There's only one faster way to improve that listening. Transcribing. Fastest way to improve flat out. I'm transcribing so Lou Donaldson right now, great stuff. Yoyo... ; )

If you can`t listen, transcriptions won`t be of much help either. Seriously, reading a transcription only works if you`ve heard the piece first. So you can read transcriptions all day, but if you don`t understand the original feeling as played by the original artist, you definitely won`t be able to duplicate it. Listening is definitely the way to go. Johnny Hodges, according to all the musicians who knew him, kept a whole encyclopedia of riffs in his head and could call them up whenever he felt like.