I'm participating in TMEA's All Region Jazz auditions (area 5) on Saturday and was wondering if anybody had any advice on the improvised Montuno section of the third etude.

The etude is attached.
The section starts at Measure 9 and the progression for the section goes

Measure 9; Bbmin7
Measure 10; Eb7
Measure 11; AbMaj7
Measure 12; AbMaj7
Measure 13; Dm7
Measure 14; G7
Measure 15; Gmin7
Measure 16; C7

I'm fairly certain keeping the rhythms the same and just changing the chords is the way to go but I'm not quite sure. I'm also not sure how to go about picking out voicings but I know that I should try to keep the top two notes of the montuno the same throughout.

Any advice?

Wait, doesn't improvise mean on-the-spot? :V


I'm not sure what to say because I don't wholly understand what's happening. You're playing someone's piece, and he has a section that's supposed to be improvised, so you're making it now and playing it later?


(This is by no means the final version, right?)

Lots of people write out their "improv" sections, especially for difficult passages and especially for auditions. Outside of this, writing out solos can give you good ideas for what you actually play.

And even players who make region probably cannot improv two syncopated rhythms that fit into the montuno changes.

Nvm. I'll just write a chorale with those chord changes and change the rhythms to fit and maybe it won't sound bad.