January Down Beat: Building A Solo, Blindfold Test

I have to pick up a copy of Down Beat. In the January issue, on newsstands now, there's an article entitled "The Art of the Solo" by Bob Davis. Here's an excerpt:

Something new coming up every time is vital for Herbie Hancock, for whom even stating the melody and sticking to the song are less important. He doesn’t like to present what people expect. “I set about trying to design the presentation so that it’s more of an experience for the audience,” he said. “As far as the shape of the music is concerned, many pieces I reharmonize, or at least reshape the arrangement, so that it’s not always just a melody and then there’s improvisation, then the melody and then it’s out. “Wayne Shorter’s group is interesting because they don’t take that approach at all,” Hancock continued. “Wayne plays a few phrases, and next you’ll hear Danilo Pérez playing. He’ll go off on something, complete some idea, but it’s not like a whole long solo. It’s an idea that can be picked up by the bass or drums. Sometimes they all play together.”

That atypical structure—an animated toss-and-catch dialogue instead of serial soliloquies—is a freer form of group improvisation, a musical conversation in which players don’t merely support but actually build upon each other’s ideas. Ahmad Jamal has another approach—the entire ensemble is his instrument and the entire song is a solo. “There’s the role of the architect,” Jamal said. “Building blocks. You have to build if you’re a musician. You have to be a musical architect, if you have the players who can do that. I like the idea of building and ending when it’s complete—not before it’s complete. I like to build as perfect a structure musically as I can.”

I also really want to read the blindfold test, which was done live with Cassandra Wilson at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Check out who she was listening to:

Betty Carter: "In The Still Of The Night" from It's Not About The Melody (Verve)
Joe Henry: "Stop" from Amor (Mammoth)
Ray Charles: "The Years Of Torture" from Blues + Jazz (Rhino/Atlantic)
Shirley Horn: "My Funny Valentine" from I Remember Miles (Verve)
Dee Dee Bridgewater: "Red Earth" from Red Earth (EmArcy)
Lizz Wright: "My Heart" from The Orchard (Verve)
Dorothy Love Coates: "Ninety-Nine And A Half" from The Best Of Dorothy Love Coates And The Original Gospel Harmonettes (Specialty)
Abbey Lincoln: "I Could Sing It For A Sing" from Over The Years (Verve)