable actus were valid, ts practicalapplication s demonstrated by the jazz drummer. ll percussive ounds-proportional, yncopated, nd metric-are adjusted o an unswervingpulse, and this is a constant he jazz improviser elies on as he works

3 "Blues" has several meanings, and the improvisational schema discussed hereshould be recognized as different from the AAB form of the text of most sung bluesand from the AAB form of many blues melodies. A fascinating but unconvincingargument tracing the origins of the blues to the i6th-century Italian passamezzo ismade by Otto Gombosi, "The Pedigree of the Blues," Music Teachers NationalAssociation Proceedings, XL (1946), 382 ff. "Riff" has three common meanings:(i) a blues melody, (2) a short (two- to four-measure) passage repeated to accom-pany a solo, and (3) a melodic passage improvised by one jazz musician and copiedby others.

4 See Frank Tirro, "The Silent Theme Tradition in Jazz," The Musical Quarterly,LIII (1967), 323-24.

SWilli Apel, "Improvisation," Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge, Mass.,I944), p. 240.


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through time. The concrescence of piano and bass with the drum com-

pletes the substructure which organizes and measures the improvisation,for the bass sounds roots at structural points and the piano adds complete

chords in a variety of manners depending on the style and the individual.The exact makeup of a rhythm section may vary-guitar instead of pianoor piano and drum without bass, but two elements of a schema whichdefine form are invariable: time and changes. Jazz can be perceived on

many levels, but to comprehend fully those jazz creations which transcendthe ordinary, those which are works of art, one must grasp the informa-tion supplied by the rhythm section to put syntactical order to the

language, statement, and grammar of the jazz solo.The minimum professional

requirementof the

improvising jazzmanis that he play everything correctly. Technical mastery of an instrumentis assumed. Then he has the task of constructing an unusually cleversolution, of creating an unusually beautiful result, of accomplishing an

unusually difficult feat, or of completing a process in such a mannerthat it expands the very framework of the original task. It is in relation-

ship to these concepts that one is measured as virtuoso, artist, or genius;hence the stress and emphasis placed upon the listener's responsibility tolearn to perceive the schema.

These patterns have become so much a part of the subconscious ofthe jazz performer that it is not uncommon for a soloist to "take a stroll,"continue an improvisation to the changes of a piece while the rhythmsection is silent or "laying out." This process might be seen in Examples1-3. The "chord chart" for "Cherokee" by Ray Noble is followed by an

improvisation to this schema by trumpeter Clifford Brown.6 His solowas performed with standard rhythm section accompaniment, but thatwhich follows, Example 3, is a stroll by alto saxophonist Bunky Green.Notice that the last

improvisation impliesall the

changesin their

propersequence. Even without the concrete support of the rhythm section, this

style of improvisation is locked tightly to chronological time. Even

though the schema is silent, it is not omitted. The goal orientation ofboth solos is specific, and the series of notes may be thought of as astochastic process, a sequence of notes that occur according to a certain

probability system called a style. At any point in time, the present eventcan be seen to have proceeded from past events, and so the solo is indeeda Markoff chain." Because both the listener and the improviser are ori-

6 Traditional Western notation, which is somewhat imprecise for the recordingof the standard repertory, is quite inadequate for transcribing the jazz repertory.Microtonal pitch variation, characteristic articulations, and tempo-dependent rhythmicpatterns are only a few of the jazz performance-practice peculiarities that are essen-tial to the style but have developed no explicit notation. For a few of the assumptionsmade by me for the transcription of jazz solos, see the appendix to my article, "TheSilent Theme Tradition," p. 334. All of the transcriptions n the present article aremy own.

SSee Leonard B. Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas (Chicago, 1967), especiallyChap. i, "Meaning n Music and Information Theory," pp. 5-2 1.


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Example 2

"Cherokee," oloby Clifford rown,EmArcy Records, EM-2

FastBb

F4Bb7

ti.

Trpt.

