Payton has a keen perspective on the mind of an improviser, and he lays it all out in this session.

NPR: Nicholas Payton: A Different Kind of Blue

He was not a great improviser, but his solos, painstakingly scripted over long hours in the studio with Springsteen, were set pieces in every show.

NEWYORKER: We Are Alive

She makes phrasing decisions on the fly as a proper improviser might, but she can't see or hear two or four bars ahead, as a more architecturally-minded singer like Sarah Vaughan did.

NPR: Diana Krall: 'From This Moment On'