” ‘Jazz Jungle’ is from John McLaughlin’s CD from a few years back called ‘The Promise’. It’s a good old fashioned fusion barn burner. It has an all star cast that includes the late great Michael Brecker on sax, Dennis Chambers on drums, James Genus on bass and Jim Beard on keys. It’s a fast funk feel and the tune is modal and is really just over D-7. It has a few changes on the Bridge but it’s primarily just centered around D-7. John’s solo is highly chromatic and in future columns I’ll feature some of John’s solos over modal changes. I highly recommend picking up McLaughlin’s 3 DVD Instructional program called ‘This is the Way I Do It.’ You can buy it here www.abstractlogix.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17686

It’s the best jazz improvisation program I’ve come across and is applicable to ALL instrumentalists. But for now see if you can work up ‘Jazz Jungle’ and be able to play along with it on the CD. It’s pretty fast and has some interesting twists and turns. When it comes to playing jazz, it really is a jungle out there.”