Eb Ebm

Bb Dm

eJ .- ,-

C9 Cm7

Fdim Eb F7' I.I

I-m I I-

::I F B1

Eb Ebm

Bb Dm C9

Cm7 F7 BbbF+ 3.

the level of difficulty of correct performance. Examples 4a and 4b mightbe compared to a downhill run on skis, the first with an occasional turnand the second along a path woven through slalom flags. If the beatremains the same for both performances, the second is the more difficult.

Trumpeter Chet Baker accepts the challenge of the thickened progressionin his performance of "Bea's Flat" (Ex. 5)-


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CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION 29I

Example 3

"Marshmallow" "Cherokee"), solo by Bunky Green (private ape)

Fast Bb FasterF7-Bb7

lto sax.--n-

Eb>Ebm

SPABb L IDm C

.INg 5- T I. - I2T Z9CmI I I, .. ,..I W, ,,w

S Bb BDm C9,fIFL.- : - ' , ' , . - .% 4 I J ,J l I " 4 I 7 . 4 , "r '-k" I ' I ,.t

.'

Had a single chord been held for the first four measures, as in Example4a, Baker could have had more freedom and less chance of error. Thegoal orientation between measures i and 5 is much stronger in Example4b than 4a, because each intermediate goal further limits the possiblestylistic paths which must end on an Eb-major chord in measure 5. Baker'sseries of notes is but slightly ornamental and is instead principally con-

Example

Two Blues schemata

Bb Eb Bb F BbI 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Io II 12

a.I// // //// //// //// I //// //// I /// I /// I /// I /// I /// Io 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

BM7BbFgm7 Em7A7Dm7Bm7E7Eb7BbdimA7BbCm7Dm7G7Cm7 7 BbG7Cm7 7

b.I//// I //// I / ///// ////I//// I//// I///// //// II//// ////Irr rr :r r:

0

:r r r r0 0

rr rr


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Example 5

"Bea's lat" BbBlues), splayed y Chet Baker, acific azzRecords, J 12o6

Bb Fm7 BM7 Em7 A7 Dm7

Trpt.

Bm7 E7 Eb7 Bbdim A7 Bb Cm7 Dm7 G7toI,... BElI.-

G1 Cm, F,

aT.- . . , ..,.J I-? 7 I b-

4. . .J 3; ,1 -Ak0 pI"e':j -

Cm7 F7 BA B G7 Cm7 F7

hII

I-k-

,, '" it

, ,J,

, iUY

,,., ,. ,,. t ,I I t i i I I i I. . . . . . i . . .

I, ,

,,. .,V J : : - - ft. . . .. . . . . . . . ..

Cm7-F7 B"b " G7" Cm7"'- F-7,.d

'

structive. It is a line that is at once melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic,and the selection of notes is made frequently from the upper partials ofthe harmonic series of the chords of the schema.

With the onset of Free Jazz, the blues have become less used, but

Example 6, a tribute to Charlie Parker by Ornette Coleman, demonstrates

how aware the listener must be of the standard twelve-measure periodto perceive that this distorted structure combines both blues and pop-songform. The overall form is AABA, but each A is a blues variant. Aftera two-measure introduction, the first A uses the first nine and one-halfmeasures of a blues chorus; the second A uses eleven measures; and thelast uses ten.

At first glance, the blues schema appears too simple, almost naive,incapable of sustaining melodic fabrics of artful design. Charlie Parker

clearly demonstrates this is not the case, for the ingenuity and artistryof the phenomenal performer created an imposing variety of riffs. Theostinato pattern of "Now's the Time" (Ex. 7) is diametrically opposedto the continuously unfolding line of "Cheryl" (Ex. 8). The heavy, four-beat drive of "Air Conditioning" (Ex. 9) finds little similarity in the

light, off-beat articulations of "Visa" (Ex. io). Even more significantin this regard are the hundreds of improvised solos which followed theseand other riffs and which, as yet, remain untranscribed and unpublished.They demonstrate the true variety possible within the tight confines of

a short, constantly repeated, fixed form. In these creations, one finds thetrue measure of the jazzman's genius.8

