To continue, I believe it is important to consider the musical dimensions where jazz improvisation can take place. Some of these are quite familiar to many of us (such as melodic improvisation), however the others may not be so obvious. Warne's point of view on each of these elements of music was characteristically unique, and as a starting point his use of the term "melody" as detailed in the preceding section carried a very different set of associations than are generally implied. That said, even in considering a conventional definition of melody (according to dictionary. com: "a rhythmically organized sequence of single tones so related to one another as to make up a particular phrase or idea") I hope that the musical examples of Warne's playing and writing that have been offered to support this text will foster an appreciation of his unique approach in improvising melodies or jazz lines. It is also clear that Warne's work and approach to rhythm is an extension of his work and studies with Lennie Tristano, and taken together their contributions comprise a highly individual approach to rhythm and meter in the context of jazz. Rhythm is addressed in detail in the section covering meter studies, however in the interest of overview I was struck that in answering my questions on rhythm in our first lesson that Warne tied in both the harmonic and melodic dimensions to their rhythmic expression, and in working through the meter studies it was clear that melody, rhythm, and harmony were inseparable.
Regarding harmonic improvisation there are a few ways that the term might be interpreted, and these generally can be divided between the functions of a soloist as opposed to those of a rhythm section player in a jazz group. In Warne's view, as a soloist he would rather play within a simple underlying harmonic context that would leave him free to improvise harmonic structures in his lines (in fact, the only other harmonic instrument in many of his recordings or performances was a bass). Since the song forms used as background structures were generally standards that were popular in jazz this more took the shape of improvising extensions of harmonies that could take the melodic line and therefore the background harmonic structure into polytonal regions. His approach is in contrast to that taught to me by Sonny Dallas, and Sonny drew many of his ideas on jazz chord substitution from his work with jazz pianist George Wallington, one of the foremost followers of Bud Powell. In that approach to harmonic improvising the underlying harmonies of a song form would be re-worked, and this was generally according to new approaches to the ii-V harmonic movement. In the following video clip Warne discusses some of the ideas regarding jazz harmony that were evolving in the 1940's:
tonal harmony workbook answer key pdf.87
In some systems of jazz harmonic terminology this would be called a "C Major13+11" arpeggio, however Warne referred to this chord as an extended tonic major harmony. The organizing principle is the superimposition of overlapping tonal centers in a series of 5th relationships: C Major, G Major, D Major, and if there is room available on an instrument, A Major. The available notes would then form the chord shown above however one notable difference with other systems used in teaching jazz improvisation is that the scale that corresponds with this harmony contains some different available notes in each octave:
In more standard terms this first dominant harmony could be described as C13+11, however in the polytonal context Warne described this harmony as the combination of a tonic minor sound built on the 5th degree of the associated dominant 7th chord. So the scale associated with this harmony would begin as a C Major scale, however once the note G was reached in the lower octave the scale tones from that point would be identical to a G tonic Minor (or G melodic minor) scale:
This final altered dominant 7th chord is actually used quite a bit in jazz, although again not exactly in the context taught by Warne. The idea here is to superimpose a tonic minor scale/arpeggio beginning on the b9 of the dominant chord, so if the lower chord is C7 then the superimposed tonic minor scale would begin on either Db or C# in the second octave. Also, the segment of this scale from C in the second octave to the C above the staff is sometimes called the "super Locrian" scale. However, as in the other polytonal harmonies the available notes in this harmony/scale change depending on the octave, so we begin with a C7 scale (either mixolydian mode on C, or dominant harmony #1 in this explanation) but move into Db melodic minor in the second octave once the b9 chord tone is available. As in the second dominant harmony Warne liked the additional altered chord tones in the third octave, in this case the b9 and #11 (both transposed up an octave) of the C7 chord.
This beginning 'work' or study becomes quite interesting when the scales and arpeggios are expanded beyond an octave. Once comfortable with the material within the octave I encourage taking each of the five extended harmonies discussed in the polytonal overview and working through them in the same way: playing slowly upward and downward, as a keyboard harmony study, and also singing.
In conclusion then, the meter work is quite interesting on its own terms as a jazz study that can build "technique" and strikes me as being similar to studies of both counterpoint and harmony in traditional musical education. In my view the meter work in this way was meant to give a player the ability to feel more than one meter at once, become fluent in a polytonal environment, create a framework for working through a piece of material, and finally to stimulate ideas that could be used both in writing and in playing spontaneously. As a last musical example in this section here is a private recording of Warne playing "Leave Me" with a quartet in 1975 and then improvising several choruses using some of the material as a springboard to his unique and ingenious spontaneous imagination. 2ff7e9595c
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