Listening to the melodic and harmonic language Jaco uses in his obviously improvised solo's (from live concerts) and comparing it to the language he uses in his compositions (Teen Town and Liberty City come to mind) I'd say the Donna Lee solo is composed. Or built on larger preconcieved blocks, possibly transcribed from a lot of sources we might not recognise.
The use of the extensions of the chords, sticking to the upper structure, general bebop language, rhythmical jokes and almost no pentatonic licks really differs from his solo's I've heard on live recordings (including the Metheny and Brian Melvin stuff).
I actually think it's great. He's a superb storyteller when he comes up with this stuff, and it might be near to impossible to improvise this. Herbie Hancock might come close though. I wish he would have composed more solo's in advance, I think his pentatonic shock licks plus harmonics solo's are kinda weak compared to all the other stuff he brought to the game. I wouldn't consider it cheating: Who cares how you come up with it, it's all about the music in the end.
Video's like the Dolphin Dance one are in my opinion a display of Jaco in a bad period. You can almost hear the personal issues in the music and interplay. There's a lot of "stress" in the music to my ears.
I do think Jaco improvised parts like the bass part on Herbie's "4am", which I think is really great. When comping he seems better at it, also see the Joni Mitchell stuff where I feel he's at his peak.
The use of the extensions of the chords, sticking to the upper structure, general bebop language, rhythmical jokes and almost no pentatonic licks really differs from his solo's I've heard on live recordings (including the Metheny and Brian Melvin stuff).
I actually think it's great. He's a superb storyteller when he comes up with this stuff, and it might be near to impossible to improvise this. Herbie Hancock might come close though. I wish he would have composed more solo's in advance, I think his pentatonic shock licks plus harmonics solo's are kinda weak compared to all the other stuff he brought to the game. I wouldn't consider it cheating: Who cares how you come up with it, it's all about the music in the end.
Video's like the Dolphin Dance one are in my opinion a display of Jaco in a bad period. You can almost hear the personal issues in the music and interplay. There's a lot of "stress" in the music to my ears.
I do think Jaco improvised parts like the bass part on Herbie's "4am", which I think is really great. When comping he seems better at it, also see the Joni Mitchell stuff where I feel he's at his peak.
