SONNY ROLLINS
For now I am not going to do an in depth analasis of Sonny Rollins’s solo on St. Thomas, but I want to use this short extract to illustrate a masterful use of a very simple but highly effective jazz improvisation technique, development of a motif. This is probably the simplest motif imagineable, just two notes.
The tune is a 16 bar tune in AABC form. This extract starts with the final 4 bars (C section) of the tune.
After these final four bars of the tune, you can hear this two note fragment which starts the solo (A down to D in tenor pitch, or concert G to C). He "kicks" this around for 8 bars, changing the odd note or adding one here and there, then goes off into a long line for 4 bars of the first B section before playing around with the motif again for 4 bars over the C section.
All of this is very well crafted, humourous and it keeps the listener wondering what he will do next, but it’s the next chorus that shows his real genius. He continues "kicking" the motif around for 4 bars, but then goes into a very long line and we think he's finally abandoned the motif and is off into the rest of the solo in typical Rollins post bebop style. However after almost 12 bars he ends awith a descending line beautifully and perfectly back on the motif:
