Constructive Elements in Jazz Improvisation

Author(s): Frank Tirro

Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1974), pp.
285-305
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society
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Constructive Elements in Jazz Improvisation*

By FRANK TIRRO

the
SMPROVISATION,

somewhat mystical art of performing music as an

'immediate reproductionof simultaneousmental processes,is but the

daily fare of the practicingjazz musician.Just as the ability to improvise

was a prerequisiteskill for the Renaissanceensembleinstrumentalist,the
jazz improvisergains recognition and statureafter a long apprenticeship
that both "pays his dues" and teaches him his craft. Although the
products of artistic creation are reverently studied and savored, the
process of artistic creation receives much less attention because it is
seldom documented.' Since process and product tend to fuse in improvisation, it is commonly assumed that jazz improvisations do not
achieve the same heights as the products of notating composers;2 and

*A
portion of this study was originally read at the Sixth InternationalCongress
of Aesthetics in Uppsala, Sweden, 1968, and an abstract appearsin the Proceedings
of that meeting (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis,series Figura, n.s., Vol. X [Uppsala,
It is included here with the kind permission of Professor Teddy Brunius,
1972]).
editor of the Acta. I also wish to express my appreciationto the American Society
for Aesthetics and the American Council of Learned Societies for the financialgrant
awarded the original paper, "Jazz Improvisation."
1 There are, of course, many insightful studies on this subject. Successive stages
in the composition of the development section of Beethoven's Andante from Op. 68
are analyzed by Joseph Kerman, "Beethoven Sketchbooks in the British Museum,"
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, XCIII (1966/67), 77-96. Also, see his
The Beethoven Quartets (New York, 1966). Lewis Lockwood orders three sets of
sketches and a rudimentary score with "cue-staff"in "Beethoven'sUnfinished Piano
Concerto of 1815,"The Musical Quarterly, LVI (1970), 624-46. Beethoven's works
lend themselves better to this kind of analysis than do those of other composers
because of the existence of his sketchbooks, but a similar method of inquiry is
applied to the music of Bach by Robert L. Marshall, The CompositionalProcess of
1. S. Bach (Princeton, 1972), and his "How J. S. Bach Composed Four-Part
Chorales,"The Musical Quarterly, LVI (0970), 198-220. Most studies on improvisation, 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 as
related studies on performance practice, concentrate on embellishment and the application of appropriateformulas rather than on the method of simultaneouscomposition and performance.
2 Andr6 Hodeir's excellent critical study, Jazz: Its Evolution and Essence (New
York, 1956) errs in this regard. He divides jazz melody into two types, theme phrase
and variation phrase, and divides the latter in two again, [theme] paraphraseand
chorus phrase [improvisation]. Of the improvisation,he says, "It is conceived . . . in
complete liberty. Freed from all melodic and structural obligation, the chorus phrase
is a simple emanation inspired by a given harmonic sequence" (p. 144). He disavows
thematic 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 variations
have in common is the harmonic foundation" (p. 144). His example in musical
notation (Fig. 8, p. 145), supports an opposite view. Gunther Schuller supports
Hodeir's thesis saying, "[jazz] 'variation'is in the strictest sense no variation at all,

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since nothing remains to be scrutinized by the eye, most musicians do not

