ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 discusses enclosures, an embellishment employed often by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. With this technique, improvisers precede harmonic target notes with multiple chromatic pitches above and below. Enclosures are often used to connect guide tones from one chord to the next, a form of highly chromatic voice leading. The chapter presents and analyzes a transcription of a highly effective solo excerpt by saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown over the chords to Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite” which demonstrates enclosures using a variety of contours. The chapter then focuses on two enclosure patterns whose shapes depend on whether the target pitch’s diatonic upper neighbor is a half step or whole step above. Subsequent improvisation exercises involve practicing enclosures on major and minor scales and on triads. Exercises later in the chapter include enclosing the “Distilled Saints Melody” and “Mike’s Original Saints Melody,” introduced in Chapter 2, as well as the reader’s own melody. The chapter concludes by suggesting advanced studies rhythmically displacing enclosures in several ways. The chapter ends with a jazz etude called “Enclosable You.”
