A LINGUISTIC MODEL OF MELODIC IMPROVISATION.

A Linguistic Model of Melodic Jazz Improvisation, Based on memoirs and recordings of John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. James D Levy The George Washington University The District of Columbia Public Schools

A model showing how phrases are conceived in the improvisations of is elucidated by means of references to psychological theories, statements from Gillespie, and a transcription of a Gillespie improvisation. The model shows the improvisational process using a variety of "phrase-referents" derived from the structure over which the improvisation is taking place. The phrases from the solos are categorized as being derived from either a modally-based phrase-referent or from one of several types of harmonic phrase-referent. Real time inputs into the improvisational process, and a number of "realization techniques," are described.

[Key words: Jazz Improvisation, Improvisation, John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, Chomsky, Improvisational Modeling], Referent 1

Jazz improvisation, organized in the mind more than on a written score, is an ideal subject for the intersection of music theory and psychology. The “Jazz as a language/improvisation as speaking” analogy is accepted throughout the Jazz community. Chomsky’s study of language structure, in particular, applies to the process of improvising a series of melodic phrases. In interviews, jazz artists may give us a valuable insight into how they think. One of my first experiences with this was when guitarist Larry Carlton was quoted as saying that

...if somebody is playing a CMaj7 chord, when I play a D note, I think of it out of a G triad -- whereas another guitarist plays a D note and thinks of it as the 9th of the C Major scale...so I don’t think of the C major 7 in the rhythm as one chord; I think of it as a C chord and a G chord at the same time...One result is that my interval relationships get wider, because I’m not thinking linearly. (Menn, 1992)

A famous statement by Gillespie’s musical partner, has also been widely quoted -- Steven Strunk used it to open his now classic article “ Melodic Lines: Tonal Characteristics.” Like Carlton’s statement, Parker’s is interesting because it sheds some light on the mental strategies that the improviser uses to get a certain effect.

...I was working over Cherokee, and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I’d been hearing. I came alive.

This paper presents a model that portrays how John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie improvised the phrases that constitute his improvised solos. The model is conceived as a flow-chart diagram based on Chomsky’s concept of sentence structure. Ideas for the model were prompted by Gillespie's voluminous memoirs, To Be, Or Not...To Bop (1979), in which he makes a variety of remarks on improvisation. These remarks, in turn, provided a frame of reference for analyzing his solos. Developments in the psychology of music make it possible to adapt existing cognitive and linguistic theories to create a model that specifically depicts Gillespie's creation of a musical phrase. It was also my great good fortune to be able to meet and interview him about this model on November 30, 1990.

I hope for this study to be useful in a number of ways. Primarily, it gives an overview to music students concerning one possible interpretation of the process of improvisation and the varied skills and information required. For musicians who are already improvisers, the concept of varied "phrase-referents" may give them some new ideas about organization with regard to their own improvised solos. The presence of variable referents at shallow structure level illuminates the evolution of bebop from the swing style of the previous generation.

Just ask the man... For this model, part of the foundation is what the artist himself had to say about the process. It is on this last point that the approach here differs most with the view taken by many, including Johnson-Laird who states “[Jazz musicians] can articulate only a limited answer, because the underlying mental processes are largely unconscious. If you are not an improvising musician, then the best analogy to improvisation is your spontaneous speech.” (Johnson-Laird, 2002)

The analogy between a Jazz solo and “spontaneous speech” is a valuable one, but it bears having a detailed comparison made for despite the similarities, there are important differences. In particular, Chomsky’s demonstration that people have syntactic competence without being able conscious of the formal grammatical rules underlying their speech does not carry over by analogy into jazz improvisation. This is especially true in the case of a jazz master like Gillespie, who was both theoretically 2 knowledgeable and articulate. Chomsky's observation that in language acquisition, in addition to learning actual sentences and phrases (which can later re-surface as quotations), we form grammatical rules that enable us to construct novel and original sentences is something that Gillespie was quite conscious of in the jazz process,

For a guy' s musical development, the same rule applies in jazz as in any other field; you collect facts and you study. You listen to Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, two guys who played the same instrument but played it very differently. Both of them have something in common. Because both of them played the truth, your job is to find out what is the common denominator between Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, or Lester young and Louis Armstrong. When you find that, that's the foundation. When you play things, you assemble all this information in your mind like a computer, and you use it when it's necessary. Yeah, it is like building bricks on top of each other. You take a riff that Roy Eldridge played, and you play that riff. A lotta things happen with a specific riff, the chording behind it, and how you get from this progression to that one. And you figure the alternatives. You say, 'Ah, then, you could also go here instead of going there.' And when you get that far finally you'll come up with something different. But it's the same music. It’s just progressing all the time. (Gillespie, 1979)

