Jazz pianist Dave McKenna's recording of Rodgers and Hart's Have You Met Miss Jones? reveals clever improvisational strategies, procedures, and devices. For instance, throughout the multiple improvised choruses McKenna slowly expands in register, creating a sense of large-scale unity. In one instance, McKenna also borrows melodic material from the song How to Handle a Woman by Lerner and Loewe. McKenna also uses a "polymetric riff" and when returning to the "head," his restatement of the melody recollects salient features from the improvisation. McKenna's insertions of fragments of the melody within his improvised choruses reveal that in this case, the performer does not improvise simply over harmonic changes, but also keeps the original tune in mind.

Works: Rodgers/Hart: Have You Met Miss Jones? as performed by Dave McKenna.

Sources: Rodgers/Hart: Have You Met Miss Jones?; Lerner/Loewe: How to Handle a Woman (293).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Eytan Uslan