bother to question that assumption.
Musical development and the expansion of motivic material in the
extended improvisation of a great jazz performer is comparable to that
found in notated compositions of Western music. The best jazz solos
are indeed constructive in nature and may be evaluated syntactically
as are other teleological compositions of the notating Western composer.
Considered from a formalist point of view, most jazz has in common
with 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 traditional
Western composer and the jazz improviser proceed by attempting to
continue an antecedent musical situation in such a way that the piece
fulfills the latent expectations implied by the beginning while traversing
a musical obstacle course that delays gratification and creates tension.
The jazz improviser reuses and reworks material from previous performances; and, as will be demonstrated, musical ideas evolve through
the passage of time and during subsequent performances. The skilled improviser begins with neither a completely free or totally blank situation
nor rambles aimlessly to an inconclusive termination, but instead develops
motives with cyclic treatment. The demonstration of this process may
be seen on three different architectonic levels. On the lowest, the improviser creates new phrases whose continuity overlaps cadences and
elides normal phrase structure; on a higher plane, the improviser constructs consequential choruses out of antecedent situations which are
relatively close in proximity, usually the preceding chorus; on the highest
level identified, the improviser manipulates musical ideas stemming from
remote past events. Both the composer and the improviser attempt to
create new solutions which, through their grace, inventiveness, and balance, 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 schemasince 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 is
amusing that he cites Hawkins's second chorus of "Body and Soul" as an exception). Schuller's fine analysis of Rollins's "Blue 7" demonstrates that this work "is an
example of a real variation technique. The improvisation is based not only on a
harmonic sequence but on a melodic idea as well" (p. 248). However, this performance is clearly exceptional in Schuller's view, for he says, "In this Rollins has
only 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).

CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

287

a chordalframeworkknownasthe "changes."
The jazzimproviser
works
from a standardrepertoryof changesderivedfrompopularsongs,blues
As a well-constructed
tonal
riffs,3showtunes,anda few jazz"originals."
own
its
these
chord
their
own
melodyimplies
harmony,
patternsimply
The
is
in
melodies.4
at
implication specific any point the
pre-existent
a
of
and
consequentlythe educatedandsensitivelistener
progress
piece,
is at all timesorientedwith regardto the temporalprogressof the piece.
So is the performer,whetherplayingsolo or in ensemble,whetherplaying chords, rhythm, melody, or countermelody.The HarvardDic"Theartof performing
musicas an
tionary'sdefinitionof improvisation,
immediate
of
simultaneous
mental
that
processes, is, without
reproduction
is somewhatmisleading,
the aid of manuscript,
or
sketches, memory,"5
for althoughmemoryis not used to recall in detail a once-learned,
notatedcompositionfor a present-timeperformance,
memoryis used
to recallthe detailsof the style in whichthe improviseris performing;
that memoryrecalls,consciouslyor suband it will be demonstrated
musical
that have
events,patterns,andsoundcombinations
consciously,
musicalself. Sketchesareused-somebecomea partof the improviser's
times writtenand sometimesmemorized.Schemata,or models,existin
jazz,and theseare the patterns,collectionsof patterns,or modifications
of patternswhich form the frameworkuponwhich, or againstwhich,
the improviserbuildshis new compositions.
committhe changesto memory,and thesesoloists
Jazz improvisers
dependupon the rhythmsection-usuallypiano,bass,and drums-to
maintainthis structurethroughoutthe performanceof a piece. In this
way, the soloistbecomesresponsibleto "makethe changes,"adjustthe
temporalprogressof his solo to coincideexactly with the temporal
progressof the harmonicfoundation.Likewise,the rhythmsectionhas
its own responsibilities.
The drummer"keepstime,"thatis, "laysdown
the beat."If ever a conceptof invariable
tactuswere valid,its practical
is
demonstrated
the
drummer.
All percussive
soundsby
jazz
application
and
metric-are
to
an
adjusted
proportional,syncopated,
unswerving
pulse,and this is a constantthe jazz improviserrelieson as he works
3 "Blues" has several meanings, and the improvisational schema discussed here
should be recognized as different from the AAB form of the text of most sung blues
and from the AAB form of many blues melodies. A fascinating but unconvincing
argument tracing the origins of the blues to the i6th-century Italian passamezzo is
made by Otto Gombosi, "The Pedigree of the Blues," Music Teachers National
Association Proceedings, XL (1946), 382 ff. "Riff" has three common meanings:
(i) a blues melody, (2) a short (two- to four-measure) passage repeated to accompany a solo, and (3) a melodic passage improvised by one jazz musician and copied
by 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 completes 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 piano
or piano and drum without bass, but two elements of a schema which
define form are invariable: time and changes. Jazz can be perceived on
many levels, but to comprehend fully those jazz creations which transcend
the ordinary, those which are works of art, one must grasp the information supplied by the rhythm section to put syntactical order to the
language, statement, and grammar of the jazz solo.
The minimum professional requirement of the improvising jazzman
is that he play everything correctly. Technical mastery of an instrument
is assumed. Then he has the task of constructing an unusually clever
solution, of creating an unusually beautiful result, of accomplishing an
unusually difficult feat, or of completing a process in such a manner
that it expands the very framework of the original task. It is in relationship to these concepts that one is measured as virtuoso, artist, or genius;
hence the stress and emphasis placed upon the listener's responsibility to
learn to perceive the schema.
These patterns have become so much a part of the subconscious of
the 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 rhythm
section is silent or "laying out." This process might be seen in Examples
1-3. The "chord chart" for "Cherokee" by Ray Noble is followed by an
improvisation to this schema by trumpeter Clifford Brown.6 His solo
was performed with standard rhythm section accompaniment, but that
which follows, Example 3, is a stroll by alto saxophonist Bunky Green.
Notice that the last improvisation implies all the changes in their proper
sequence. 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 of
both solos is specific, and the series of notes may be thought of as a
stochastic process, a sequence of notes that occur according to a certain
probability system called a style. At any point in time, the present event
can be seen to have proceeded from past events, and so the solo is indeed
a Markoff chain." Because both the listener and the improviser are ori6 Traditional Western notation, which is somewhat imprecise for the recording
of the standard repertory, is quite inadequate for transcribing the jazz repertory.
Microtonal pitch variation,characteristicarticulations,and tempo-dependentrhythmic
patterns are only a few of the jazz performance-practicepeculiaritiesthat are essential to the style but have developed no explicit notation. For a few of the assumptions
made by me for the transcriptionof jazz solos, see the appendix to my article, "The
Silent Theme Tradition," p. 334. All of the transcriptionsin the present article are
my own.
SSee Leonard B. Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas (Chicago, 1967), especially
Chap. i, "Meaningin Music and InformationTheory," pp. 5-2 1.

CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

289

Examplei
"Cherokee"("IndianLove Song"), by Ray Noble
Bb

F-

Bb7

Ebm

Eb

II

Bi III.

F7

F9

Bb

F#7

B7

B+7

I..

12.

Bm7

E9

G7

C7

D7

D9

Gm7 C7

Bb

Cm7

TI

"

F+

F+-

-10

Ebm

Eb

Bb7

I--t--

Bb

i.-

Copyright MCMXXXVIII by Peter MauriceMusic Co., Ltd., London, England. U.S.A. Copyright
renewedand assignedto SkidmoreMusicCo., Inc.,666 Fifth Ave., N.Y., N. Y. Used by permission.

ented to the schemawhich limits the probabilitiesallowablefor a solo in

a particularstyle, and since initial statementsin the solo carry implications for what is to follow, prediction and, hence, musicalmeaningare
possible. Listener expectation, analysis,and criticism go hand in hand.
One further statementabout schemataneeds to be made before proceeding. Models have some degree of flexibilitybuilt into them. Green's
solo in Example3 added and subtractedredundantbeatswithout altering
the identity of the model or destroying the concept of time-invariable
pulse. Harmonicspeed may also be variedwhile still maintaininga basic
frameworkif the choice of chords at structuralpoints remainsconsistent
with the model. By insertinga more complex harmonicprogressioninto
the normalblues framework,musicaltension can be increasedby raising

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICALSOCIETY

290

Example2

soloby CliffordBrown,EmArcyRecords,DEM-2
"Cherokee,"
F4
Fast
Bb

Bb7

ti.