There are a number of reasons why Dizzy Gillespie makes for interesting study. He stands at the center of jazz history, a musician who played with both Louis Armstrong and Branford Marsalis, so it stands to reason that his observations about his own improvisational strategies will have a wide stylistic application. Gillespie was also a teacher: in his twenties he was already mentoring Miles Davis. He was a direct non-hostile person who was extremely articulate in expressing his views. He honed his ability to express himself by mentoring the best and brightest of the next generation of jazz musicians. In addition to Miles Davis, there was Tad Dameron, George Russell and others. and Charlie Parker were his colleagues. He was praised as a teacher by many of his contemporaries. His memoirs, To Be, Or Not To Bop, contain succinct and clear ideas on improvisation.

The Diagram of the Model Explained The items (see figure 1, below) labeled "Real-Time Inputs" indicate that the creation of some phrases clearly shows the influence of the previous soloist or of previous phrases within the solo. This influence may manifest itself in melodic similarity, in the use of the same shallow structure, or by having the phrase be one of a group that together form a disguised scalar pattern. That the real time inputs can have either a direct effect on the surface structure and/or an effect on the use of phrase referent is reflected in the arrows going both up and down from this part of the model.

The term "experience" is meant to have two related implications. The first is that the soloist uses phrases, musical quotes, "riffs," and motives that are part of a learned stylistic repertoire. The second is that, along with the acquisition of this vocabulary, the improvising musician learns rules that enable him to create new, original phrases in the style.

The term "referent" is from Pressing (1984): “Central to improvisation is the notion of the "referent." The referent is the underlying formal scheme or guiding image specific to a given piece, used by the improviser to facilitate the generation and editing of improvised behavior on an intermediate time scale. The generation of behavior on a fast time scale is primarily determined by previous training and is not very piece-specific.” Though Pressing's discussion covers various types of musical, dramatic, and dance improvisation, he gives "Song Form" as an example of the referent a jazz soloist would use.

Though there are three varieties of harmonic referents shown in the diagram, the upper two are slightly raised to show that they derive from the basic chord structure of the tune. The use of substitute chords is repeatedly mentioned both in Gillespie's memoirs and in the interview. 3

Figure 1 -- Diagram of the Model

Surface Structure Improvised Notes of the Phrase ^ ^ ^

Previous^ phrases, Real Tme Inputs things played by other musicians Performance Conditions, "Experience"

v ^ Realization ^ Vocal Techniques Instrumental Techniques: Techniques: Arpeggiation, bent notes, Use of PT, NT effects, Chromaticism Gravitational attraction of v root and 5th ^ ^ Shallow ^ Extended Substitute ^ Structure Blues Based (Phrase Chords Chords Concepts Referent) Harmonic/Melodic Sections of the Song ^ ^

Deep Structure ^ Form of Song/Key ^ (Referent given to soloist) . .

Since the transition from the shallow structure to the surface structure, from the phrase-referent to the improvised phrase, almost always results in the creation of a unique phrase, the means for this transition cannot be completely defined. What is clear, however, is that specific realization techniques (specific ways of playing the shallow structure) are used by jazz improvisers. Thomas Owens' (1974) exhaustive catalogue of Parker's motives can be understood as representing a codification of this aspect of Parker's approach to improvisation. Pressing discusses the practicing of "motives, scales, arpeggios...[resulting in] the creation of a number of small motor programs or units of action...[resulting in] even greater economy of action...and they may be combined by further practice to form composite units of action." Jazz vocabulary reflects this concept with terms such as "lick" and "riff."

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Other realization techniques that are specifically associated with Gillespie's harmonically based phrases, such as the use of neighbor tones and chromaticism, are common in the Western European tradition. The realization techniques used for the blues-based phrases are more African in origin, for example, the use of vocal-like effects, such as half-valve, pitch bends, and percussive techniques involving repetition of a single tone.

