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Journal articles on the topic 'Jazz improvisation'
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Madura Ward-Steinman, Patrice. "Vocal Improvisation and Creative Thinking by Australian and American University Jazz Singers A Factor Analytic Study." Journal of Research in Music Education 56, no. 1 (April 2008): 5–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022429408322458.
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In this study, the author investigated factors underlying vocal improvisation achievement and relationships with the singers' musical background. Participants were 102 college students in Australia and the United States who performed 3 jazz improvisations and 1 free improvisation. Jazz improvisations were rated on rhythmic, tonal, and creative thinking criteria; free improvisations were rated only on creativity criteria. The results are as follows: (a) A significant difference was found between jazz and free improvisation achievement; (b) extensive jazz experience, especially study and listening, was found to be significantly correlated with vocal improvisation achievement; (c) 3 factors were found to underlie jazz improvisation: jazz syntax, vocal creativity, and tonal musicianship; and (d) 3 factors were found to underlie free improvisation: musical syntax, vocal creativity, and scat syllable creativity.
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Smith, Derek T. "Development and Validation of a Rating Scale for Wind Jazz Improvisation Performance." Journal of Research in Music Education 57, no. 3 (September 30, 2009): 217–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022429409343549.
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The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a rating scale for collegiate wind jazz improvisation performance. The 14-item Wind Jazz Improvisation Evaluation Scale (WJIES) was constructed and refined through a facet-rational approach to scale development. Five wind jazz students and one professional jazz educator were asked to record two improvisations accompanied by an Aebersold play-along compact disc . Sixty-three adjudicators evaluated the 12 improvisations using the WJIES and the Instrumental Jazz Improvisation Evaluation Measure. Reliability was good,with alpha values ranging from .87 to .95. Construct validity for the WJIES was confirmed through the analysis of a multitrait-multimethod matrix.The results of this study indicate that the facet-rational approach is an effective method of developing a rating scale for collegiate wind jazz improvisation performance.
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Schirr, Bertram. "Improvisieren für mehr Beteiligung am Gottesdienst?" International Journal of Practical Theology 23, no. 2 (November 29, 2019): 242–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ijpt-2018-0042.
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Abstract Analyzing contemporary experiments in homiletical and liturgical improvisation shows fresh and exciting potential for more participation in worship. The use of Free Jazz as a paradigm for liturgical and homiletical practice is complimented by the model of Theatrical Improvisation. By rendering empirical improvisations in liturgy and preaching as interactions, a grid of participatory improvisational strategies is generated that can be usefully employed for the analysis and improvement of other pastoral practices such as pastoral care or ministerial training.
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Johnson-Laird, P. N. "How Jazz Musicians Improvise." Music Perception 19, no. 3 (2002): 415–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2002.19.3.415.
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This article defends the view that theories of creativity should be computable and that only three sorts of algorithm can be creative. It proposes a central principle of algorithmic demands for jazz improvisation: a division of labor in terms of computational power occurs between the creation of chord sequences for improvisation and the creation of melodic improvisations in real time. An algorithm for producing chord sequences must be computationally powerful, that is, it calls for a working memory or a notation of intermediate results. Improvisation depends on the ability to extemporize new melodies that fit the chord sequence. The corresponding algorithm must operate rapidly in real time, and so it minimizes the computational load on working memory. The principle of algorithmic demands is supported by analysis and a computer model.
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McAuliffe, Sam. "Improvisation, Ontology, and Davidson: Exploring the Improvisational Character of Language and Jazz." Context, no. 48 (January 31, 2023): 21–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.46580/cx87493.
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At least since the 1990s, the relationship between linguistic communication and jazz improvisation has been a topic of interest to both philosophers of language and theorists of jazz improvisation. Rarely, however, are the shared elements of language and jazz explored directly. This article interrogates these elements, with a particular focus on improvisation by drawing upon the work of Donald Davidson. While Davidson himself does not readily employ the term ‘improvisation’, I argue that key ideas from Davidson’s work—the principle of charity, triangulation, and his argument that there is no such thing as a language—align with the concept of improvisation. In this article I offer a reading of Davidson’s work—a reading that highlights an improvisational character of his philosophy typically not made explicit—and, on the basis of the ontology of improvisation that emerges from Davidson’s philosophy, I explore the implications of that understanding of language for the way in which we understand jazz.