8 A transcription and analysis of Parker's "Perhaps," heme and three-chorus solo,may be found in William W. Austin, Music in the 20th Century (New York,1966), pp. 289-91. A detailed and perceptive analysis of Parker's solo on "Slam SlamBlues" is offered by Richard Wang, "Jazz circa 1945: A Confluence of Styles," TheMusical Quarterly, LIX (0973), 542-44. Wang's comparison of blues solos by TeddyWilson, Flip Philips, and Dizzy Gillespie (pp. 534-41) is particularly nstructive, andone might see in these excellent transcriptions, constructive development in con-trasting styles.


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Example

"Bird Food," by Ornette Coleman, Atlantic Records, i 327

Alto sax. Bb Gm Cm Fm9 Bb F~dim7

Trpt. 8'" and unisoni

h I _ -- ,, -

v .IL

ti I,-r IJJ.w I-I

0,t.8'

-nd ,,s'1",n. , , _ ,;Bb- . . .. m7... ...C.. .. 7' I 17Fm

Is :ripII I WI.-

I,

I I,l .

",

# " d I '"


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Example 7

"Now's the Time," by Charlie Parker, Verve Records, MG V-800oo5

pi~mmpm" v&, I i bb- i FMqMPMIRikI t IIol w-

I n t) i I L I -" 1 I I?IU m

I .- ,J I L Imr' q L I.. I L I I 1 I..w

k I I--' I qqt 1 r-' I ~q I i-IR I" I , tR ' 't

. .

I0.q a..S I T I I TI dP-3

The means by which the traditional Western composers have at-tempted to achieve their goals and communicate with their audiences hasbeen discussed at length and sometimes with great clarity.9 The needto demonstrate the existence of that process in jazz improvisation where

Example 8

"Cheryl," y Charlie Parker, Le Jazz Cool Records, C-102

-..oom I MOOR1 1 qm leML ad4AW rim i w w ga I Ii do -CZ=7,POL 3

rIft

i ff rr

LZ w 1? m h no 10

?ff ti

A 1 0001 %,a-

---L--T I -

+-? 1 1

i M P, I r--T--l I-1-fm R 16 1 4%liff 1 L:J ::J 1 4-h ad

j 4v- w7w-,o-l GF9Eduard Hanslick, The Beautiful in Music, trans. G. Cohen (New York: Novello,

Ewer, 189i); Heinrich Schenker, Der freie Satz, trans. and ed. T. H. Kreuger (AnnArbor: University Microfilms, 1960), pub. no. 6o-i558; Felix Salzer, StructuralHearing (New York, 1952); Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music(Chicago, 1956); and Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key (New York, 1959),focus most of their discussion on purely musical relationships.


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Example 9

"Air Conditioning," y Charlie Parker, Dial Records, 207

?I , ,k I i ( ?12. IA I

motives are developed and ideas revised exists not only because the

process is not often recognized, but also because the opposite is frequentlyargued. Charles M. H. Keil, referring to jazz and some non-Westernmusic, attacked the applicability of Leonard B. Meyer's contention that"music must be evaluated syntactically."10 Keil argues that jazz improvisa-

Example o

"Visa," by Charlie Parker, Verve Records, MG V-8ooo

f ?w Ni al ? I ? I1 I _ AI ? _ A1 - lP l I -/ i I l

,A.. PL 0

r IIF

1I I I r

tJ - F Ifi

II k , I llz. , ,I

d ,l i

Ii

I I I I' II l l I I I ? I

Iti, - .a i l I - -l ?

1 ~ k I

pool 112

o10Charles M. H. Keil, "Motion and Feeling through Music," Journal of Aestheticsand Art Criticism, XXIV (1966) 337-49. Meyer's statement is in Leonard B. Meyer,"Some Remarks on Value and Greatness in Music," Journal of Aesthetics and ArtCriticism, XVIII ('959), 496.


