Linear Expressions

So I'm going through Martino's book Linear Expressions (Amazon link). It basically involves a demonstration of his "convert to minor" concept. The concept is pretty well documented on the web - I won't be giving away any secrets here because there aren't any! Pat attempts to simplify playing over changes by approaching sets of changes as opportunities to deploy minor lines.

This isn't quite a modal approach. He really means lines, and that's what the book contains. Harmonically, the lines sound mostly dorian to me, but he uses chromatics and the raised 7th enough, as well as interesting arpeggios and intervals, to make characterizing these lines as scalar inaccurate. So, to play over a G7, for instance, one might apply a D minor "line". And, of course, over 2-5-1s, one might just forget about the 5 and just treat it as a 2-5. Anyhow, it's a great approach for simplifying changes.

One big question I'll be exploring as I move through the book is how to deploy these lines in actual musical contexts. This might seem like an easy thing to do, but once you consider that most performed jazz doesn't necessarily obey the time structure of a preconceived line (e.g., the changes change faster than a 3 measure line), and that good improv involves connecting ideas across changes, then it becomes pretty apparent that using these lines won't be as simply as "play A, then B, then C".

Martino actually has a third section of the book where he demonstrates connecting the lines, so he's quite aware of this. I'll be eager to see how this plays out.