[miscreant]

There are many similar harmony models for jazz standards. So a tune can share one with many others. I heard that J.Hall made his own tune using the harmony from "Someday my prince will come"..

Now. I am in a search for such improvisations which are so good that they could easily be mistaken as an independent tune rather than an improvisation if listened only to the impro(by someone that doesn't know jazz that much.. including myself

).
J.Scofield said once that if you keep using one lick too much, make a "head" of it ... or something like that but thats not what I mean here.
I don't even have decent examples - Red Garland doing "Beans blues", or Mulligan playing "... Valentine" wiht Baker perhaps. That's the reason for looking some.

If you can help me I would be most grateful

 

[falis]

Check out Sam Rivers. You might start with his earlier Blue Note recordings - he never takes the easy way out of a solo. And his large group composed/improvs are awesome. Same for Henry Threadgill, Julius Hemphill and Anthony Braxton.

- Ed

 

[paaj]

One version of a standard I loved is the Art Blakey version of 'Summertime', found on 'A Jazz Message'. Most of the time it sounds sad, but this version is really uptempo and funky. No vocals is a plus too, as it is played to death as woman-voiced songs on the radio. Too bad I lost the files and can't find that CD online anywhere, I think the opening track 'Cafe' got me into Jazz.

 

[tru blu]

I'd start by looking into the mid-career work of altoist Lee Konitz. He has what he calls a "Ten Levels" theory of embellishment; Level One is merely improvising on the given melody. By Level Six or Seven, you're at creating completely distinct melodies from the initial harmonies. You might wanna try the two gorgeous live ballads discs he made in the late '90s with the trio of Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau. Both are on Blue Note Records.

Alone Together

Another Shade Of Blue

 

[catachresis]

Though this technically qualifies as 'avant-garde' classical, the spirit is very much of jazz improvisation of standards. The most memorable tracks not only do something astonishingly different with the familiar melodies, but they produce equally melodic and beautiful tunes.

"Hey You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" becomes a stately, grieving elegy for Tianamen Square: John Adams and Madame Butterfly share the kleenex. "She Said, She Said" is a deliriously besotted love ballad--meeting the hippy-nymph of your dreams at a kegger when you're 17. "Blackbird" goes Aaron Copeland, and there's an utterly natural, completely inevitable mashup of "Lucy in the Sky" played with one hand and "Here Comes the Sun" done with the other. You'll wonder why it hadn't happened before.

 

[jazznap]

Quote:

Originally Posted by falis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Check out Sam Rivers. You might start with his earlier Blue Note recordings - he never takes the easy way out of a solo. And his large group composed/improvs are awesome. Same for Henry Threadgill, Julius Hemphill and Anthony Braxton. - Ed

x2. Especially Anthony Braxton's standards albums. The Charlie Parker Project, Six Monk's Compositions, or more recently the 20 or 23 Standards box sets are all good places to start. Amazing stuff. You're never sure where it's going to go. Makes listening to the same old standard tunes exciting again.

 

[miscreant]

What a wonderful forum

Thanks people! Off to library then

 

[falis]

By the way, X2 on the Lee Konitz recommendation. And then, there's Warne Marsh.

- Ed

 

[cfdrumr]

As a Jazz Major (drums) and a jazz lover... all of what you are saying is true in most jazz. The "I Got Rhythm" changes? There are catalogues of charts that are ALL called "Rhythm Changes" because they use that chord progression. Jazz is a genre of improvisation... the head of the tune (the catchy part) is not where most of the "passion" is...