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296 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL OCIETY

tion is unlike traditional Western composition in that it does not dependheavily on syntactical relationships and can be understood better througha study of process (by which I take him to mean something akin to per-formance practice, the acts of producing the sound that is jazz). Onthe basis of his observations, he suggests that "engendered feeling," anundefined term, be substituted in the analysis of jazz improvisation for

Meyer's "embodied meaning," the meaning that arises "within the con-text of a particular musical style [when] one tone or group of tones in-dicates-leads the practiced listener to expect-that another tone or groupof tones will be forthcoming at some more or less specified point in themusical continuum."" In place of a definition for "engendered feeling,"

Keil constructs a list of polarities, opposing composed with improvised,repeated performance with single performance, syntactic with processual,coherence with spontaneity, and so on. He contends the former are

applicable -to Western traditional composition and the latter to jazz.He admits that "all music has syntax or embodied meaning," but he

argues that in "African-derived genres, an illumination of syntacticalrelationships or of form as such will not go very far in accounting for

expression."12I would argue that Keil has confused compositional process with its

result, the notated version or performance of a traditional Western com-position: a confusion of process and product. In jazz, process and productare simultaneous. When the analyst deals with syntactical relationships,he is dealing with the results of the compositional process, the music itself.When, as Keil does in his discussion "Motion and Feeling through Music,"an author describes the motion of rhythm-section attacks, verbalizingthe action of drummers who "lay back" or play "on top of the beat,"he is dealing with performance practice, not compositional process. They

affect each other to a certain degree because they are somewhat inter-related, but they can be dealt with separately and should not be confused.

Example 5, "Bea's Flat" played by Chet Baker, is a good example of ajazz piece that creates tension syntactically. The relationship of musicalsounds does account for expression.

It is true that an improvisation occurs but once, but each improvisa-tion has a history of similar, related performances. The creative processstops once the composition is notated and once the improvised per-formance is over, but if the same tune or schema is performed again withnew improvisations at a later date, both versions can be studied as separate,interrelated compositions. Since jazz tunes are frequently rerecorded,

sequential performances can be studied.I have made some studies of this kind with the aid of commercial

recordings. But in order to provide a kind of laboratory check against

11Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas, p. 7.12 Keil, "Motion and Feeling," p. 338.


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results thus obtained, a five-piece jazz combo was given an unfamiliarand difficult piece to prepare for public performance. All members ofthe group had extensive professional experience in Chicago and elsewhere,and two, the alto saxophone soloist, Bunky Green, and the drummer,Jerry Coleman, were regularly employed in the Chicago recording studiosat the time. The pianist, Richard A. Wang, has the qualifications of botha professional musician and a jazz authority.13 Recordings of all therehearsals and two public concerts of this same composition made overa two-month span were compared. A single passage was selected forobservation to determine if ideas were repeated and evolved or free andever changing, as the spontaneous approach to improvisation might lead

one to believe would be the case. The results of this laboratory situationwere compared with recordings of parallel situations in which the per-formances were on commercial recordings and played by recognized jazzmasters. These studies show clearly that the jazz improviser's final version,his latest revision, is the product of a reworking of formerly used syn-tactical elements and can, therefore, fairly be discussed, criticized, andevaluated as can traditional Western composition.

