By Jerry Bergonzi
This is a topic that few teachers are able to talk about with any convincing amount of authority....and that is phrasing. Many teachers and authors are really good at taking a student through theory and showing someone how to understand harmony, chord scales, etc...but as far as using those tools and how to practice rhythm in general...many people are at a loss. I've heard Michael Brecker himself talk about how 50% (and maybe more) of sounding good as an improviser is rhythmic and phrasing related...in other words, not the actual notes you play, but how you play them.
This book gives you rhythmic examples to practice when soloing....i.e 3 notes per bar phrasing, 4 notes, 5, etc. He talks about rhythmic displacement techniques...i.e taking one melodic motif and embellishing the notes rhythmically...starting the phrase earlier or later, rhythmic augmentation and diminution...etc. There is also a great exercise on triplets....I've shown some of these examples to my students because it can be so helpful for anyone who is wanting to swing harder. Being "in the pocket" as Jerry describes it involves feeling the triplet in a swing setting. There is also a big section on polyrhythmic soloing for the more advanced students. Once again, the book is complete with play along cd with chord changes based on well known standards at 2 different tempos.
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