Actually, John is a strong advocate of learning material by listening to it. He's a great teacher.
One other thing that can really help in absorbing and internalizing a tune is to learn the head. Lots of bassists don't seem to do that. It may be the best way to get to know it well enough to solo over the changes. Taking it one step further, it's not a bad idea to learn the lyrics of the tune as well.... anything to help give you context for your improvisations.
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