As explained above, composers create, within their respective stylisticnorms, music that is a process in which present events proceed out of

past events within a complex probability system that implies a definedgoal. This is the case in jazz as well. The constructive nature of a jazzimprovisation can be demonstrated by studying Stan Getz's performanceof "Lover, Come Back to Me " by Sigmund Romberg. In Example I I,even in the first introduction of the theme, Getz places the structuralnotes of the theme askew with reference to their regular metric position-ing. He can communicate his accomplishment of an irregular overlayof meters and an out-of-phase positioning of phrase to his audience on

his first statement because his audience is part of a larger jazz communitythat can be assumed to know the standard repertory.14 Example ii isGetz's first introduction of the thematic motive. Examples 12 and 13 aretaken from his first improvised chorus and demonstrate his further re-

working of previously stated material. Example 14 illustrates musical re-

lationships that exist in Examples i i-i 3.The passage of time is often an important factor in the maturation

of a musical idea. Beethoven's sketchbooks sometimes reveal years ofmotivic transformation. This process can be seen in jazz as well, for the

improviser, usually a working musician who often performs five to sevennights a week, replays tunes and ideas with relative frequency. Such a

process, which gradually remolds the material, disproves Keil's notionof a jazz performance representing a single, unique event. Granted that

13 See fn. 8, above.14 A vivid description of the environment in which jazz operates is painted by

Alan P. Merriam in "The Jazz Community," Social Forces, XXXVIII (i960), 211-22.


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Example i

"Lover, Come Back o Me " as played by Stan Getz, Clef Records,MG7-137

Getz version

"go

-

F- J ".do

Original melody -AOL-

A, 6 .I IF F:r"-. . ..J F~~= 7 j

I L

no two performances will be exactly alike, one must include a considera-tion of past events that act as preparation for a present event. Example 15presents a passage recorded by Stan Getz in 1952. Examples I6 and 17are passages extracted from a different work nine years later. The lattertwo are so obviously related to the first in spite of the change fromduple to triple meter and fast to moderate tempo that it becomes evidentthat an improvised idea, once stated, is not necessarily lost by the im-proviser. In this instance, a similar set of changes revived the old motiveeven though the remainder of the context is quite different.

Further evidence of the extent to which a composer-improviser re-


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Example 12

"Lover, Come Back to Me " Repetition of A section before the bridge n the first improvisedchorus by Stan Getz

0001~

IF'- - Pol i l l I ,

I""

I,- I,I _ _ _ _

I,.I-

t.

- I

works germ motives is the beginning of Warne Marsh's solo in "Marsh-mallow," which consists of three but slightly altered statements of the

first four notes of the silent theme "Cherokee" by Ray Noble, the tunethat provided the changes for Marsh's composition "Marshmallow."15Example i presents the opening of "Cherokee," and Example i8 showsthe beginning of the Warne Marsh solo which uses the first four notesof the silent theme as the point of departure.

Charlie Parker reworked "Cherokee" into his own silent theme com-position, or improvisation, "Ko-Ko," in 1939.16 For the laboratory experi-ment described above, the five-piece combo was provided the music of

15A transcription of the theme of "Marshmallow" may be found in Tirro, "TheSilent Theme Tradition," pp. 331-32.

16There is a contradiction in the literature about this date. The recording sessionfor "Ko-Ko" took place November 26, 1945, and it would seem that on the basis ofthis information, the creation of this work should be dated 1945 (see James Patrick,"The Uses of Jazz Discography," Notes, XXIX [1972], 21). However, Parker isquoted as saying that he worked over "Cherokee" n 1939, and I interpret "the thingI'd been hearing" as an early version of "Ko-Ko" (Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff,Hear Me Talkin' To Ya [New York, 1955], pp. 354-55).


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CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION 3OI

Example 14

Motive transformation n improvisation y Stan Getz

X X Y = three %4 measures Z

From x.I2 ; j yY

From x. i

X

X X X

From Ex. 123

Y

z

From Ex. 1 3

X7

From Ex. 13 I

L J I -I

Z

Example 15

"The Way You Look Tonight," as played by Stan Getz, Clef Records, MG7-I 37

D Gm7 C7 F

FO Bl Bbm F

F7 Bb Bbm F

Pt-PLoot - .I u I I I I I" ',l' " f " I"7 ',3 " I1.


