I am a Tenor Saxaphoist, and have been roughly intorduced t Jazz. My main feedack from evryone that I solo to is that they werent quite interested in what I had to say. Which I guess means that I was not improving to the style of the music. A common problem I know. I have the hardest challenge with improving to a latin beat, but no problems when it comes to blues. I guess what Im trying to ask is, how do I improv to certain styles of music, such as latin, rock, bebop, bossa nova, funk, smooth jazz, and swing? I have been recently trying to take a section of the song and play around with that, but after about 2 measures there is not much else I can think to do with it. When improving, do you take a beat and make new beats from that derived part, or do you just keep making up new beats, also, in your personal onpinion, is it good to jump from say the major 3rd to the minor 7th? Then go to the major 1st and 5th? Or should you limit yourself to a few notes per measure?

I`m a little confused with what you`re trying to say, so get back to me...

In the meantime, it`s a good idea to learn what scales go with what chords. The Jamey Aebersold series is pretty good with that, plus they come with play-a-long sets for tunes by different jazz musicians. You should check that out!

As for different styles, and trying to pick up on how to improv on them, take some recordings of each genre and LISTEN. Listen to see if they`re doing technical lines with a lot of notes, or if they`re being more melodic and phrasing them more.

Hope this helps.