Here is a cool idea I got from L.A. based jazz guitarist Sid Jacobs. A student of his at the time, he told me of this conversation that he had with guitar great, Joe Diorio. The story goes that there was this guy that actually played some of the melody lines in his improvisation. This is a novel idea for jazz musicians that improvise for days on end.....The moral of the story was that, it's ok to quote some of the beautiful melodies in the songs that we solo on. The listener can grab on to that familiar line or phrase, even though it's a lot of times surrounded by 16th note bliss. Try it out. Sometimes, the melody is all right....