Whether a guitarist can come up with an unrehearsed off-the-cuff brilliant solo (often without realizing it) or not defines for me whether he is just good or adorable. I admire improvisation whether it is with Miles Davis, Hendrix, Blackmore or Mark Knopfler. It has little to do with technique (brilliant classical-trained musicians can't improvise for the hell of it - I've seen them freeze when you say "play a solo in A minor"), Neil Young hasn't won any guitarist contests, but he can improvise. That sense of abandonment ... Or that analytical ear of Miles Davis ... I'm nowhere in any of those leagues, of course, but I have sufficient vocabulary these days to get through most situations a bassist might have to face in a rock setting. But I think there is a reason I did not become a lead guitarist. But I love playing with good improvisers. It's a very large part of Deep Purple's charm for me, no other band of their fame and commercial impact had as much improvisation live (and not just from guitar, but also from organ and drums) as they did.
