Pattern use in bass lines of two eminent jazz musicians

Several authors have claimed that at least some jazz musicians have built their improvisations largely from pre-learned patterns. In this exploratory study, forty-two transcriptions of Paul Chambers’s and Ron Carter’s bass lines were analyzed to investigate the extent of pattern use in jazz improvisation. Results indicate that patterns played a less important role in Paul Chambers’s and Ron Carter’s bass lines compared to results from earlier studies, most of which investigated solos of Charlie Parker and other saxophone players. When analyzing the same data with methods used in previous studies, the proportion and the number of recurring patterns increased considerably. These results support the view that patterns play an important role in jazz improvisation but indicate that earlier studies may have overestimated the role of pattern use in jazz improvisation.