Trpt.
Eb

Ebm

Dm

Bb
eJ

,-

.-

Cm7

C9

Eb

Fdim
' I I-m
.I

I I
:I

B1

Eb

Bb

BbF+

F7
-

Ebm

Dm

Cm7
.

C9

F7

Bb

the level of difficulty of correct performance. Examples 4a and 4b might

be compared to a downhill run on skis, the first with an occasional turn
and the second along a path woven through slalom flags. If the beat
remains the same for both performances, the second is the more difficult.
Trumpeter Chet Baker accepts the challenge of the thickened progression
in his performance of "Bea's Flat" (Ex. 5)-

CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

29I

Example3
"Marshmallow"("Cherokee"),solo by Bunky Green (privatetape)

Fast Bb

Faster
F7-Bb7

lto sax.--nEbm

Eb>

S
L

PABb
Ng

5- .T

.I
I.

S Bb
IfIFL.!

A%

I J

,J

" - :4
-k"
.

- I

vCmI -2T

..

l I

IDm

7-
.

BDm
'4 "r
'
, , '

&
I I

W,V
,,w

Z9

,..I

C9,
, ! I.

' I ,.t

.'

Had a single chord been held for the first four measures, as in Example
4a, Baker could have had more freedom and less chance of error. The
goal orientation between measures i and 5 is much stronger in Example
4b than 4a, because each intermediate goal further limits the possible
stylistic paths which must end on an Eb-major chord in measure 5. Baker's
series of notes is but slightly ornamental and is instead principally conExample4
Two Bluesschemata

Bb

Eb
2

a.I// o

//
0

//// ////I //// I

0

Bb
6

////
0

//// I////
0
0

I////

Bb
Io

I////

12

II

I////
0

I//// I
0

BM7
F7 BbG7Cm7F7
BbFgm7Em7A7Dm7Bm7E7Eb7BbdimA7BbCm7Dm7G7Cm7
b.I////

////

I/

:r

/////

r:

I////

////I////
0

:r

I/////

r r r

////
0

II////

////I

OF THE AMERICAN

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Example5

"Bea's
Flat"(BbBlues),asplayedby ChetBaker,PacificJazzRecords,
PJ 12o6
Bb
Fm7
BM7
Em7
A7
Dm7
Trpt.
Ak0

T.-

.
o"e':j
pI

Eb7
toI Bm7 E7
i... BElI.- ,

..,.J

IG1 Bbdim

I b-

A7

4.

Bb
I

h
II

-V-

-k- t
Cm7J.,t :,.t ,,,.:,,I I -t -i i F7'" I.ft .I i. I. ..i. BA
. ,. . . .B
F7 B"b "
Cm7-

;3

,1
Cm
Dm7 G7
Cm7
F,
,

. .

J,

UY

I
Cm7
,,
G7
. i ,. . ,. .i. ., .., F7
,, . .,
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 of
the 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 period
to perceive that this distorted structure combines both blues and pop-song
form. The overall form is AABA, but each A is a blues variant. After
a two-measure introduction, the first A uses the first nine and one-half
measures of a blues chorus; the second A uses eleven measures; and the
last 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 artistry
of the phenomenal performer created an imposing variety of riffs. The
ostinato pattern of "Now's the Time" (Ex. 7) is diametrically opposed
to the continuously unfolding line of "Cheryl" (Ex. 8). The heavy, fourbeat drive of "Air Conditioning" (Ex. 9) finds little similarity in the
light, off-beat articulations of "Visa" (Ex. io). Even more significant
in this regard are the hundreds of improvised solos which followed these
and 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 the
true measure of the jazzman's genius.8
A transcriptionand analysis of Parker's"Perhaps,"theme 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'ssolo on "SlamSlam
Blues" is offered by Richard Wang, "Jazz circa 1945: A Confluence of Styles," The
Musical Quarterly, LIX (0973), 542-44. Wang's comparison of blues solos by Teddy
Wilson, Flip Philips, and Dizzy Gillespie (pp. 534-41) is particularlyinstructive, and
one might see in these excellent transcriptions, constructive development in contrasting styles.
8

CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

293

Example6
"BirdFood," by OrnetteColeman,AtlanticRecords, i 327
Alto sax. Bb

Gm

Cm

Bb

Fm9

F~dim7

Trpt. 8'"andunisoni

8' II _ --nd,,s'1",n.
0,t.h .Bb. . ..

ti

m7...

