Ah, I'm definitely creative, but not original for sure. I'm like a dental tooth filling - an amalgam.
Pete, I think what I am reflecting about is how the musical elements fit together in your playing and where the "originality" or "creativity" comes from. We all would agree, I think, that it is often fed by what you've heard. Even if you don't listen to music at all, if you can hear sound, you are affected by it and it becomes something in your being, for lack of a better term. It could, at least in theory, also come from what you've seen, what you've lived.
I'd also like to bring
lateral thinking in to this conversation. There are better definitions for this, but simply said (as Kenny Garrett might begin), one result of it is that even if you've solved a problem, you continue to think about it and look and consider for other solutions. If we make an overly simple musical analogy, you learn to play over blues changes. Most will start with a riff or two learned from somewhere. Most will also keep looking for more things to play. If it's just other riffs you've heard, that's only creative in the sense that you are stringing licks together in your own way. I'm not putting that down, just calling it what I see it for. On the other hand, if you find little things that no one has played over blues changes before, that's definitely original, creative.
I'm always bad at titles for reflective posts that aim to bring people out, to express how they see their musical journey. I have posted an instrumental called Mr Roulette recently, asking for people to submit versions. I understand that there may not be any takers (none yet). But I wanted to say that I can't really recall how this tune came to be written, yet it is definitely creative and original IMO. I think the Woody Woodpecker theme song has something to do with it.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PWcc3y_NlY
The A section melody or Mr Roulette:
View: https://soundcloud.com/randulo/a-melody/s-vblTY
It was also based on intervals I was studying at the time, like the minor second between the second and third notes. Anyway, that's a slighly closer definition of what I think may be original and how it came to be.