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JAZZ CONCEPTS
LAST MONTH WE LOOKED AT A COMMON LICK, APPROPRIATELY CALLED "The Lick," that has been making the rounds in jazz solos for decades and has recently become an online phenomenon. Why do we need licks and patterns when we improvise? Licks are always part of our musical vocabulary, whether we admit it or not. Some musicians say licks should be avoided and we should always create new melodies and bass lines in real time. That's impossible, though! We need licks we can play all over the bass and to fit every musical situation we encounter. Licks, and their close relatives - scales, arpeggios, and patterns - are building blocks of our musical vocabulary.
This month, let's look at a two-chorus solo, packed with licks, over the harmonic progression to the jazz standard "Solar." This jam-session favorite is played worldwide by students and pros alike because of its short 12-bar form, the comfortably open C minor sound in the first three bars, and subsequent harmonic movement through several IlmV-I progressions.
Note the following:
Bars 1-2 The opening solo statement outlines the sound of C minor with the note B, which is a major 7th (a Cmmafl chord). The typical Cm7 chord would contain the note B[musical flat] (the flatted 7th) rather than B, but in this chord progression we use Cmmaj7.