Description
The Non-Jazz Improvisation series is a concept that originated in Dick Weissman's mind while he was attending music school. He wrote a 15-piece arrangement of the old square dance tune Cripple Creek and wanted the trombone to take a solo as part of the arrangement. When the trombonist kept playing a bebop solo that was totally unsuitable for the chart, Dick realized that—in addition to the many musicians who do not improvise—there are even jazz musicians who don't know how to improvise outside the limits of their own stylistic backgrounds.
The Non-Jazz Improvisation series mostly includes new original tunes that are intended to show how to improvise in many musical styles, including:
- Blues
- Country
- American Folk
- Latin-American
- World Music (including South American, Eastern European, and Asian)
- Odd Meters (playing in a variety of time signatures)
- New Age
- Classical
- Folk-Rock
In short, the books are an encyclopedia of virtually every musical style, excluding jazz.