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Rowan, Brent D. "Talk, Listen, and Understand: The Impact of a Jazz Improvisation Experience on an Amateur Adult Musician’s Mind, Body, and Spirit." LEARNing Landscapes 10, no. 2 (July 7, 2017): 257–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v10i2.814.
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This paper examines the impact of creating music in an improvisational jazz style on an amateur adult musician’s mind, body, and spirit. Learning jazz improvisation skills can help build more empathetic human beings, when the focus of improvisation is on reacting to what you hear in a clear and concise manner. Life skills are developed by focusing on deep listening and communicating with other musicians. Enabling a person to talk to, listen to, and understand those around them builds community and understanding, and lessens the likelihood of conflict. This allows growth and progress to take place in society, making the cultural capital built from a jazz improvisation program invaluable.
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Grigson, Lionel. "Harmony + Improvisation = Jazz." British Journal of Music Education 2, no. 2 (July 1985): 187–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265051700004800.
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In the past, jazz musicians such as Miles Davis have had negative experiences of ‘straight’ academies and conservatories, and these institutions have been negative towards jazz. This may represent a conflict between creativity and recreativity. But as a teacher of jazz at the Guildhall School of Music the author is finding that this conflict disappears when students from jazz and classical backgrounds learn to improvise by the same approach. This approach works upwards from the harmonic basis of jazz, which in fact is the same as that of classical music. As, at the outset, both jazz and classical students often seem to lack a precise concept of underlying harmonic form, the author concludes that more needs to be done with harmony at an earlier stage in music education, and that jazz may be the best context in which for this to happen.
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May, Lissa F. "Factors and Abilities Influencing Achievement in Instrumental Jazz Improvisation." Journal of Research in Music Education 51, no. 3 (October 2003): 245–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3345377.
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The primary purposes of this study were to identify factors underlying instrumental jazz improvisation achievement and to examine the extent to which knowledge of jazz theory, aural skills, aural imitation, and selected background variables predict achievement in instrumental jazz improvisation. Subjects were 73 undergraduate wind players enrolled in college jazz ensembles at five midwestern universities in the United States. Results indicated that objective measurement of instrumental jazz improvisation is possible on expressive as well as technical dimensions. Factor analysis revealed only one factor, suggesting that instrumental jazz improvisation is a single construct. Stepwise multiple regression revealed self evaluation of improvisation as the single best predictor of achievement in instrumental jazz improvisation with aural imitation ability as the second best predictor.
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Palmer, C. Michael. "Instrumental Jazz Improvisation Development." Journal of Research in Music Education 64, no. 3 (August 23, 2016): 360–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022429416664897.
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The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the role aural imitation ability, jazz theory knowledge, and personal background variables play in the development of jazz improvisation achievement. Participants ( N = 70) included 26 high school and 44 college instrumentalists with varying degrees of jazz improvisation experience. Data were collected using four researcher-designed instruments: (a) Participant Improvisation Experience Survey (PIES), (b) Improvisation Achievement Performance Measure (IAPM), (c) Aural Imitation Measure (AIM), and (d) the Jazz Theory Measure (JTM). Results indicate that aural imitation ability and technical facility are fundamental skills supporting jazz improvisation achievement. Other contributing factors include improvisation experience, jazz experience, practicing improvisation, perceived self-confidence, self-assessment, and jazz theory knowledge. Further analysis of results led to improvisation being viewed from a developmental perspective and achievement levels being distinguished on a developmental continuum (i.e., novice, intermediate, advanced) based on performance evaluations within musical categories (i.e., rhythm/time feel, harmony, melody/rhythmic development, style, expressivity, and creativity).
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Myroshnychenko, Valerii. "TEACHING JAZZ IMPROVISATION TO A FUTURE VOCAL ARTIST: ITS ESSENCE AND SPECIFICS." Academic Notes Series Pedagogical Science 1, no. 192 (March 2021): 189–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.36550/2415-7988-2021-1-192-189-193.
