Thematic Improvisation
For those of you interested in the improvising and songwriting process, and enjoyed the Leonard Bernstein footage on the subject I recommended a while back (http://www.bluesharmonica.com/leonard_bernstein_importance_repetition_vi...), then you may like this article by Gunther Schuller, the same author of the composition “Journey Into Jazz” we explored a month ago (http://www.bluesharmonica.com/blues_harmonica_players_journey).
In this article Gunther speaks of “Sonny Rollins and the Challenge of Thematic Improvisation,” a subject that connects Jazz composition to what Classical composers have been doing with melodies for 500 years.
The scanned article can be found here: http://jazzstudiesonline.org/files/SonnyRollinsAndChallengeOfThematicImp...
My private students know how much I’ve been researching this as of late… it’s an enlightening process and continues to underscore the importance of melodic development in written composition (conscious) and improvised (subconscious) solos.
The concept can be summarized as follows…
Instead of having a head (the main theme of an instrumental) and unconnected choruses of soloing after it, you would use transformations from the main theme in the head to create multiple themes for each subsequent chorus (e.g., if you were able to create five cool fragments via transformations from the original lick in the head, then you have five licks to create five choruses of soloing in the body of the instrumental… one main lick for each chorus... applying the Chorus Forms to each to create five choruses of soloing).
Very cool concept. I’m finishing up a composition that does just that… I’ll of course share this with you when I’m done!
P.S., Gunther Schuller also wrote the forward to one of my favorite books on improvisation, “Improvising Jazz” by Jerry Coker.
P.P.S., The serious work published on improvisation is in the Jazz world… this is why all of my references are to Jazz educators. Hopefully we’ll have some great published Blues works to reference down the road!
