Been Practicing, Still Hesitating

I’ve heard at least two great guitar players say nobody really improvises 100 percent.  Licks will always be played.  Scott Henderson said it’s a 50-50 ratio.  Emily Remler, if I’m not mistaken, puts it at 30 percent improvisation.

Well, my difficulty is making a seamless transition from improvising to inserting the licks and the other way around.  This “lapse in judgement” accounts for most of my mistakes.  Yeah, I sure do need lots and lots of practice, the luxury of which I can’t afford.

Anyway, here’s a take on that popular jazz standard using a solid body and a little overdrive — and some compression, equalization, reverb and delay — everything as subtle as possible.  Hehehe, I couldn’t help but step on those pedals.  I couldn’t stop myself from comping along either, so I decided to play one round and looped it so I could get on with the soloing right away.

I wanted to rename the title of this recording to “Victory Jam,” but it wouldn’t make sense to those who didn’t know why.  Anyway, my sincerest thanks to my high school buddies for introducing me to that strange form of music — Efren, Chet., Joey, Rikki and finally Roland, who I last saw at one of our gigs way back in the ’80s.  This jam is for you guys … and for the VICTORY!!!  And for Mr. Black, who’s now Black and Blue.  Hehehe.

All the Things You Are - Linear Improvisation.mp3