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The issues of teaching jazz improvisation to future vocal artists, especially theoretical and methodological aspects of their professional development in institutions of higher art education, have not been sufficiently studied. The matters of the essence and specifics of pop and jazz art, expressive means of improvisational mastery in vocal performance, the special nature of the relation between a composer and a performer, and the relationship with the audience become especially relevant. Vocal performance is one of the most important parts of jazz music. Both the first blues performers and many performers of the following decades – the period of New Orleans jazz, the era of swing, bebop and modern jazz – spark our interest. In addition to pronouncing the basic musical text, talented improvising vocalists have been using and continue to use scat singing till this day. The peculiarity of teaching jazz improvisation is also that it is a specific way of spiritual communication by musical means that can «say» more than words. It is a special concert genre that simulates a situation of direct spiritual communication, which occurs when two or more people related by a previously friendly relationship meet or during a meeting of people who have a sense of empathy between them. The specific features of a future vocal artist include combinatorial memory, imagination, fantasy, technical capabilities, and musical thinking, since the musician implements their spiritual and emotional potential in improvisation, operating with blocks of musical and artistic information during the jazz composition performance, combining them in different patterns, and thus finds the most complete, voluminous artistic embodiment of the improvisational idea. Vocal and jazz art is special in its manner, harmony, performance techniques, sound production, and orthoepy. Each style has its own professional performers whose artistic work presents the standard of the way the music sounds. Expressive means of improvisational technique in jazz are various, which is due to the specific features of variable jazz styles, individual performance style of vocal artists and the specifics of musical forms and genres typical of such technique.
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Lissoni, Juliano, Alexandre Marino Costa, Gilberto De Oliveira Moritz, and Maurício Fernandes Pereira. "ESTRATÉGIA E JAZZ: UM NOVO PROCESSO DE FORMULAÇÃO ESTRATÉGICA." Revista de Negócios 12, no. 4 (March 14, 2008): 03. http://dx.doi.org/10.7867/1980-4431.2007v12n4p03-17.
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What strategy really means and how strategies are created has been an emerging topic in the field of management. This article’s main purpose is not to create a new division, but get together the theme, in order to consider strategy as a sequence of moments, that starts from strategic intent and planning, but allows the derivative behavior. The main conclusion is that the metaphoric comparison between strategy making and jazz, which some basic element of jazz performance, as experimentation and improvisation, join the collective notes, in order to bring magic moments to the audience. Improvisation and experimentation are related with jazz evolution, in which the significant and well-succeed derivative situations changed the music in a modern way, without loosing its temper. This occurs in companies as well, where tries and improvisations can bring strategic evolution. Key Words: Strategy Making. Derivative Strategies. Jazz.
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Givan, Benjamin. "Gunther Schuller and the Challenge of Sonny Rollins:." Journal of the American Musicological Society 67, no. 1 (2014): 167–237. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jams.2014.67.1.167.
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Scholarly opinion has for many years been divided over Gunther Schuller's landmark 1958 article, “Sonny Rollins and the Challenge of Thematic Improvisation.” Jazz theorists view the article's close analysis of Rollins's 1956 jazz saxophone improvisation “Blue 7” as one of their discipline's founding statements; historians and ethnomusicologists meanwhile tend to fault it for neglecting cultural context. In either instance the specific details of Schuller's analysis have been largely accepted as being internally consistent. The present study proposes that the analysis of jazz improvisation ought to engage more extensively with broader stylistic issues in addition to the specifics of isolated individual performances. Such a musically contextualized perspective reveals that Schuller's principal argument—that, in this particular improvisation, Rollins developed motivic elements of a composed theme—is false. “Blue 7” was in fact improvised in its entirety, and the melodic pattern that Schuller cited as a thematic motive was one of Rollins's habitual improvisational formulas, heard on many of the saxophonist's other 1950s recordings. This canonic recording, as well as the notion of Rollins as a “thematic” improviser, therefore needs to be reconsidered.
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Dasevschii, Veaceslav. "Jazz improvisation as a phenomenon of music art." Akademos, no. 3(62) (January 2022): 132–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.52673/18570461.21.3-62.17.
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This article examines a series of theoretical issues of jazz improvisation. The author analyzes various definitions and emphasizes the main features of jazz improvisation, reveals a number of ways of processing jazz standards. A special aspect represents the character of dialogue proper to this type of musical creation, the typology of improvisation and the relationship between improvisation and composition.
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Norgaard, Martin. "Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Artist-Level Jazz Musicians." Journal of Research in Music Education 59, no. 2 (June 9, 2011): 109–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022429411405669.
