In this performance-talk, I present the approach to teaching jazz improvisation that I developed over 10 years of teaching full time at the New England Conservatory of Music and which is part of a textbook on jazz improvisation that Oxford University Press will be publishing next year. I emphasize listening and developing melodic and rhythmic vocabulary over chord-scale and chord-based approaches. In addition to working on the mechanics of what to play, I present ideas about learning to play different roles in an performance (time-keeping, comping, and soloing), as well as developing routines that are rooted in the historical voices of the past. I present an approach that can be beneficial for all levels of experience.