...C..

vI

I WI

IL

.-

7'

, - 17Fm
_

,;

w
IJJ.

I,-r

Is I:ripII

,, ,
..

,l .

I-I
"

# " d

I '"

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICALSOCIETY

294

Example7
"Now's the Time," by CharlieParker,Verve Records,MG V-800oo5
pi~mmpm"

RikI t

ol m-w

Iv&,

II

n t)

-"

1
U

I0.q

bb.- ,J

FMqM
i
,PM

Imr'

qL

..
..w

I 1

qqt 1 I
I--' I
r-'

kI

I I?

~q I i-IR

I"R
't

' '
. .

, t

a..

TI

dP-3

The means by which the traditional Western composers have attempted to achieve their goals and communicate with their audiences has
been discussed at length and sometimes with great clarity.9 The need
to demonstrate the existence of that process in jazz improvisation where
Example8
"Cheryl,"by CharlieParker,Le JazzCoolRecords,JC-102
-. o m

4AW
"OL

MO R

iIdo -CZ=7,P

1
rim

OleML
i1-qm

w w

ad

ga I I

rIft"

i
f

r%

LZ

1?

h no

?f

10

ti

AM P, I r--T--lI
-1-fm
1 L:J
!:J
1 4-h
L

%lif

#j

L-T

-I

4v- w7w-,o-l

16

0 01

1
-

1 -4

+-?

%,a1

GF
ad

9 Eduard Hanslick, The Beautiful in Music, trans. G. Cohen (New York: Novello,
Ewer, 189i); Heinrich Schenker, Der freie Satz, trans. and ed. T. H. Kreuger (Ann
Arbor: University Microfilms, 1960), pub. no. 6o-i558; Felix Salzer, Structural
Hearing (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 discussionon purely musical relationships.

CONSTRUCTIVE

ELEMENTS

IN JAZZ

IMPROVISATION

295

Example9
"Air Conditioning,"by CharlieParker,Dial Records, 207

?I

,k

I !(i

?12.

II

motives are developed and ideas revised exists not only because the
process is not often recognized, but also because the opposite is frequently
argued. Charles M. H. Keil, referring to jazz and some non-Western
music, attacked the applicability of Leonard B. Meyer's contention that
"music must be evaluated syntactically."10 Keil argues that jazz improvisaExamplei o
"Visa,"by CharlieParker,Verve Records,MG V-8ooo
f

?w Nisal

,A..

I1

II_

PL

1I

fi
Iti,

.a

_-A1

lP

-/

ld

pool

i
I

II

I IF

tJ

, I-

I
-l

I
?

II'

llz.
II
l
1

- l,

I!

I
I

?
k

I
I

112

Charles M. H. Keil, "Motion and Feeling through Music,"Journal of Aesthetics

o10
and 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 Art
Criticism, XVIII ('959), 496.

