Today I'm working on some improvisational shapes for the folk standard usually referred to as "Eighth of January". This tune was originally titled "Jackson's Victory", commemorating Andrew Jackson's routing of the British from New Orleans during the war of 1812. Sometime around the Civil War (1860s), it was decided generally that while driving out the British is very good, Andrew Jackson was a real piece of shit, so his name was stripped out to commemorate merely that great and enduring American institution: anti-British sentiment to the point of violence.
Of course, this isn't played as a museum piece, but closer to a modern country jazz (if you want to call it that). This isn't something that I would publish, but is a snapshot of how I'm developing and thinking about the melody!
Okay, I developed this a bit and have something closer to a real take. I'm quite liking this actually! It starts out with the sweet brightness of the melody and becomes more tonally complex, even ending on an (implied) minor, which I hadn't really intended (I ran out of time/space and grabbed the closest resolution I could think of, thanks brain)