The model reflects Chomsky’s diagramming of sentences (notably applied by Bernstein, 1976) with the same deeper structure mapping onto a variety of similar, but distinct, actual phrases. The foundation of the structure is the form of the song (AABA, 12-bar blues etc.) plus the key(s) of the performance, what the band leader would "call" before the performance, for example "Blues in F," or “Perdido in Bb." The next level is the type of each individual phrase. The highest level of the structure is what the soloist actually played, the surface structure, while below this, is the phrase structure, the specific chord voicings or scale, the groups that the individual notes form themselves into. Like many other musicians Gillespie approached improvisation flexibly on this level, with freedom and creativity using the idea of chord substitution to mange and create greater surface melodic variety.

The structure of the model also borrows from an article, "Miles Davis Meets Noam Chomsky: Some Observations on Jazz Improvisation and Language Structure." (Perlman and Greenblatt, 1981) The authors' basic premise is that "...playing an improvised solo is very much like speaking sentences." The authors then adapt a linguistic model of sentence structure to apply to a jazz solo.

The deep structure of a song is its underlying harmony...The shallow structure of a song is neither the harmonic pattern nor the improvised line itself, but rather an array of possibilities that the musician may choose from at any given point.

One way that the model presented here builds on that of Perlman and Greenblatt is that they describe the deep structure as being "the underlying harmony," not the form/key of the song. Perlman and Greenblatt, along with Johnson-Laird both all seem to convey the idea that a jazz solo consists only of "playing the changes." As the solo example shows, many of the key dramatic phrases bypass the changes and are based simply on the key. Perlman and Greenblatt make the crucial point that the musician has "an array of possibilities [to] choose from at any given point." They also mention "musicians routinely modify the sheet-music chords in order to create their own possibilities for improvisation.

"You forget about the changes when you play the blues..." Fundamental to the model is the idea that there are two distinct kinds of phrases in Diz’s playing. Both are amply demonstrated in the Perdido solo and supported by statements from Gillespie.

Gillespie: Well, blues playing is based on vocal…jazz, is built on instrumentalists. So, it is different in that vein from playing. So, when you playing the blues, you can't think of an instrumentalist, you got to think and say, if you were a singer 'cause they've got little things that they do with their voice that you don't do with instruments... (Levy, 1993)

The bluesy/vocal/horizontal types of phrases have been commented on at least as early as 1938 in Winthrop Sargeant's Jazz: Hot and Hybrid, "[on occasion, in the style of "hot jazz," musical] expression is independent of any definitely formed contrapuntal background. And yet its scalar relationships are quite well defined." Sargeant goes on to describe the most commonly used scales and how the melodic movement tends to center around the root and fifth. In Early Jazz, Gunther Schuller cites Sergeant's findings, and points out "the tendency of African melodies to shift around a central tone. Jazz uses this device both in the blues and in the riff...these melodies revolve around a central tone, usually within a small range of a fourth or fifth." Both Sargeant and Schuller diagram the resolving tendencies of "the blues scale as used in jazz [which] really divides into two identical tetrachords..." 5

These two types of phrases are, of course, found in every trumpet player from Armstrong on. It was the achievement of the bebop players to develop new ways of what many call the “vertical” (after Russell, 1959) aspect of playing, the melodic realization of specific chord voicings. They developed a flexible way of thinking so that there were (at least) three choices in playing a phrase harmonically, 1) base it on the standard harmony 2) base it on an extended harmony or 3) substitute in other chords, which would then give rise to a new family of phrase possibilities.

Gillespie was a master at playing lines that outlined Jazz chord voicings. Perhaps the most emphasized and reiterated point in “” is his reliance on the as a tool. In a joint interview with Gillespie and Miles Davis, Davis states that when he came to New York and asked Dizzy for advice, he was told emphatically to learn the piano. When I asked Gillespie about his early practice routines he told me, “The piano. Variations of... chord changes, how they go and how you go here to there to there....on the piano. Once I learned it on the piano it's no problem.”

Levy: ...on the trumpet, what were some of the things you used to practice? Or did you just play?

Gillespie: I guess I did probably the same thing I do later on. I'd take from the piano.

The piano was also useful for getting a feel for chord extensions, “[Miles Davis] used to ask me, "Man where do you get them notes? Off the piano...if you don't play the piano, you can't find them. You might luck up on them sometimes, but if you know the piano, you'll know where they are all the time.” (Gillespie, 1979) Gillespie’s term for these notes was “pretty notes.”

