the fundamental of jazz is the head. it's not the melody. it's not the rhythm. it's the head.

the head is a phrase or a series of phrases. take so what and break it up into its phrases. note when there's a new phrase or when a phrase has just been transposed. note which phrases are takes on previous phrases. now when you listen to those solos try to identify those phrases or elements of them. there can be a rhythmic component to the phrase. a melodic component. a harmonic component. a modal component. and all of those things can get echoed back throught the song.

the players weave in and out of the head providing space for everyone to be able to play with the heads. playing with the head happens in various ways. cutting the phrase, drawing it out, transposing it, inverting it, taking it through intervals to arrive at another head and then back.

Jazz is all about making connections to the head, figuratively and literally. the player is constantly trying to improve upon his ability to take any head to new places and then bring it back home again.

that's the resolution, not necessarily in the traditional sense where a chord progression resolves itself, but where the head is called, expand upon and resolved back into itself.

free jazz incidentally is allowing the head to be born in the moment and giving it the authority to transform itself so that it never has to resolve (though it can as well). free jazz frees the player from the head by allowing the head to be free as well.


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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."