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Example 16

"Minuet Circa 6i," by Stan Getz, Verve Records, V/V6-841 8

C7 F F7 Bb

Bbm F

reworking of the idea introduces just enough change so that the relation-ship of version i to version 6 is clear only if versions 2 through 5 areknown or are assumed. To know all the sources and their chronologyis as important for a real understanding of jazz as it is for an under-

standing of a Kyrie trope or a Beethoven quartet. In Example 23, noteParker's remarkable ability to elide cadences with a phrase concept thatstretches from three to six measures. The freshness of the ideas which

poured forth from his seemingly limitless imagination has singled thisman out above all other jazz musicians to this day as much more thana virtuoso.

Western composition and jazz improvisation have in common a co-herent syntax and a hierarchical structure which provide a means fordeferred gratification through a perception of the music's embodiedmeaning. In jazz, process and product occur simultaneously as the im-

proviser both ornaments and extemporizes.Philip Gehring writes on the aesthetics of improvisation as follows:

Unlike acomposition,

there is no recreativeprocess

in animprovisationwhereby it can be experienced again and again. If it happens that a certain

Example 17

"Minuet Circa 6 i," chorus by Stan GetzD G7 C7

F F7 Bb Bbm F


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Example1 8

"Marshmallow," y Warne Marsh. Opening of solo by Marsh, Prestige Records, LP 7004

.t"J' r : Ir _ F

"'%I

-ft- -

Example 19

"Ko-Ko," by Charlie Parker, Savoy Records, 12079

W ? i I i II .m'I

-..-

Example 0

"Marshmallow," s played by Bunky Green, version i (private tape)

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1,

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Example 21

"Marshmallow," s played by Bunky Green, version (private ape)h '60,01 N rft%4 I M E M Orp I I wm_ I 11111h.-[ I -qm3 1TrI'doj ITl if

011,01 0001s y .dVqI I f I I POEM.MMII I mMll-. I I I r- 1f I llMi II f Mr C- W I N -

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Example 2

"Marshmallow," splayed y Bunky Green, version (private ape)

0.1", t

_

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Example 2 3

"An Oscar or Treadwell," by Charlie Parker, Verve Records, V-8oo6

Version I

Version

Version 3

1 mI I I l I . I l II :_a11i " I "

Version 4

Version 5

Version 6

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22/22


improvisation s recorded and later written down, then it lives the rest of itslife as a composition rather than an improvisation.'8There can be little doubt that these transcribed improvisations are indeed

compositions, each following musical laws that govern the progress ofthe work. The variety possible is but partially observed when examiningthe Charlie Parker blues melodies-Examples 7 through io. The schemais extremely simple and rigid; the laws of tonal harmony and the metricdemands of four beats per measure in twelve-measure groups are verylimiting. Still, the creative resources of this great improviser were so vastthat he was able to surpass the ordinary and infuse with life a patternthat is monotony itself.

In writing about music of the I3th century, Rudolf von Ficker de-clares that the works are

still dependent upon the old method of improvisation, which allowed theperformers' subjective faculty for development wide latitude-a method now,together with the tradition, quite extinct. For the rigid note forms of themanuscripts are only a sort of musical sketch, not a precise guide for tempo,dynamics and agogics, for tonality and accidentals. To endow it with thebreath of life was the function of the producer, whose task it was to add alldetails needed for a finished performance, n every case producing somethingnew and different

accordingto his artistic

ability,while

followingtraditional

rules and usages.19

The historian of 20th-century improvisation is more fortunate thanthe scholar who studies the Middle Ages. The tradition of improvisationis not extinct. As documents for study, sound recordings provide thematerial for criticism. They are sources of the first rank.

Duke University

s18hilip Gehring,"The Aesthetics of

Improvisation," FestschriftTheodore

Hoelty-Nickel, ed. Newman W. Powell (Valparaiso, nd., 1967), p. 88.19Rudolf von Ficker, "Polyphonic Music of the Gothic Period," The Musical

Quarterly, XV (1929), 486.

constructive elements in jazz improvisation

Documents