Product Description

This well-organized book combines all of the techniques that jazz musicians practice into a comprehensive whole. It covers practice patterns and scales in all keys and tempos, transcribing solos of master improvisers, learning the jazz repertoire, and playing with other musicians. Chapter topics include how to practice, creatively improvise, and teach improvisation; major innovators; important contributors; women in jazz; chord substitutions; scales; and form. Each chapter also contains theory and ear exercises. Applicable to any instrument–or a classroom of varied instruments–this book is for jazz students and professionals at all levels of proficiency.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106056 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 320 pages

The publisher, Prentice-Hall Humanities/Social Science
This book covers practice patterns and scales in all keys and tempos, transcribing solos of master improvisors, learning the jazz repertoire, and playing with other musicians. Students and professionals at any level of proficiency will find the material beneficial. The text may be applied to any instrument, or a classroom of varied instrumentation.

From the Inside Flap
Preface

It is gratifying that, since the publication of the first edition in 1989 and the second in 1995, many college educators, private instructors, and students of jazz have found Creative Jazz Improvisation to be a valuable aid in their musical growth. This text is a direct outgrowth of over twenty-one years of experiences teaching jazz improvisation at the college level, as well as my own personal quest to develop as a jazz artist.

I believe there is a direct parallel between life and art. The pursuit of understanding in any art form can teach us much about ourselves and serve as a catalyst for a lifetime of learning. My own musical perspectives have evolved since the second edition of this text was written, and much of this new information has been incorporated into the present volume. Therefore, I believe this edition to be much more than a minor reworking of the previous one. However, all of the same features that made Creative Jazz Improvisation a popular choice for classroom use are retained, including:

The philosophy that there are several paths to the same goal and that each student learns in his or her own unique way. An orientation in difficulty toward college-level and intermediate-to-advanced musicians. For students at the high-school or community college level or adult beginners, I strongly recommend the entry-level companion to this text, Creative Beginnings, which comes with a play-along compact disc. The division of the majority of chapters into sections devoted to jazz theory, exercises over a specified chord progression, a list of relevant compositions, and a transcribed solo which has been transposed and edited for concert pitch treble clef, B6, E6 and bass clef instruments. A thorough discussion of all facets of jazz theory, including major scale modes, forms and chord substitutions, melodic minor modes, diminished and whole-tone scales, pentatonic scales, and intervallic and "free" improvisation. The keying of the chord progressions to either the widespread Jamey Aebersold series or the compact disc accompanying Creative Beginnings. Exercises that include not only basic scales and arpeggios but also melodic ideas taken directly from cited recordings by master improvisers, arranged in order of relative difficulty. The indexing of the list of compositions to legal fake-books, particularly the New Real Book and the Aebersold play-along series. The correlation of half of the transcribed solos with the widely available anthology, The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz. The convenience of allowing a classroom of mixed instrumentation to work simultaneously from the text.

Differences between the second and third editions include:

The addition of a new chapter, "Whom to Listen To," which lists major innovators, important contributors, and women in jazz. The expansion of the chapter on "Rhythm," with considerable new information and exercises. Replacement of two transcriptions with more readily playable examples, including Miles Davis's "Solea" solo (in place of Wayne Shorter's "Masqualero" solo), and Bill Evans's "Autumn Leaves" solo (in lieu of Dizzy Gillespie's "Stardust" solo). In addition, J. J. Johnson's solo on "Aquarius" has been renotated in long meter to make it easier to read. An expansion of the list of compositions in each chapter to reflect the ever-increasing number of play-along recordings by Jamey Aebersold. The third edition is now keyed to the first eighty-five volumes in his series, A New Approach to Jazz Improvisation. An extensive reworking of all portions of the text to improve readability and reflect recent information. A reappraisal of all exercises, with selected replacements and additions. The incorporation of inspirational epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. A continued investigation of the how to bridge the gap between the technical and intellectual aspects of jazz with the creative and intuitive state of mind. Many of these ideas may be traced to my exposure to the concepts of pianist Kenny Werner, and I am indebted to his willingness to allow me to incorporate some of his ideas into this volume.

This text reflects the influences of my previous teachers, particularly David Baker, Woody Shaw, and Kenny Werner, the many jazz artists whose work I have studied and transcribed, and the pedagogical concepts of Jamey Aebersold. I gratefully acknowledge these people, as well as the staff at Prentice Hall, particularly my acquisitions editor, Christopher Johnson and my production and copy editor, Laura Lawrie. I sincerely hope the readers of this text will find it a valuable aid in their growth as musicians.

