My progress toward being competent at what I call jazz has three main components.
The social component is playing music with others. I believe that jazz is not the music itself so much as what happens in the communication between players when they really listen, the sum being greater than the parts.
The educational component is a book by Mickey Baker called "Improvising Jazz" which I picked up about 40 years ago. It is not about guitar playing, it is conceptual. It is still available.
The third crucial component is practice. I am a great fan of Chuck Sher's "New Real Book" series, but there are many scores which lay out intelligent harmonizations of the great American songbook, and playing through the changes and learning the tunes is the thing.
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