Dave Lalama...Day 4

Another eventful workshop. The workload is getting more challenging, which is a good thing, of course. We're intensely examining the rhythm changes form; I understand all of the roman numerals and why each chord functions the way it does. The only thing that's still confusing me is these secondary chords, like V of IV and VII of V...I understand what they mean, but when Dave asks me to explain the function of the chords "Ebmaj7, E7b5, D-7) it takes me a minute to figure it out, so I need to be able to grasp that concept quicker. Dave gave me two important books to buy (Jazz Improvisation by Scott. D Reeves and The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine) so I plan to buy those ASAP and just shed all the material and exercises in them until they're burnt into my brain. And even though I'm a sax player, I need to study Bach and classical theory, because that does have its influence on jazz, and as Dave said, "If Bach were alive in the 50s, he would've been Bud Powell."