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Symposium
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Jazz Studies
•See Bill Russo and Lloyd Lifton, "Jazz Off the Record," an irregular series beginn
17, No. 1 (January 13, 1950). I am indebted to Barry Kernfeld, editor of the New Grov
Jazz, for reminding me of a column by Sharon Pease which appeared regularly in downbe
1937 through the 1940s. Each column contained a pianist's biography, a notated piano
a few analytical comments as well.
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ANALYZING IMPROVISED JAZZ 65
2Thomas Owens, "Charlie Parker: Techniques of Improvisation*' (Doctoral diss., Univ. of California
at Los Angeles, 1974).
3For jazz analysis relying heavily although not exclusively on formula identification, see Lawrence
Gushee, "Lester Young's 'Shoeshine Boy,'" in International Musicological Society, Report of the Twelfth
Congress, Berkeley, 1977, (Kassel, 1981). See also Barry Kernfeld, "Adderley, Coltrane, and Davis at
the Twilight of Bebop: The Search for Melodic Coherence (1958-59)" (Doctoral diss., Cornell Univ., 1981).
Sources on formulaic composition in literature include Ruth Finnigan, Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance
and Social Context (Cambridge, 1977); Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales, (1960; reprint, New York,
1965); and Milman Parry, The Making of Homeric Verse: The Collected Papers of Milman Parry , ed.
Adam Parry (Oxford, 1971).
4Gregory Smith, "Homer, Gregory, and Bill Evans? The Theory of Formulaic Composition in the
Context of Jazz Piano Improvisation" (Doctoral diss., Harvard Univ., 1983).
5Barry Kernfeld, "Two Coltranes," Annual Review of Jazz Studies 2 (New Brunswick, N.J., 1983),
7-66.
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66 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
_a_
b. £ d |
hit1 l I
6Ibid., 26.
7See Lewis Porter, "Lester Leaps In: The Early Style of Lester Young," Black Perspectives in Music,
9 (1981), 3-23. See also the formulaic approach incorporated into a broad eclectic study of Lester Young's
music in Lewis Porter, Lester Young (Boston, 1985).
8Steven Larson, "Schenkerian Analysis of Modern Jazz" (Doctoral diss. Univ. of Michigan, 1987).
9Milton Stewart, "Some Characteristics of Clifford Brown's Improvisational Style ," Jazzforschungl
Jazz Research 11 (1979), 135-64.
l0Leonard B. Meyer, Explaining Music: Essays and Explorations (Chicago, 1973); Eugene Narmour,
Beyond Schenkerism: The Need for Alternatives in Music Analysis (Chicago, 1977); and James Kent
Williams, "Themes Composed by Jazz Musicians of the Bebop Era: A Study of Harmony, Rhythm, and
Melody" (Doctoral diss., Indiana Univ., 1982).
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ANALYZING IMPROVISED JAZZ 67
for their continuation. Scalewise motion often tends to continue in the same scalar
direction to a point of stability. Melodic leaps may be the beginnings of arpeggiate
chords or they may be gaps which imply a scalewise "fill" of that musical spac
in the opposite direction. Whatever the implication of a gesture, the realization of
that implication may or may not take place; that is, the listener's expectation may
or may not be fulfilled, or the expectation may be fulfilled after a delay.
Figure 2 diagrams a network of interlocking implication-realization patterns.
While Williams's graphing techniques cannot be discussed in detail here, notice tha
the gap Et-F in m. 1 is filled in by the scale passage completed in m. 5. Then anothe
gap almost reaches "satisfactory" closure on G (mm. 5-8), but stops short on A
That implied G is left unrealized until m. 15 when its appearance also represen
closure (or realization) for two separate linear descents. Thus that G represents the
simultaneous realization of three different implications reaching as far back a
m. 5.
lg-L>
"Williams, 1, 211.
l2Alan Perlman and Daniel Greenblatt, "Miles Davis Meets Noam Chomsky: Some Observations
in Jazz Improvisation and Language Structure" in The Sign in Music and Literature, ed. Wendy Steiner
(Austin, 1981), 169-83.
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68 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
Toward a Synthesis
l3Ibid., 181.
