> I just don’t get jazz at all. It’s fun to mess around on stage, and play free form IMHO, that's so unusual in a jazz setting that it's almost always expressl

> I just don’t get jazz at all. It’s fun to mess around on stage, and play free form IMHO, that's so unusual in a jazz setting that it's almost always expressly declared as such - ie "free jazz" or "experimental". And even that relies primarily on preparation and practice to be done well. IMHO, performing jazz is a delicate process of painting within the lines - so that you don't tread on the toes of everyone playing with you - lines you are all expected to know if you are going to get on stage and play a specific song together - while creating the illusion that you are all just messing about. And you are doing that while navigating a complex conjugation of harmonic structures, substitutions and alternatives, while seamlessly recombining the songs' melody with jazz idioms, rehearsed licks and runs, and admittedly, some improvisation, all while you try to say something new and original that your audience will be interested to hear. So, you have to lean a lot on preparation and personal rehearsal (and group rehearsal), because you are listening, reacting and managing so many things at once that if you can't rely on muscle memory to keep up with the chord changes, and haven't sufficiently navigated several ways through them ahead of time (what if one of your bandmates decides to reharmonize some section in a way that precludes the scales you were planning to use to get through it?), you'll fall on your face.