head
The main melody of a jazz tune, played at the beginning and end with improvisation in between.
In Depth
A typical jazz performance follows the head-solos-head structure: the melody (head) is stated, soloists improvise over the changes for several choruses, then the head returns to close. The term comes from the idea of the tune being held in the musician's head, not read from a page. Playing the head in with conviction sets the mood, and playing the head out signals that the performance is concluding.
Miles Davis often played the head so sparsely and coolly that audiences were not always sure the melody had started, creating an air of mystery around his performances.