Cornelius Bumpus sax solo from Real Love

A solo I'm learning on violin. I love it and it's not too challenging either. Youtube's new Clips feature is a great help for extracting solos and licks like this - just take a clip of what you want, then use the speed control to slow it down as needed.

Improvisation articles/videos

"Adam Maness talks you through why and how to transcribe."

https://www.openstudiojazz.com/the-easy-way

Pat Metheny explaining to Rick Beato how to get started with building a solo on his tune James

Eugene Friesen Cello Looping Lesson

Nice lesson by Eugene Friesen, which mentions accompanying sheet music:

Some debate on Chord Scale Theory for Improvising

Berkelee College Of Music has a reputation of being one of the best places in the world to study jazz improvisation.  This is what one Berklee instructor had to say, in response to this article in which the author criticizes Chord Scale Theory:

Being a teacher at Berklee, I hear these discussions all the time. The chord scale concept is meant to give you a series of notes to pick from over a chord while improvising. The problem is that if the chords are moving too fast, you can't really play all the notes in the scale and have it come out musical-sounding. 

The chord scale concept was never meant to be used that way. Just the same, beginner improvisers often try their best to be able to get every note of every scale over every chord. Teachers let them do it because it's a good way to learn. There's a point where it becomes obvious to the student that it doesn't work. It's not about know "all the notes" as much as knowing "the right notes" and putting them in the "right places"

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You can't learn that from any scale. 

Yup. Practice more.

Jazz and piano advice retrieved from old forum posts

After quite a layoff from practicing the Bach Two-Part Inventions (actually, I only practiced No.1 and was noodling with No.2 a bit), I searched old forum posts for the advice that I dimly remembered getting as to which of the Inventions to learn first and came across this old thread:

http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2001420/1

Some highlights:

If you want to improve your jazz playing, there are much better ways than that too.
check out Clare Fischer's Harmonic Exercise book from Advanced Publishing for starters.

... I haven't ordered the Clare Fischer book yet. Doh!

(in answer to which Bach Inventions to learn first) No. 1 in C major is a good one to start with. No. 4 in D minor and No. 8 in F major might be good as well.

It turns out the person who I thought steered me to the Bach Inventions was someone else, but this first person called my attention to Bill Dobbin's books. He has a bunch out - I'll have to ask which ones to check out...

Dave Douglas on Ear Training

This article was posted in 2008, but still looks like a worthy read:

Dave Douglas on Ear Training

Messiaen modes for jazz

Nelson Veras is a unique jazz guitarist who has chosen an unusual path for the development of his voice. Click here to go to a page that describes how Veras applies Messiaen modes. The page includes video and audio links.

According to jazz guitarist Gene Ess, there is a book by Masaya Yamaguchi called Symmetrical Scales for Jazz Improvisation that updates Messaien's concepts for the 21st century. I took a peek at some sample pages of this and his other books and they are deep.

STEVE COLEMAN ON CHARLIE PARKER

Steve Coleman is a saxophonist/composer who is one of the more innovative composers in jazz. Here is an incredibly detailed analysis of Charlie Parker's work by Coleman.

STEVE COLEMAN ON CHARLIE PARKER

Cool Music Blog Alert - So Much Sound

So Much Sound is a new blog by NYC-based professional musician Sean Driscoll. I first became aware of this blog when Sean posted his transcription of Drew Zingg's solo over Steely Dan's classic "Peg". He's put up a lot of high quality info - mostly about jazz improvisation - in a short time already.

Keith Jarrett Interview at Jazz.com

In conversation with keith jarrett

I would say the 'cleverness' syndrome has taken the place of melody. It’s like everyone has come down with this terrible disease in jazz. First of all you are always expected to do your own material, which is a strange thing to do if you’re a poor composer but a great player. If you are a great player and luckily you know what great melody is about things can happen that can’t happen otherwise.

Bop Rock with Mike Stern

Bop Rock with Mike Stern

On a recent pit stop home between a date in Honduras and a tour of Japan, Stern squeezed in a private lesson exclusively for Guitar Edge, offering insight into some of his concepts for playing “out,” for playing horn lines on the guitar, for improvising with triads, and for developing monster chops.

Cherokee - performed by Makovicz, Woods, Juris, etc.

Charlie Parker's classic tune "Cherokee" is one of the benchmark tunes for jazz musicians - if you call yourself a jazz musician, you should be able to play this tune, at the typical tempo (pretty darn fast). This is the first time I heard of Polish jazz pianist Dave Makovicz, but he's obviously capable of hanging with this all-star band.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x14wqo_cherokee-dave-makovicz-phil-woods_music

Lee Konitz on Jazz Improvisation

Check out this jazz great's short but sweet interview, in which he offers some insight and opinions on the study and practice of jazz tones.

Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation

Interesting book by Irish jazz musician Ronan Guilfoyle:

This publication is the first of its kind to clearly explain the most recent developments in jazz rhythmic techniques. Intended for use by all instruments, it explains clearly how to go about developing and exploring one's rhythmic technique and how to use these sophisticated techniques in a jazz context. Areas discussed include

Metric Modulation
Subdivision
Odd Metres
Bulgarian music
South Indian Tala system
Multiple subdivision
Polyrhythms
Odd meter polyrhythms
Odd meter modulation.

Each technique is clearly explained and clearly notated and the accompanying CD acts as both a demonstration of the various concepts, and as a playalong CD. There is a comprehensive listening list included in the book as well as 6 compositions that demonstrate the different techniques outlined in the book.

Check his website for more info

Scientific American: How to Unleash Your Creativity

How to Unleash Your Creativity

Charles McNeal

To be honest, I only just now heard of Charles McNeal and I certainly haven't heard his music yet. But his website came up in a thread about soloing - it was mentioned as a source for transcriptions of solos by some great jazz players.

Transcribing the solos of the masters is often recommended to jazz students, but not everyone has time to write down these solos onto paper - I find it a MUCH slower process than learning the solo by ear myself and I suspect I'm not the only one. Enjoy Mr. McNeal's work!

Book: Creative Rhythmic Concepts for Jazz Improvisation

I took a few Indian tabla lessons and have been to a workshop on doumbek drumming for belly dancers. Thus my interest in this book was piqued - it teaches rhythmic concepts for improvisation drawn from the Indian tala system, as well as other rhythmic concepts that are still not commonly used in jazz.

A sample lesson on improvising with Odd Metres, with Quicktime example, can be found here.