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Thought processes of seven artist-level jazz musicians, each of whom recorded an improvised solo, were investigated. Immediately after completing their improvisations, participants listened to recordings of their playing and looked at the notation of their solos as they described in a directed interview the thinking processes that led to the realization of their improvisations. In all of the interviews, artists described making sketch plans, which outlined one or more musical features of upcoming passages. The artists also described monitoring and evaluating their own output as they performed, making judgments that often were incorporated into future planning. Four strategies used by the artists for generating the note content of the improvisations emerged from the analysis: recalling well-learned ideas from memory and inserting them into the ongoing improvisation, choosing notes based on a harmonic priority, choosing notes based on a melodic priority, and repeating material played in earlier sections of the improvisation.
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Bjerstedt, Sven. "Stealing Knowledge in a Landscape of Learning: Conceptualizations of Jazz Education." British Journal of Music Education 33, no. 3 (July 8, 2016): 297–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265051716000103.
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Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the concepts of stolen knowledge (Brown & Duguid, 1996) and landscape of learning (Bjerstedt, 2014). Based on an extensive interview study with Swedish professional jazz musicians, it argues that the multidirectedness involved in jazz improvisational practice calls for a rich learning ecology framework including several didactic loci.
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Gorovoy, Sergiy, Julia Pisarenko, and Olga Ishchenko. "INTERACTION OF INTERPRETATION AND IMPROVISATION IN JAZZ VOCAL PERFORMANCE." National Academy of Managerial Staff of Culture and Arts Herald, no. 2 (September 17, 2021): 223–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.32461/2226-3209.2.2021.240070.
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The purpose of the article is to explore the various interpretations of the concepts of "improvisation" and "interpretation" encountered in modern science, to identify the most appropriate definitions of these concepts that reveal the specificity of jazz performance and determine the relationship of these two concepts. The methodology of the article is the researches of improvisation and interpretation of various orientations. First, a scientific approach is used, which characterizes this process as a creative method. The scientific works devoted directly to improvisation in jazz are also used, which contain analysis of the improvisations of well-known performers and exercises for teaching local techniques. The scientific novelty of the work is that the term "interpretation" is considered in a broader sense in interaction with improvisation, that is, not only as an interpretation of other people's musical ideas in performing activities but also as an interpretation of personal artistic intentions in the process of musicians' activity. Conclusions. The interaction of interpretation and improvisation is clearly traced, since interpretation is an aspect of musical practice that proceeds from the differences between the recorded music notation and the live performance of the work. Consequently, this process inherent element of unpredictability. The interrelation of the interpretation of the musical text and the mastery of the improvisatory demonstration of this text by the interpreter, which is determined by his individual qualities, is traced.
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Kim, Sujin, and Yoonhan Jeon. "A Study on Improvisation Techniques Appearing in Keith Jarrett 《Koln Concert January 24, 1975, Pt. A》." Korean Society of Culture and Convergence 44, no. 6 (June 30, 2022): 1079–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.33645/cnc.2022.6.44.6.1079.
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This paper focuses on the characteristics of improvisation among the various musical expression techniques of Keith Jarrett. The field of improvisation, which originated from the European classical tradition, is one of the ever-developing techniques in music history. Used as a tool to show the performer’s technical excellence by the musical styles of many eras, improvisation has been independent of musical structure since the 1960s, and has everything from creation to rhythm to form. It was a new concept that the performer’s will was reflected as it was. This is the 1960s free jazz and 1970s fusion jazz era. This paper focuses on the improvisational form of fusion jazz, and while the style of one’s own is firmly established through the flow of this era, the live performance of artist Keith Jarrett who expresses the improvisational performance of infinite possibilities. I mainly researched Part. II A in the concert album “Koln Concert”. As a result, improvisation is part of the art that goes out of the unconscious, but by no means easy to define. It can be said that it is a noble product of continuous training by researching and repeat over and over again music techniques that human beings have made or can make for each era, involving music from the time it was born to modern music. Through this paper, I emphasize that expressing the overall things that the performer has, such as values, emotions, and philosophies, as well as the latent musicality, is the most important part of improvisation.
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Aranha, Elzo Alves, and Neusa Abbud Prado Garcia. "Organizational improvisation, jazz and the representations of time in organization." Revista Ibero-Americana de Estratégia 4, no. 1 (December 20, 2007): 79–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.5585/ijsm.v4i1.73.
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Nowadays, it is possible to verify an increase of academic articles about the phenomenon of time on Organizations Studies field which has close relation to change management in organization. Recently, investigations about time are associated to organizational improvisation and some of these researches offer organizational formats and models. This article aims to verify how cyclical and linear perspectives of time are present in organizational improvisation. Therefore, this article was structured in the following segments: the first is an introduction, the second deals with some conceptual aspects of cyclical and linear perspectives of time; the third describes organizational improvisational conceptual frames; the fourth presents a description of the relations between cyclical and linear perspectives of time and organizational improvisational conceptual frames; and the fith presents the final considerations.
