| The Art of Improvising | |
| Type: | Live album |
| Artist: | Warne Marsh |
| Cover: | The Art of Improvising.jpg |
| Released: | 1974 |
| Recorded: | February 17 & 24, 1959 |
| Venue: | Half Note Club, NYC |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Length: | 40:55 |
| Label: | Revelation REV 22 |
| Producer: | John William Hardy, Jon Horwich |
| Chronology: | Warne Marsh |
| Prev Title: | Warne Marsh |
| Prev Year: | 1958 |
| Next Title: | The Art of Improvising Volume 2 |
| Next Year: | 1959 |
The Art of Improvising (subtitled Solo Excerpts from 1959 Sessions at the Half Note), is a live album by saxophonist Warne Marsh recorded in 1959 and released on the Revelation label in 1974.[1] [2] Each track on The album only features part of the performance containing Marsh's solo although an album featuring twelve complete performances from these shows was released in 1994 under Kontz's name as Live at the Half Note.
The Allmusic review noted "This is an odd record. ... The pianist/composer Lennie Tristano, with whom Marsh had a long relationship, evidently decided the only valuable moments from the sessions were these solos, so he simply excised everything else and presented them as self-contained pieces. For the general listener, this, of course, creates some problems. No themes are heard (though many of the pieces are standards), so the basis for the improvisation can often only be guessed at, and, obviously, any sense of wholeness is by the boards. On the other hand, Marsh's tenor playing is supple, silvery, and generally luscious ... So while the normal jazz listening experience is necessarily lacking, those who want a chance to hear Marsh in isolation (including, presumably, students of the saxophone) might find this release to be a valuable document".