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In
Chasin' the Sound: Learning Jazz Improvisation through Historical Models, authors Brian Levy and Keith Waters use solos by famous jazz musicians to outline a melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of jazz improvisation. In contrast to mainstream approaches based on rote memorization and generic chord/scale pedagogies,
Chasin' the Sound encourages a hands-on approach with activities that highlight the intangible yet key aesthetics of sound, groove, and feel. By studying jazz fundamentals alongside well-known examples of those fundamentals in practice, students gain a broader and more meaningful understanding of the art of improvisation.
List of contents
- How to Use this Book
- About the Companion Website
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Pulse and Syncopation
- Chapter 2: Horizontal and Vertical Approaches to Improvisation
- Chapter 3: Introduction to Charlie Parker: Rhythm and Pitch
- Chapter 4: Rhythmic Shapes
- Chapter 5: "Groovin' High": The Upsurge
- Chapter 6: Descending Pathways and Underlying Thirds
- Chapter 7: Techniques for Connecting and Expanding Melodies
- Chapter 8: Cross Rhythms
- Chapter 9: "Klaunstance" and "Ko Ko": the Vocabulary of Bebop
- Chapter 10: Vertical Approaches: Harmonic Spaces
- Chapter 11: Flexibility of Harmonic Rhythm
- Chapter 12: Hard Bop Approaches
- Chapter 13: Soloing with Comping Rhythms
- Chapter 14 (Online): Practical Applications
- Chapter 15 (Online): Learning Tunes, Harmonic Progressions, and Lines in 12 Transpositions
- Chapter 16 (Online): Other Bop Players
- Chapter 17 (Online): Rhythm Changes Routines
- Chapter 18 (Online): John Coltrane and Harmonic Third Relations
- Index
About the author
Brian Levy is Director of Jazz Studies at San Diego State University (SDSU). Prior to this role, he was a full-time member of the faculty at The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) from 2013-23, where he held joint appointments in the Department of Jazz Studies and the Department of Music History and Musicology. In 2021, he received the prestigious Louis Krasner Teaching Award. As a saxophonist, Levy performs regularly in the US and Europe.
Keith Waters is Professor of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a professional jazz pianist, he has recorded and performed with jazz artists such as James Moody, Bobby Hutcherson, Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Janis Siegel, and many others. As an author, Waters is the author of
The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68;
Postbop Jazz in the 1960s: The Compositions of Wayne Shorter;
Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea; and
Jazz: The First Hundred Years (with co-author Henry Martin).