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Norgaard, Martin. "How Jazz Musicians Improvise." Music Perception 31, no. 3 (December 2012): 271–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2014.31.3.271.
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It is well known that jazz improvisations include repeated rhythmic and melodic patterns. What is less understood is how those patterns come to be. One theory posits that entire motor patterns are stored in procedural memory and inserted into an ongoing improvisation. An alternative view is that improvisers use procedures based on the rules of tonal jazz to create an improvised output. This output may contain patterns but these patterns are accidental and not stored in procedural memory for later use. The current study used a novel computer-based technique to analyze a large corpus of 48 improvised solos by the jazz great Charlie Parker. To be able to compare melodic patterns independent of absolute pitch, all pitches were converted to directional intervals listed in half steps. Results showed that 82.6% of the notes played begin a 4-interval pattern and 57.6% begin interval and rhythm patterns. The mean number of times the 4-interval pattern on each note position is repeated in the solos analyzed was 26.3 and patterns up to 49-intervals in length were identified. The sheer ubiquity of patterns and the pairing of pitch and rhythm patterns support the theory that pre-formed structures are inserted during improvisation. The patterns may be encoded both during deliberate practice and through an incidental learning processes. These results align well with related processes in both language acquisition and motor learning.
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Daikoku, Tatsuya. "Statistical Properties in Jazz Improvisation Underline Individuality of Musical Representation." NeuroSci 1, no. 1 (September 21, 2020): 24–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/neurosci1010004.
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Statistical learning is an innate function in the brain and considered to be essential for producing and comprehending structured information such as music. Within the framework of statistical learning the brain has an ability to calculate the transitional probabilities of sequences such as speech and music, and to predict a future state using learned statistics. This paper computationally examines whether and how statistical learning and knowledge partially contributes to musical representation in jazz improvisation. The results represent the time-course variations in a musician’s statistical knowledge. Furthermore, the findings show that improvisational musical representation might be susceptible to higher- but not lower-order statistical knowledge (i.e., knowledge of higher-order transitional probability). The evidence also demonstrates the individuality of improvisation for each improviser, which in part depends on statistical knowledge. Thus, this study suggests that statistical properties in jazz improvisation underline individuality of musical representation.
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Ciorba, Charles R. "Predicting Jazz Improvisation Achievement through the Creation of a Path-Analytical Model." Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, no. 180 (April 1, 2009): 43–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40319319.
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Abstract The primary purpose of this study was to create a model to predict jazz improvisation achievement. The dependent variable was defined as jazz improvisation achievement and the independent variables were defined as: (a) self-assessment, (b) self efficacy, (c) motivation, (d) jazz theory knowledge, (e) academic achievement, (f) sight-reading ability, and (g) listening experience. A sample of high school students (N = 102) in grades 9 through 12 were chosen from 3 high schools in south Florida (n = 59) and 4 high schools in southeast Michigan (n = 43). The seven independent variables combined to account for 50% of the variance in jazz improvisation achievement. The path model revealed an adequate fit between theory and data (X² = 10.67, df= 11, p < .471), indicating that a model to predict jazz improvisation achievement can be created and statistically tested.
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Jarvinen, Topi. "Tonal Hierarchies in Jazz Improvisation." Music Perception 12, no. 4 (1995): 415–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40285675.
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Statistical methods were used to investigate 18 bebop-styled jazz improvisations based on the so- called Rhythm Changes chord progression. The data were compared with results obtained by C. L. Krumhansl and her colleagues in empirical tests investigating the perceived stability of the tones in the chromatic scale in various contexts. Comparisons were also made with data on the statistical distribution of the 12 chromatic tones in actual European art music. It was found that the chorus- level hierarchies (measured over a whole chorus) are remarkably similar to the rating profiles obtained in empirical tests and to the relative frequencies of the tones in European art music. The chord- level hierarchies (measured over single chords) suggest that in the chord progression the improvisers have certain cognitive reference points that are outlined more carefully than the rest of the chords (strong local hierarchy vs. weak local hierarchy). Furthermore, in both analyses, it was found that the metrical structure was used to emphasize or de- emphasize tones, depending on their tonal function.
