: Help Understanding Guitar Lick My uncle is a jazz player and showed me a few licks while I was visiting him but never explained what context he would play them in. I'm not much of a jazz player but I love the sound of one

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From my listening to it, the lick sounds like it's in 6/8 time, with the most strongly emphasized notes being B, A, G, and F♯ in that order. Being the classically oriented musician that I am, my initial tendency is to harmonize it with chords based on the chords G, D, Em, and D (i.e. some variant on I - V - vi - V), but better jazzers than me can probably come up with something better, and your suggestion of Emin9 - A6 - A7 - Dmaj7 also sounds fine.

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A simple explanation would be something like this in D major.

The 1/16th note run is just my interpretation. It could also be in G major, but D major feels like a simpler answer.

Here's what it could sound like vocaroo.com/i/s1wP8qR8vK1U
Chords in that Vocaroo clip that has the lick twice in a row

| Em7 A7 | C#7#9 F#7 Bm Am | G Em7 | A7 Eb9 D |

... what happened, the chords automagically turned into guitar chord diagrams?

I'll make it a picture instead

Here's how it could sound in G. At first I thought this was too far-fetched, but after listening to it a few times it starts to sound OK. vocaroo.com/i/s0fRJDdScG03
Chords:
| C Bm7 | Am7 D7 G | Am7 D7 | Am D7 G |

If you just spreat the phrases differently, the line can be anything. Here's a pop song chorus in B minor. vocaroo.com/i/s0VZ4pSXXtTv
A similar chord progression is used in any number of existing songs.

| Em A | D G | Em6/C# F#7 | Am6/F# B7 |

The way I make chord progressions for "audio melodies" that aren't written down as music notation goes something like this:

First I try to imagine a beat and meter on top of the notes, because where "one" is and where the pulse is, decides which notes feel stronger harmony-wise. (it's important that you have only a single-note melody without chords, so if there are chords, re-do the melody without them)
Then I get an idea of what keys it could possibly be in, based on what notes are emphasized and what sounds like a strong note, what the scale feels like. Here the obvious choices are D major / B minor or G major / E minor.
I listen to and play the melody on top of my beat, and it usually speaks for itself, outlining some chords. For example the notes B - G played on the strong beat are a very strong indication that the most natural choice for chord is G major or E minor, and any other choice is more "creative", (since we decided that the key feels like D major or G major). For example an A9 or G/A would be a nice chord choice. Cmaj7 would work if the key is G major, but if the key is D major then Cmaj7 is a "creative" choice. G7/F might be interesting, but it's more on the creative side as well, with the outside-scale F note, needing a bit of modulation trickery.
I decide on some starting and ending chords, and then fill the space in between them with something.
The "something" is done with swings and turnarounds of the harmony, often using voice leading to give inspiration. Basically, everything is just I, IV or V of some key, either on the major side (D, G, A) or minor side (Bm, Em, F#m or F#). Voice leading could be like, take a bass note or some other note and start moving it step-by-step. Either (1) steps along the scale, (2) steps along the circle of fourths/fifths, or (3) steps along the chord tones. And then use a chord that fits that new stepped voice.
Then re-do the whole thing a few times over. Try to think of alternative ways. If possible, change the start and end points and the middle points, make the turns go the other way: IV, V, I or IV, I, V or whatever. If a voice stepped downwards, step it upwards. As long as it feels appropriate and/or interesting. If it's too boring and obvious, try adding some non-obvious things like modulations, "chromatic mediants" (a new word I learned from the interwebz), secondary dominants, tritone substitutions, pedal tones.
(Actually, usually I cut corners and do the whole thing on the fly, trying to accompany the melody right away as it's playing, but I guess that wouldn't serve as a sensible process description)

Very often, you can fit an existing known chord progression on the melody. If you play a lot of songs by ear, at some point chord choices start to offer themselves pretty much automatically.

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Most of the notes belong to the D major scale (D E F? G A B C?). I think the exceptions can be explained as chromatic runs, like the initial D D? E, or G F? F F? later.