jazz education


Licks, Clichés and a Sunrise Mathew Buchman, WMEA State Chair, Jazz Education


Lick (lĭk) –n. 1. The act or process of licking. 2. A small quantity; bit. 3. A deposit of exposed natural salt that is licked by passing animals. 4. A sudden hard stroke; blow.1


Of the four possible meanings of the word “lick,” the second definition above is probably closest to its slang usage in jazz parlance: a small bit of musical in- formation designed to work in a specific harmonic context. But I dislike the term when discussing jazz improvisation. The first definition may contribute to my ob- jection, which evokes an image of a rock guitarist flicking their tongue along the neck of their instruments, mischievously eyeing the camera while playing their favorite...lick. Or maybe my aversion has more to do with an idiom like “a lick and a promise,” which the same diction- ary defines as “a superficial effort made without care or enthusiasm.” I fully realize at this point some of you may be rolling your eyes. But terminology is important. I prefer using words that are commensurate with the dignity the art form deserves. But more importantly, words affect how we think about things. An “idea” encour- ages development, whereas a “lick” is too small, too limited. After all, Mr. Rogers tells us “ideas can grow in the garden of your mind.” What can “licks” do?


The Cliché


Some of the more famous “licks” have be- come clichés, which can too easily lead to uncreative mechanical reproduction. This is certainly not meant as an indictment of musicians who use clichés – I use them myself! In fact, they are incredibly useful in introducing vocabulary to develop- ing improvisers. But without too much effort, we can use clichés as examples of important musical principles and not ends unto themselves. I want to introduce students to these ideas as starting points, not roundabouts.


Let’s take two of the most commonly used six-note phrases in the jazz vocabulary (see Example 1). These are so ubiquitous, they have been given names.2


Gaining


fluency with these (or any) ideas requires learning them in all twelve keys without the aid of notation. This is an incredibly important first step. We are aiming for the ability to recall these ideas at a moment’s notice while improvising, so memoriza- tion is crucial. The second helpful step is to explore the idea’s harmonic potential. For example, the so-called “bebop lick” is usually introduced as an idea which works


Example 1


& 4 4 œ œ œb œ œ œ Œ


Example 2


& œ œb œ œ œ œ Œ C7


œ œb œ œ œ œb 52 & ### ‰


A œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ maj7


[ ΠExample 3: Keith Jarrett solo, Forest Flower (1966)


œ œ œ œ œ œ œn œ# œ œ œ œ œ œ œ January 2021


] œ œ# œ œ œ# œ Œ bœ bœ œb œb œ œb œb œ


over a dominant chord. In this context, the idea starts on the root, descends to the seventh through a chromatic passing tone, leaps up to the ninth on the “and” of beat two, then leaps down a perfect fourth to the upper neighbor of 5̂ , before resolv- ing down a step. However, this idea also works with a minor 7th chord if we think of the first note as 4̂ . In this new harmonic context, the first three pitches become an upper neighbor and chromatic passing tone leading to 3̂ . But it doesn’t stop there. If we think of the B-flat as 5̂ , the idea works over an E-flat major 7 chord (with a sharp 11). Now we have an idea with legs, not just a static object with limited application.


A Sunrise


Let’s take this notion one step further. If we analyze the reason our cliché works we can invent other ideas based on the original. For instance, our “bebop lick” is a descending scale with an interruption. We get the first three notes of the so-called bebop scale (a mixolydian scale with a chromatic half-step between 1̂ and 7̂ ), a leap in the opposite direction, then a return to the next note in the scale, 6̂ . The first two ideas in Example 2 follow the recipe


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