I, and I suspect many others hear, spend a great deal of effort trying to play a good melody when improving. Listening to Admad Jamal play a smoking set with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra list night (in the beautiful Pritzker Pavillion in Chicago), I heard someone do everything but play melodies. His solos are all about rhythm, sound effects and contrasts. Lots of notes at the top and bottem of the keyboard; lots of very soft notes followed by crashing chords; fast runs followed by silence. I'm not suggesting everyone should abandon melodies, but it was inspiring to hear how much can be done with other all too often neglected aspects of playing.