I appreciate the skill required to play "endless notes" in jazz. I've been known to run a few licks myself, when the mood is right.
The players I really respect, however, are those who say a lot with just a few notes. Miles Davis was a master of this kind of minimalist expression. B.B. King also comes to mind.
"Music is the space between the notes."
Jazz doesn't have to always be a deeply intellectual exercise, despite what many jazz-heads want you to believe. Jazz comes from blues, after all, and blues is all about feeling. Take away all the fast notes, syncopated rhythms, and 13th chords, and you find a framework of blues hiding underneath. As you listen to those "endless notes," see if you can uncover this basic framework and suddenly the music will make a lot more sense.
Often (but not always), you can find the root by listening to the first bass note of each measure. The bass may wander all over the place, but usually it returns to the root at the start of each change.
Listen very intently to the first part of a jazz song. This is usually where the structure of the song, both melodically and rhythmically, is laid out. If you are very attentive, you will be able to keep this structure in mind when the soloists take off. Without an idea of the initial structure of the song, a lot of jazz may sound chaotic and very difficult (if not impossible) to understand. No matter how crazy the musicians get, however, they should still be holding to that underlying framework.
As long as you can follow the pattern of the song, you are "in" and the music makes sense. Lose your place, whether you're just listening or playing a solo, and you're toast. In that case, you've got to just "fake it 'til you make it." Go back to listening to the bass and try to hear the "blues" beneath the jazz.
)-|-( Heather Haze