Reader,
If you really want to play authentic jazz, you've got to engage directly and intentionally with what the greats played.
I don't mean putting your feet up with a pinot noir in hand, listening to relax. I mean listening like it's your job.
Singing along with the phrases, studying their structure, playing along with the recording, and transposing them across keys.
Ultimately, this is the only work that can really teach you the language of jazz.
Here's a line from Oscar Peterson's 2nd solo over Billie's Bounce:
If I asked you to study this line in F, then play it in G, how would you approach that?
When I ask my students this question, most say "G is a whole step up from F, so I'd move all the notes up a whole step." That's the wrong approach.
Well... it's not technically wrong, it'll get you to the right notes. But it doesn't do much to build your understanding of the language.
The better approach is to break the phrase down into smaller individual movements, like this:
This line breaks down into 4 distinct pieces. When you switch to G, rebuild each piece one at a time, from scratch, in the new key.
When you learn it this way, your ear and your hands both have to engage with the elements of the language itself, not just shift the notes.
As a result, you learn to hear and play those elements for yourself, and you'll find yourself playing inspired phrases in your own solos.
This might be easier to understand in a video, so I recorded myself walking through this process in real time on this same Billie's Bounce solo. This lick is the 2nd example in the video: