Tag Archives: Improvisation

Posts on John Coltrane’s improvisation approaches, Coltrane Changes, and some improvisation ideas

Dear Jazz-Saxists,

Greetings~

Not long ago, I began to write some casual posts relating to Jazz improvisation ideas and approaches, about Coltrane Changes, John Coltrane, and some off-the-cuff ramblings in my little site at www.jkchang.com.  These posts, collected in the “Dialogue” series, were really fun to write (and I hope they are also fun to read as well~), including:

Incorporating the Sound of Nicolas Slonimsky’s Pattern no. 626 in Jazz Improvisation

-Some ideas and approaches in creating “pure” or “quasi”of Nicolas Slonimsky’s Pattern No. 626 sound.  These ideas are less “analytical”…more like my own ways (aka shortcuts) to manage Slonimsky’s materials in his Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns

John Coltrane’s employment of “The Bebop Lick” in his Coltrane Changes lines in Countdown and Giant Steps

-listening/compiling Coltrane’s employments of “The Bebop Lick” in his Giant Steps & Countdown to list few manageable variant.

Beyond Patterns: Sculpting Jazz Improvisation Lines with the Diminished Scale

-discussing few approaches and ideas to create Diminished Scale sound….for example, using layer approach…etc….to provide few ways, in addition to the usual “here’s your scale”, to execute this wonderful symmetrical scale.

Incorporating Motives of Super Mario Bros. “Underground” Theme in Jazz Improvisation

-a personal post about getting some improvisational ideas from Super Mario Bros.’s “Underground” theme…(although it might appear to be an “Ode to an-incredibly-horrible-gamer”….)

John Coltrane’s Improvised Line in Milestones as a Model for Incorporating Sequential Patterns in Jazz Improvisation

-a personal favorite! This post is about using Coltrane’s improvisational line as a phrasing model to handle lots of sequential patterns in a single improvised line.

Incorporating Dissonance in Jazz Improvisation

-few general ideas on spicing up our improvisations with some juicy dissonances.

More on Coltrane Changes

-ramblings on Coltrane Changes.

 

Have fun reading them~ and please let me know what you think~

 

Regards,

 

JK

Brain Scans and Music

Unlike the other scientific article about music, this article is rather interesting….

In new findings, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders say they have located the region of the brain — the medial prefrontal cortex — that lights up when musicians improvise. It’s the same area we all use when we’re talking about ourselves — who we are, what makes us tick.

At the same time, he and a colleague found, improvising musicians turn off the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a portion of the brain linked to planning, careful actions and self-censoring.

Jazz Oboe – Yusef Lateef

yampol writes “As long as we’re talking about doubling on oboe, let’s talk about jazz oboe. The first player that comes to mind is the amazing multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, band-leader Yusef Lateef. His Eastern Sounds and Three Faces albums made a very strong impression on me. Check out the track “I’m Just a Lucky So and So” on the Three Faces album.

Anyone else have a favorite jazz oboist?

–Todd”

I don’t recommend the album with Bob Cooper and Bud Shank. They did an album that was jazz flute and jazz oboe. Bob Cooper played Oboe. I couldn’t bear it. I love Bob Cooper in Bob Florence’s band, and in solo albums, but his jazz Oboe….unbearable to me.

Update: 04/22 18:25 GMT by E :You know, I posted this story, and low and behold iTunes decided to put 2 of those Bob Cooper/Bud Shanks songs in my Random Selections Smart-Playlist. I still think Jazz Oboe is not cool. Hopefully someone can point me to something to change my opinion.