296

SOCIETY
JOURNALOF THE AMERICANMUSICOLOGICAL

tion is unlike traditional Western composition in that it does not depend

heavily on syntactical relationships and can be understood better through
a study of process (by which I take him to mean something akin to performance practice, the acts of producing the sound that is jazz). On
the basis of his observations, he suggests that "engendered feeling," an
undefined term, be substituted in the analysis of jazz improvisation for
Meyer's "embodied meaning," the meaning that arises "within the context of a particular musical style [when] one tone or group of tones indicates-leads the practiced listener to expect-that another tone or group
of tones will be forthcoming at some more or less specified point in the
musical 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 syntactical
relationships or of form as such will not go very far in accounting for
expression."12
I would argue that Keil has confused compositional process with its
result, the notated version or performance of a traditional Western composition: a confusion of process and product. In jazz, process and product
are 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, verbalizing
the 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 interrelated, 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 a
jazz piece that creates tension syntactically. The relationship of musical
sounds does account for expression.
It is true that an improvisation occurs but once, but each improvisation has a history of similar, related performances. The creative process
stops once the composition is notated and once the improvised performance is over, but if the same tune or schema is performed again with
new 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
Meyer, Music, the Arts, and Ideas, p. 7.
11
12 Keil, "Motion and Feeling," p. 338.

CONSTRUCTIVE

ELEMENTS

IN JAZZ

IMPROVISATION

297

results thus obtained, a five-piece jazz combo was given an unfamiliar

and difficult piece to prepare for public performance. All members of
the 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 studios
at the time. The pianist, Richard A. Wang, has the qualifications of both
a professional musician and a jazz authority.13 Recordings of all the
rehearsals and two public concerts of this same composition made over
a two-month span were compared. A single passage was selected for
observation to determine if ideas were repeated and evolved or free and
ever changing, as the spontaneous approach to improvisation might lead
one to believe would be the case. The results of this laboratory situation
were compared with recordings of parallel situations in which the performances were on commercial recordings and played by recognized jazz
masters. These studies show clearly that the jazz improviser's final version,
his latest revision, is the product of a reworking of formerly used syntactical elements and can, therefore, fairly be discussed, criticized, and
evaluated as can traditional Western composition.
As explained above, composers create, within their respective stylistic
norms, music that is a process in which present events proceed out of
past events within a complex probability system that implies a defined
goal. This is the case in jazz as well. The constructive nature of a jazz
improvisation can be demonstrated by studying Stan Getz's performance
of "Lover, Come Back to Me!" by Sigmund Romberg. In Example I I,
even in the first introduction of the theme, Getz places the structural
notes of the theme askew with reference to their regular metric positioning. He can communicate his accomplishment of an irregular overlay
of 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 community
that can be assumed to know the standard repertory.14 Example ii is
Getz's first introduction of the thematic motive. Examples 12 and 13 are
taken from his first improvised chorus and demonstrate his further reworking of previously stated material. Example 14 illustrates musical relationships 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 of
motivic transformation. This process can be seen in jazz as well, for the
improviser, usually a working musician who often performs five to seven
nights a week, replays tunes and ideas with relative frequency. Such a
process, which gradually remolds the material, disproves Keil's notion
of 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.

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICALSOCIETY

298

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

CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

Example

299

12

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works germ motives is the beginning of Warne Marsh's solo in "Marshmallow," which consists of three but slightly altered statements of the
first four notes of the silent theme "Cherokee" by Ray Noble, the tune
that provided the changes for Marsh's composition "Marshmallow."15
Example i presents the opening of "Cherokee," and Example i8 shows
the beginning of the Warne Marsh solo which uses the first four notes
of the silent theme as the point of departure.
Charlie Parker reworked "Cherokee" into his own silent theme composition, or improvisation, "Ko-Ko," in 1939.16 For the laboratory experiment described above, the five-piece combo was provided the music of
15A transcriptionof the theme of "Marshmallow"may be found in
Tirro, "The

Silent Theme Tradition," pp. 331-32.

16There is a contradiction in the literature about this date. The recording session
for "Ko-Ko" took place November 26, 1945, and it would seem that on the basis of
this information, the creation of this work should be dated 1945 (see James Patrick,

"The Uses of Jazz Discography,"

Notes, XXIX

[1972],

21).

However,

Parker is

quoted as saying that he worked over "Cherokee"in 1939, and I interpret "the thing
I'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).