Back Cover Copy

Designed for professionals and students alike, the material contained in this comprehensive volume can be applied to any instrument as well as classes or ensembles of varied instrumentation. In Creative Jazz Improvisation, readers will find:

• Detailed information on how to practice, how to improvise in a creative way, and how to teach jazz improvisation
• A complete explanation of all aspects of jazz theory and forms
• Practice materials designed to help the reader gain facility with the jazz vocabulary and develop his or her ear
• Keyboard, ear-training, and theory exercises
• Lists of important jazz compositions, indexed to the popular Aebersold play-along recordings
• Eighteen transcriptions of solos by master jazz artists—analyzed, transposed, and edited for all instruments

The third edition expands on previous editions by adding:

• A new chapter, "Whom to Listen To," which lists major innovators, important contributors, and women in jazz
• Considerable expansion of the chapter on "Rhythm" and the section on "Creative Jazz Improvisation"
• New transcriptions of solos by Max Roach, Miles Davis, and Bill Evans
• Inspirational quotations by jazz masters, designed to motivate the student and give insight into the workings of the creative mind

Author/trombonist/composer Scott Reeves draws on over twenty-one years of experience teaching at institutions such as the City College of New York, the University of Southern Maine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Memphis State University, and Western Washington University to create a book that covers all aspects of jazz improvisation without superfluous information. Students and teachers alike will appreciate its accessible, well-organized approach to a complex subject.

Customer Reviews

Very useful on many levels
I worked with the 2nd Edition and can't comment on recent revisions, but I have to disagree with a couple of points made by prior reviewers. Regarding the "obscurity" of the transcribed solos, while the Smithsonian Collection that Reeves draws about half his examples from is, to my knowledge, no longer available, most if not all of the selections are available on recordings under the various musicians' names. Many are considered jazz touchstones and even masterpieces (i.e. Armstrong's Hot Fives and Sevens, Sonny Rollins Saxophone Collossus). I'd go so far to say that anyone interested in the broad scope of jazz history will probably have a fair number of the examples already in their collection. The other point I'd take issue with is the suitability of the book for self-study. Perhaps it's not a book for an absolute beginner as a player or a listener of jazz, but for musicians with the ability to read and an understanding of jazz feel, the book provides a wealth of material to explore in ways beyond simply following the text sequentially as you might do in a class. As a teenager, I spent hours practicing scales up and down to build finger dexterity, hoping against hope that the benefits would show up in creative playing. It didn't happen - though I got pretty good at playing scales, up and down. As an adult I regard that kind of practicing as a waste of time and creativity-numbing. I now see scales as sets of notes with particular tendencies. Playing an entire scale end to end is just one expression of those tendencies (and a very overused one at that). While Reeves gives you the scales and you can run them if you want, much more interesting to me are the patterns and transcriptions that draw on the scale set, in some cases using just a few notes, in others, the full set. Jazz melody (and the pop melody of standards) is built from motives and phrases rather than from whole lengths of scales. For that matter, so is most tonal classical music. It makes sense to me that if your goal is to create that kind of melody as an improvisor or composer, it's more productive to study how the smaller building blocks of motives and phrases work in the context of the tonality expressed by that scale. If you're willing to slow down and stop thinking in terms of "here's a chord now how do I fit this entire scale into this measure" this book contains a lot of useful and fun ideas to work with. Another useful book is "Connections" by Gary Campbell, which focuses exclusively on creating motivic material from scales as an alternative to simply running them. Why 4 stars? Well, one thing I didn't care for is the close tie-in with the Abersold play-along recordings. I used them years ago and now feel you'll learn more by recording your own backgrounds. Like bass players who practice with a full drum machine, it's too easy to ride along on top of a full sounding background and not notice your rhythmic weaknesses. If you play non-chordal instruments it'll help your harmony by learning some keyboard or guitar and a metronome can still go a long way.

Right for class, wrong for self-learning
This is an excellent text when used in a classroom environment, accompanied with audio examples from a teacher and selected recordings, annotated throughout the text (mostly references to J. Aebersold's Play-Along series). The high-level classification of important jazz innovators in the "Whom to Listen To" section alone is worth a long read. Coverage of the scales, progressions, rhythms and structures is well organized. I can't think of a better single book on which to base class-room teaching of jazz improvisation. Any criticism that this book is "unoriginal" is misplaced; that's not the purpose of the book.

It is definitely less useful as a self-learning tool. For this purpose I believe there is no way around a few book-cd combos such as Ferrara's Jazz Piano and Harmony. Unless you want to spend time tracking down the recordings referred to by this Reeves book.

I don't buy the author's concept!
I am wondering why this book contains some jazz solo transcriptions of "hard-to-find" recordings. Does the author think light of listening to/learning from actual recording stuff? For example, Woody Shaw's "Child's Dance" is not a good example to learn pentatonic usages in jazz. Why did not the author use Coltrane's "Pursuance" or any McCoy's solo (available from CD market)? Where can students get the "odd-choice Woody Shaw" recording? Never heard of it. I do not buy the author's concept: learning from written solos without listening to recordings. It is stupid!

I do not know why, but there is no copyright agreement notice under the excerpted solo transcriptions. Does the publisher pay for the copyright? I would appreciate if the publisher could show the due-respect for jazz artists by listing the copyright publisher notice.

On the surface, this book seems like a well-organized book; however, most materials of this book text have been repeatedly discussed in the previous jazz books (usually available from Charles Colin, Jamey Aebersold, Hal Leonard, Sher Music, Down Beats articles, Alfred music, etc). In other words, it's well-organized but it's NOT original. For these reasons, I would give only two stars to this book.