Jazz Improvisation

Jazz is a music genre that originated from African American communities of New Orleans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a period of over a hundred years, encompassing a very wide range of music, making it difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swing note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and African-American styles such as ragtime. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience and styles to the art form as well. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".

VOLUME 1 - Jazz Basics is designed for the newcomer to jazz guitar. It covers all of the fundamentals and basic concepts essential for jazz improvisation, and features performances with Satoshi Inoue on guitar. Songs include Big Blues and Whistle Stop. VOLUME 2 - second video is designed for intermediate to advanced guitarists. It introduces varous ideas and methods for practicing improvisation and self-expression, and features performances with Satshi Inoue on guitar. Songs include: Waltz New, Miro, and Seseragi. In VOLUME 3, the Jim Hall Quartet plays original tunes in varous styles, including swing, bossa nova, blues and calypso. Jim analyzes each composition and explains the role of the guitar in different ensemble formats. Features performances with Scott Colley (bass), Andy Watson (drums) and Rasmus Lee (tenor sax). Songs include: Why Not Dance, Joao, Mr. Blues, and Street Dance.

Jazz guitar is a cruel mistress. After spending years learning and adding all of the genre’s theories and techniques to your arsenal, you’re still left with the challenge of putting it all together into a cohesive statement when it’s time to step up and solo or comp behind a vocalist or soloist. Jazz Combustion offers up a fresh and insightful approach for comping and improvising innovative solos. By using real world examples, Jazz Combustion breaks down higher improvisational concepts such as chord voice selection, chordal movement, target tones, chord substitution, motifs, pacing, scat vocal techniques and outside playing, all while retaining the vibe of the prevailing tune’s melody and harmonic structure.