300

OF THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL

MUSICOLOGICAL

SOCIETY

Example I 3

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"Marshmallow" and not told that the original was "Cherokee" or that a
Parker version, "Ko-Ko," existed.17The soloist, Bunky Green, soon began
reworking an opening passage to the bridge which echoed one of the
Parker passages but never duplicated it. Subsequent performances of the
passage restated the general outline of the preceding version, but new
cyclic variations resulted. Of the twenty-two versions recorded by Green,
the first two bore little relationship to the eventually adopted pattern.
Then, of the subsequent twenty versions, seventeen bear the imprint of
the idea. Example 19 is the appropriate passage from "Ko-Ko" as played
by Charlie Parker, and Examples 20, 21, and 22 are three of the seventeen
above-mentioned versions by Green demonstrating the compositional
evolution of an idea.
Charlie Parker demonstrates the same developmental process in a
recording which has two alternate "takes" of three choruses each. Each
17Charlie Parker's "Ko-Ko" has been transcribed by John Mehegan, Jazz Improvisation,IV (1965), 103 if.

CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

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JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICALSOCIETY

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reworking of the idea introduces just enough change so that the relationship of version i to version 6 is clear only if versions 2 through 5 are
known or are assumed. To know all the sources and their chronology
is as important for a real understanding of jazz as it is for an understanding of a Kyrie trope or a Beethoven quartet. In Example 23, note
Parker's remarkable ability to elide cadences with a phrase concept that
stretches from three to six measures. The freshness of the ideas which
poured forth from his seemingly limitless imagination has singled this
man out above all other jazz musicians to this day as much more than
a virtuoso.
Western composition and jazz improvisation have in common a coherent syntax and a hierarchical structure which provide a means for
deferred gratification through a perception of the music's embodied
meaning. In jazz, process and product occur simultaneously as the improviser both ornaments and extemporizes.
Philip Gehring writes on the aesthetics of improvisation as follows:
Unlike a composition, there is no recreative process in an improvisation
whereby it can be experienced again and again. If it happens that a certain
Example17
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CONSTRUCTIVEELEMENTS IN JAZZ IMPROVISATION

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CONSTRUCTIVE

ELEMENTS

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305

improvisationis recorded and later written down, then it lives the rest of its
life as a compositionrather than an improvisation.'8
There can be little doubt that these transcribed improvisations are indeed
compositions, each following musical laws that govern the progress of
the work. The variety possible is but partially observed when examining
the Charlie Parker blues melodies-Examples 7 through io. The schema
is extremely simple and rigid; the laws of tonal harmony and the metric
demands of four beats per measure in twelve-measure groups are very
limiting. Still, the creative resources of this great improviser were so vast
that he was able to surpass the ordinary and infuse with life a pattern
that is monotony itself.
In writing about music of the I3th century, Rudolf von Ficker declares that the works are
still dependent upon the old method of improvisation, which allowed the
performers'subjective faculty for developmentwide latitude-a method now,
together with the tradition, quite extinct. For the rigid note forms of the
manuscriptsare only a sort of musical sketch, not a precise guide for tempo,
dynamics and agogics, for tonality and accidentals. To endow it with the
breath of life was the function of the producer, whose task it was to add all
details needed for a finished performance,in every case producing something
new and different according to his artistic ability, while following traditional
rules and usages.19
The historian of 20th-century improvisation is more fortunate than
the scholar who studies the Middle Ages. The tradition of improvisation
is not extinct. As documents for study, sound recordings provide the
material for criticism. They are sources of the first rank.
Duke University
s18
Philip Gehring, "The Aesthetics of Improvisation," Festschrift Theodore

Hoelty-Nickel,ed. NewmanW. Powell (Valparaiso,Ind., 1967),p. 88.

19Rudolf von Ficker, "PolyphonicMusic of the Gothic Period,"The Musical
Quarterly, XV

(1929),

486.