Everything Sharke said!
 
 
This is for guitarist without the background in jazz. I didn't mean to get into the theory too much but I was addressing Beepster. Everything I said is not a one week, month, or year endeavor but a concept to use for a chord or lick application. As I said not to analyze but to use. It's quick and I learned it from some of the best jazzers on the planet. Playing melodic minor licks a minor 3rd apart is a very jazzy sound and lends itself very well to a ii7-V7 bebop sound. The point is to use what you already do to apply it to jazz

I supposed you're on to something Bill!
(In theory anyway...)

A hardcore blues band I played with a couple of weeks ago was jammin on standard blues songs when a jazz bassist came in that knew the vocalist. He wanted to do a funk version of the tune Here's That Rainy Day. As the solos went around the guitar players just got lost or tried to force blues lines and they sounded pretty bad. At the break there were questions about how I played the changes. I passed what I told them here.
 

Good stuff Professor!!!
A lot of that stuff was waay over my head, but I'm still learning and will bookmark this page. I'm lost in theory.....AM just a lazy improvisor that jams to the chord progression and song groove.....whatever it may be.

A Jazz buddy of mine,told me, upon hearing some strangeness of sounds emanating from group he was playing in, told me that "jazzers will play outside the chords"

Now this is going to sound dumb for someone who claims to know theory but it is something that I think is crucial to understanding what you are talking about and something that has never really sunk in with me (because I am not traditionally trained).
 
When you use the term "pedal" I assume you are referring to "pedal point". Could you expand on that and explain it to me like a child? I know it is likely a simple concept but the term seems to get used a lot without explanation in much of the material I've studied. I know (think) it's some kind of revolving point for progressions but the precise function and definition eludes me.
 
Also the Alt chord concept kind of weirds me out. What is the step construction of an Alt chord? I seem to recall that being a chord to use travelling between a specific point and that a "melodic minor" mixolydian mode works well over it (I am scrounging that from memory though and it has been a while... I have it writtten down somewhere). Point is since it is in between chord steps I'm just wondering how it is constructed and what it is constructed from.
 
Sorry if that is totally wrong or stupid. This is quite interesting. Thanks.

In jazz and jazz harmony, the term altered chord, notated as an alt chord (e.g. G7alt), refers to a dominant chord, "in which neither the fifth nor the ninth appears unaltered". – namely, where the 5th and the 9th are raised or lowered by a single semitone, or omitted.

Alt chords are good for resolving to the major or minor a fourth above, eg G7#5 to Cmaj7. The #5 in this case, D#, passes nicely to the 3rd of the Cmaj7, E.

I think you can also use them before a minor chord a step lower, although I'll probably have to consult Ted Greene later, lol.

I hope all the input isn't too hard to follow. Great info here but if you don't understand parts of it don't worry. My other Fred about poor man's chord guide worked it's way here so I'll keep everything consolidated. 
 
What I want to say right now is what Sharke touched on and that's listening. There was a tune that I worked on for a year and about 3 months in my younger days that opened up the guitar neck for me. I played in a great Big Band then and I found a wonderful tune to work on. It was the first tune that didn't have guitar in and at first was hard to translate to the neck. There wasn't any other guitar players so I couldn't pick their brains about it. Turns out that was a good thing because I wasn't limited to the "rules" of how the properly play guitar. The song is Tenor Madness. Please take a focused listen to this song. It's got a little bit of everything in it. Just listen
 
 

On my second listen now.