Cannonball's au privave

Assimilation is one way many musicians inherit ideas from their predecessors and begin to develop their own voice. One saxophonist I have enjoyed studying is Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. While studying Cannonball's solo on Au Privave I developed a perspective on how Cannonball may have constructed his improvisations. I've broken down this solo into four digestible steps so that people interested in studying his approach to improvising may have a structured method to their learning. The process begins by breaking down Cannonball's solo to it's main descending line (the framework of the improvisation) and counter-line. The idea of distilling the main descending line is roughly borrowed from Schenkerian analysis, however I have adapted my own set of rules to better reflect the perspective of improvisors as opposed to classical composers. The third and fourth steps reflect Cannonball's use of arpeggios and chromatic approach tones as a means of decorating the main structure. Check out the process here - and please feel free to leave me your thoughts!