I like playing free with an underlying cell. A rhythmic idea, a melodic cell/motif, a schematic of who plays where, stuff like that. "Song" playing is not the only way to have some underlying organization, Far from it, actually.
Of course, most players (imo) know what they know and only play by looking for a place where it fits. The better (imo, again) way is to use an compositional idea to see how you can make what you know more/different than what you already know. If you get the same results either way, that's on you, not the concept.