Since the inception of modern jazz in the 1940's, jazz musicians have looked to classical music for musical insight and inspiration. Renown jazz pedagogues, such as pianist Lenny Tristano, have encouraged, even required their students to study the works of composers such as J.S. Bach. On the foreground level, the harmonic plan in much of Bach's music and the standard jazz repertoire is remarkably similar. Both genres employ applied dominants and diminished seventh substitutions in order to articulate a tonal center or key. Melodic material can be extracted from Bach's music and manipulated in order to enhance and expand one's jazz improvisations.

Example 1 is a 2 bar phrase from Bach's Invention #1

Example 2 takes the same phrase and puts it into a minor ii-V-i progression. [ii - V7 - i ]