@Meghai Choudhury generally on dominant chords where it gives you access to all the altered tensions in one go (b9, #9, #11, b13) - I think I actually picked up this particular sound/lick from Bill Evans on Night and Day (from the Everybody Digs Bill Evans album, right at the start of his solo at about 1:43) and actually now that I'm thinking about it I wonder if he's perhaps not thinking altered but diminished on there...?? (altered scale is basically diminished for the first half and then whole tone for the second half). I'm still figuring all this stuff out ha, I'm sure Matt would have better advice and exercises for altered scale bits in particular

@Kaia K ah that's very generous of you! I didn't know this tune, it's lovely, have had a first crack at a noodle on it (including an inelegant attempt at getting this week's lick in there, I'm working on not giving away what I think of my playing with my facial expressions ha) Need rather a bit more work to get my ears round this one I think and not be relying on inserting licks randomly, and especially making that shift to E major in the A section work smoothly. Might update when I've learned it properly and can play without reading the chords

Been working on some bebop heads to get some language down but been not quite brave enough to get them out at jams yet... It has helped though! Also been enjoying working on All the Things You Are and Have You Met Miss Jones, both of which have surprisingly confusing B sections which feel like eating your greens sort of practice getting the hang of...

@Matt Holborn ooh have not heard of the Coltrane matrix, thank you, gonna go head down that rabbit hole!

Premier access to all courses sounds great. I enjoyed the practice club way back in lockdown and signed up again briefly recently but I couldn't come most weeks so dropped it again - if there was an option to drop in occasionally (or maybe have a premier tier 1 practice club credit per month sort of thing? Although maybe too complicated admin) I'd make use of that

@Matt Holborn yeah I reckon so, ideally with flexibility as to which week to come, that'd be cool :)

I think my bar for what I count as "knowing" has gone up recently - I used to be quite content to busk along with the melody in mind and trust my ear, but I've realised that if I get the harmony down to the point that I can have a few ideas handy over the tricky corners then I'll be much more confident in improvising and less likely to get lost in the form. For example I've been working on All The Things You Are, and trying to find a few ways to get from the B section back into the final A section. My knowledge of the tune goes deeper than the melody and I'm not relying on the melody for my improvisation ideas. I also feel like if the rhythm section dropped out and if it was left to me to comp behind a soloist then I could do it, and that to me is now what I'm aiming for - self reliance essentially!

I'd come across this album of John Blake jr's before but hadn't looked further, really like the track you showed on the video so will go searching! https://open.spotify.com/album/1XfKwptlrrB4lBXwqyAF66?si=Iy5ZRiiQSL6AnMj_uXABNw

Also there's a nice album by Paul Bura and I've not managed to find anything else by him, not that old though so he must still be around https://open.spotify.com/album/3XnOietMkWcWDQNhMpNBnR?si=iNRftGf4TLunpRq6EUXgkg