5 Essential Jazz Albums for Aspiring Improvisers

Grab these five records and work through them one at a time. Each one targets a different improv skill you can test on your instrument right away.

Listen with a Goal in Mind

Put the album on and pick one solo. Follow it all the way through without playing along yet. Sing the first phrase out loud, then match it on your horn in the original key.

• Write down the form once
• Mark where the soloist changes direction
• Copy four bars exactly before you add your own ideas

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis

So What holds one mode for sixteen bars at a time. Start your own solo by staying inside D dorian for the first chorus, then shift to E flat dorian when the form repeats. Miles places a single chromatic note on beat three of bar five. Try that exact placement on your next pass.

Giant Steps by John Coltrane

The title track moves through three keys every eight bars. Slow the changes to quarter notes and play the major triads in sequence until your fingers know the order. Coltrane’s solo opens with an arpeggio that hits the third of each new chord on the downbeat. Match that pattern first, then fill in the connecting notes.

Three More Albums to Study Next

Once the first two records feel workable, move to these.

• Saxophone Colossus by Sonny Rollins: On St. Thomas he takes a three-note motive and moves it across the blues form. Lift the first eight bars and shift the motive to start on different beats.
• Brilliant Corners by Thelonious Monk: Monk drops accents on the off beats behind the melody. Play the head of the title track and add one displaced chord on beat two of every other bar.
• Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock: The title track sits on suspended chords. Use only the pentatonic scale that skips the third for your first chorus, then add one chord tone on the final bar of each phrase.