One of the most celebrated aspects of the bebop style was the use of chord substitutions, both as a compositional and improvisational device. Charlie Parker’s celebrated account of his epiphany at a chili house has been quoted above. As for Gillespie, he gives this example of chord substitution, "Like a guy had one chord, he'd make two chords outta that, like B minor seventh to E to E flat, instead of just a plain Bb seventh to E flat.” (Gillespie, 1979) There are many instances of this type of discussion in the memoirs, including a long discussion on the half-diminished chord ("minor sixth with the sixth in the bass"), and his application of that chord to his tune "Manteca," and his re-harmonization of "I Can't Get Started."

A comment on the “real time input section” of the model: Levy: ...you will sometimes start your solo by just taking off on what the person before you has played. Or what the orchestra's played right before you come in. Do you recognize that as a characteristic of yourself?

Gillespie: Uh, that is a sort of a characteristic of all jazz musicians, really. They build from what was the preceding moment in their... playing, that... what they do's they take that and go on. Charlie Parker was a good, was good for that. He'd take your phrase that you just played and play it, maybe play it once -- or maybe play it twice -- and then he'd build on that as his solo progressed...it has been 'did'... and it has been 'did' many times in [by] musicians.

A comment on unity: Gillespie: Everything does not end. You're playing and you're resolving these notes into a framework of chord changes and going, going...sometimes they don't end.

Focus on the Phrase The model’s emphasis is firmly focused on the level of the individual phrase and the view espoused here is that is where Gillespie’s attention was focused. Like all mature soloists, he paced himself and played 6 to the structure of the song, but to have an accurate model of how he thought of phrases is to basically show how he was thinking. The model doesn’t deny the existence of a relationship between phrases, indeed the model has “previous phrases of the solo” as one of the real time inputs.

The Gestalt-based work of Lerdahl and Jackendoff supports the contention that each phrase constitutes a thought. The criteria of the Grouping Preference Rules (GPR) support the division of a transcribed solo into perceptually distinct phrases. The idea that a phrase may then be placed in an overall category, such as “vocal/bluesy, harmonic, substitute-harmonic or extended-harmonic, is based on a fundamental Gestalt tenet,

There are wholes, the behavior of which is not determined by any of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole. (Wertheimer, 1925)

The way in which the musician moves from the deep structure to a shallow structure is the least well defined aspect of the model; the diagram depicts a set of inputs that affect how the musician phrases, but does not seek to explain how a soloist such as Gillespie decides to begin a phrase at a particular rhythmic location. Nor is it explicitly stated how a soloist comes to choose whether to play a harmonic or tonal phrase. The types of input listed in the model are clearly reflected in Gillespie's Perdido solo. The first phrase of the solo is a varied repetition of the final phrase of the preceding solo by saxophonist Charlie Parker. The high register fireworks at the beginning of the third chorus are, in my opinion, a reaction to the "live" jam session setting of the recording.

An Application of the Model: Gillespie’s solo on Perdido This solo is from the Jazz at concert recorded May 15, 1953. The recording is subtitled The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever. The other musicians were Charlie Parker, , and . The recording of Perdido fades in with the last eight bars of the melody played over an Afro-Cuban beat. This is followed by Parker's solo, then Gillespie's solo, pianist Bud Powell's solo, drummer Max Roach's solo, and then eight bars out with Parker playing the melody and Gillespie playing in the upper range. The original release and many subsequent issues of this recording have bass parts that Charles Mingus later overdubbed, so these bass parts are of special interest to students in terms of clarifying the harmonic thinking of the group.

Perdido is a 32-bar AABA tune by Duke Ellington and . The Bridge (“B” section) is a series of extended dominants (an “I Got Rhythm” Bridge). The “A” sections are made of two very similar 4 bar phrases. Many fakebooks give the changes as being C-7 /// F7/// Bb/// //// (these are the changes that David Baker attributes to Parkers's solo), this cadential chord progression is one version of the last phrase of a 12-bar blues. When I spoke with Gillespie about this tune, he described the chord structure as "C-, F, |C-, F, |Bb, Eb, |D-, Db,| C-, F,| C-, Bb..." In his memoirs Gillespie speaks to the concept of harmonic ambiguity “Bebop pianists [like Bud Powell, mentioned in his previous sentence] didn’t lay down the changes; some, like Monk [Powell’s mentor], just embellished them. If you’re playing with Monk and you don’t know the changes, shame on you. You’ll never hear them from him.” (Gillespie, 1979) That this openness in the Rhythm section then allows the soloist harmonic freedom is central to understanding the Bebop style.

