There are many ways to work on time feel but I think one of the most useful methods is to find a player or a few players whose time feel you really admire or would like to sound like. Transcribe elements of their playing and try to match their time feel exactly when you play back along with the recording. Keep working on sections of solos by various players until you can play them back comfortably whilst feeling the beat strongly.
Other ways might be to play a short phrase and try to start it from every beat of the bar including all the 8th notes. So you might play a phrase which starts on beat 1 and then try it the next time round on beat 2, then beat 3 and then 4. The feel of the phrase will change depending on where in the bar you start it and you must be able to both hear and feel the phrase from all parts of the bar. Once you can do this comfortably, try to increase the difficulty by starting the phrase on off beats such as the & of beat 1, the & of beat 2 etc. Basically you want to be able to start and finish your phrases from anywhere in the bar and still retain a strong sense of where the beat is.
A final thing I recommend everyone does is to learn many latin rhythms and try to clap them whilst tapping your feet alternately. In other words try to clap or vocalise the rhythm whilst tapping your right foot then left foot to the beat. Latin rhythms are so complex that you really learn to have a solid feel for the beat wherever you happen to be playing within the bar. I may do a tutorial on this in the future. I took Latin Percussion classes whilst doing my jazz degree and it helps your time feel in a remarkable way!
Good luck mate and let me know if you need any more help.
Tom
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