14Nicholas Strout, "I've Heard That Song Before: Linguistic
Quotation in Instrumental Jazz Improvisation" (Masters thesis
15Jeff Pressing, "Pitch Class Set Structures in Contemporary
14 (1982), 133-72.
loSteven Block, Pitch Class Transformation in Free Jazz, paper delivered at the annual meeting
of the Society for Music Theory, Baltimore, November, 1988.
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ANALYZING IMPROVISED JAZZ 69
Great speed
Wide range (particularly high range)
Tremendous endurance
Beautiful legitimate tone and flawless intonation (or)
Wonderfully bizarre and unique sound; unusual approach to intonation
An excited, propulsive, on-top-of-the-beat feel (or)
A loose, relaxed, laid-back feel
Showing empathy with past eras of jazz (or)
Being novel, original, non-derivative
Quoting often and effectively (or)
Refusing to "mar" the solo by "sudden quotation"17
Showing restraint and classical balance (or)
Making expressive use of growls, honks, squeaks, and split tones
And this is just the start of a long list. David Baker, in a series of monographs
analyzing the music of Cannonball Adderley, Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro and
others, does take into consideration many seldom-discussed features.18 He employs
a standard two-page form on which the features are listed; the analyst checks off
those features present in a given solo.
Many factors may contribute toward making an improvised solo "good" or
"great." A solo which shows little motivic or formulaic coherence, or which will
not reduce to a Schenkerian model, or which leaves implications unrealized may
nevertheless be a great solo for other reasons, reasons harder to theorize about or
harder to uncover by applying one specific analytic methodology. Although there
is a place for analysis in which one method is applied exclusively, the analyst must
realize that it provides only a single view.
Any music analyst needs to ask two questions: Why analyze this music? And
for whom is my analysis intended? My answers to these questions determine the
direction of the rest of this article. Why analyze jazz? Jazz deserves to be studied
because, at its best, it is glorious music, worthy of appreciation on all levels including
the intellectual. For whom is my analysis intended? Any fairly well-trained listener-
reader, whether jazz lover or not, particularly the musician who may have little
exposure to jazz and who can be guided to greater understanding and, therefore,
greater appreciation.
With these answers in mind, my analysis strives to adhere to three guidelines
as closely as possible:
17Gunther Schuller, "Sonny Rollins and the Challenge of Thematic Improvisation," Jazz Review 1
(1958), 6.
18David N. Baker, The Jazz Style of Cannonball Adderley (Lebanon, Ind., 1980). See additional
volumes in this series on Clifford Brown, Fats Navarro, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Sonny Rollins.
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70 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
1. Motives from the head which are woven into the solo.
l9There is certainly no necessity for using a 4-line display for every solo, although I have found
it useful as a working format for new transcriptions. In a letter to the author in which he supports an
eclectic analysis, Lewis Porter warns against "a 'cookbook' approach to analysis. For me analysis is an
inspirational, creative activity, like making music .... Every piece suggests its own approach ....
I tend to resist any kind of standardized analysis where each piece will be presented along with a standardized
chart or with the staff setup you suggest." And while Porter values "analysis that doesn't rely so heavily
on words," he points out that his article on John Coltrane ("John Coltrane's *A Love Supreme': Jazz
Improvisation as Composition," Journal of the American Musicological Society 38 [1985], 593-621) would
have been less effective without substantial text.
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ANALYZING IMPROVISED JAZZ 7 1
Sample Analysis
F Bb7
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72 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
20Gregory Smith, author of the previously- mentioned "Homer, Gregory, and Bill Evans? The Theory
of Formulaic Composition in the Context of Jazz Piano Improvisation," argues persuasively that my pattern
"a" should include a fifth note in each instance, and that it should be identified as a figure common
used to embellish a descending third.
21Descending step progressions, such as this, are also seen as important contributors to melod
coherence in Charlie Parker's improvisations. See Peter K. Winkler, "Toward a Theory of Popu
Harmony," in theory only 4 (1978), 3-26.
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ANALYZING IMPROVISED JAZZ 73
Linear J/ i ■ | - | - - -
Continuity
¥ r ¥ fo r
P ' ^ ■
r I Nr
J
a
'*_r ■'
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74 COLLEGE MUSIC SYMPOSIUM
Conclusion
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