Owens points out that Parker had the "habit of playing the first solo of the piece..." meaning that all the other soloists had to follow him -- Dizzy was probably the only colleague who didn't find that prospect intimidating. Gillespie's solo on Perdido is a wonderful combination of fluid bebop phrases and crowd pleasing upper register displays. The crowd's enthusiastic reaction to 7

Gillespie's climactic high F can be clearly heard on the recording.

Excerpts from the solo (figure 2, below) show how Gillespie’s phrases vary in their construction/conception even while the harmonic “prompt” the “A” section of Perdido remains constant. In the figure, the phrases are visually lined up to correlate with the chord chart at the top. Pick up bars begin on the left margin of the page.

Conclusions Course offerings in a Jazz program can be mapped onto the model. In order for the “real time inputs” to function, a musician must have studied (formally or informally) Ear Training, listened to and absorbed Jazz History. Through instrumental study the student needs to have practiced and developed a vocabulary of formulas (after Porter, 1985). The study of Jazz harmony and chord substitutions enable the musician to have control over and vary the various harmonic phrase referents, “learning the piano,” as Dizzy would put it, is essential. Vocal classes that emphasis singing the blues would round out a student’s preparation for being able to improvise a Jazz solo.

This model is presented with the idea that Jazz improvisation is best understood as a process, even a behavior, as opposed to a particular product, a transcription. Modifications to make the model fit other players can easily be imagined with branches for specific kinds of chord substitutions, or a branch that indicates that the player is playing “time, no changes.” In it’s simplest form, the model posits a context with two main ways of reacting. These two ways are termed vocal versus instrumental, but in more general terms they may be thought of as heart versus head or right brain versus left brain. It is possible then that this model may be able to be adapted to fit some other kind of improvisation, cognition or behavior. If the model can be adapted to show how an individual reacts to other people’s behavior, it would not surprise the many musicians who repeat the aphorism, “Jazz is life.”

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Figure 2 - Excerpted phrase examples from Dizzy Gillespie's Solo on Perdido from Jazz at Massey Hall, The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever. The location of each excerpt is given with reference to 1) Which chorus (the solo is 4 choruses long, 4 x 32 bar) 2) Which "A" section from the AABA Form, A1, A2 or A3 3) The bar 1-8 with the section. Thus bar 2A3, 8 is the 8th bar in the 3rd A section in the 2nd chorus

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REFERENCES

Gillespie, John Birks "Dizzy" with Al Fraser, (1979) To Be or Not to Bop. New York: Doubleday.

Johnson-Laird, P.N., (2002) How Jazz Musicians Improvise. Music Perception,Vol. 19, No. 3, (pp. 415-442).

Lerdahl, Fred and Ray Jackendoff, (1983) A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Included in this work is a general defense of the application of "out of date" Gestalt concepts.

Levy, James D. (1993) A Model of Phrase Improvisation in the Music of John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (1940-1955) Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Maryland College Park. Contains interview with Gillespie, conducted on November 30, 1990. Interview excerpt at https://youtu.be/r9__-N3AGfc

Menn, Don (1992) Secrets from the Masters: Conversations With Forty Great Guitar Players from the pages of Guitar Player Magazine. San Francisco : GPI Books.

Owens, Thomas (1974) Charlie Parker, Techniques of Improvisation (Ph.D. diss. UCLA). Owens analyzes approximately 250 solos.

Porter, Lewis (1985) Lester Young, Boston: Da Capo Press. Porter bases his analyses, which derive a series of "formulas," on thirty-four transcribed solos.

Perlman, Alan and Daniel Greenblatt, (1981) Miles Davis Meets Noam Chomsky: Some Observations on Jazz Improvisation and Language Structure, in The Sign in Music and Literature (pp. 169-183) ed. Wendy Steiner. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Pressing, Jeff (1984) Cognitive Processes in Improvisation, in Cognitive Processes in the Perception of Art, ed. Crozier and Chapman (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science publishers, 1984).

Russell, George (1959) The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization for Improvisation, rev. ed. New York: Concept.

Schuller, Gunther (1968) Early Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press.

Winthrop Sargeant (1975) Jazz: Hot and Hybrid 3rd ed. New York Da Capo Press, [1st ed. 1938]

Serafine, Mary Louise. Music As Cognition. New York, Columbia University Press, 1988.

Strunk, Steven (1985) Bebop Melodic Lines: Tonal Characteristics, Annual Review of Jazz Studies 3), 97-120.

______(1979) The Harmony of Early Bop: A Layered Approach," Journal of Jazz Studies 6, no. 1, 4-53.