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Kennedy, Raymond F. "Jazz Style and Improvisation Codes." Yearbook for Traditional Music 19 (1987): 37. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/767876.
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Rose, Richard. "Eight Elements of Jazz Improvisation." Music Educators Journal 71, no. 9 (May 1985): 46. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3396523.
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NEWTON, PAUL M. "Leadership lessons from jazz improvisation." International Journal of Leadership in Education 7, no. 1 (January 2004): 83–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603120409510591.
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Reed, Laura. "Designing Jazz Improvisation Curriculum Objectives." American String Teacher 52, no. 4 (November 2002): 68–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000313130205200410.
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Ingalls, Mike. "Advantages of Non-Jazz Improvisation." American String Teacher 53, no. 2 (May 2003): 10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000313130305300201.
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Coss, Roger G. "Descriptions of expert jazz educators’ experiences teaching improvisation." International Journal of Music Education 36, no. 4 (June 11, 2018): 521–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0255761418771093.
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The tensions present in learning jazz improvisation are well recognized given the contextual shift from more informal environments such as jam sessions and apprenticeships towards academic settings such as school bands and college jazz programs. Research suggests that the development of instruction in music education be informed by and modeled after expert practitioners, yet scant evidence exists on the most effective strategies, methods, and/or approaches for teaching jazz improvisation, in particular against the backdrop of this shift in educational paradigms. In response, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate seven jazz educators’ lived experiences teaching jazz improvisation. Seven expert jazz educators situated in a variety of teaching contexts throughout Northern California were recruited using purposeful, snowball sampling strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations of the participants in a teaching context, and documents such as syllabi, handouts, and recordings. Five themes in the form of vignettes describe these participants’ common experiences in teaching jazz improvisation: (1) Teacher as Guide; (2) Teacher as Motivator; (3) Psychological Aspects; (4) Navigating the Academic Chasm; and (5) Cultivating Lifelong Learners. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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Wren, Toby. "Jazz Standard as Archive." Journal of Jazz Studies 13, no. 1 (November 7, 2022): 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v13i1.190.
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The jazz standard remains an enduring part of the tradition of jazz performance and pedagogy. Contemporary jazz scholarship has tended to focus on improvisation as a practice and jazz-as-lived-experience and, while the jazz standard repertoire has occasionally been the subject of study the relationship between the standard repertoire and the ‘language’ or style of jazz has not been theorised. In this article I argue that the distinctive style of jazz improvisation is at least in part, determined by the characteristics of its shared repertoire and the statements that have accrued around that repertoire. I borrow Foucault’s conception of the archive to propose a reexamination of the historical progression of ideas that troubles the narrative of the individual creative genius and of jazz as the normative condition of improvisation. In this genealogical context, the jazz standard is positioned as an archive of a particular body of thought, a way of organizing and understanding the transmission, evolution and connection of ideas over time. The intended effect is to provide an alternative perspective on creativity in jazz, and a theorisation of an idea that is already implicit in jazz pedagogy and practice.
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Watson, Kevin E. "The Effects of Aural Versus Notated Instructional Materials on Achievement and Self-Efficacy in Jazz Improvisation." Journal of Research in Music Education 58, no. 3 (October 2010): 240–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022429410377115.
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The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of aural versus notated pedagogical materials on achievement and self-efficacy in instrumental jazz improvisation performance. A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate how achievement and self-efficacy may be related to selected experience variables. The sample for the study consisted of collegiate instrumentalists ( N = 62) enrolled as music majors at one of six Midwestern universities. All study participants received identical instructional materials but were assigned to one of two differing instructional modalities. Participants engaged in three 70-minute instructional treatment sessions over 4 days and completed pre- and postinstruction improvisation performances that were evaluated by four expert judges using the researcher-constructed Jazz Improvisation Performance Achievement Measure. Self-efficacy was measured using the researcher-constructed Jazz Improvisation Self-Efficacy Scale. Results indicated a significant ( p < .05) interaction effect for pre- to postinstruction and instructional method, with the aural instruction group demonstrating significantly greater gains than the notation group. Posttreatment achievement scores indicated nonsignificant correlations with experience variables. Participants’ self-efficacy for jazz improvisation increased significantly ( p < .001) following exposure to improvisation instruction; however, no interaction effect was found for instruction and mode of instruction.
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Zhang, Qi. "Grover Washington Jr.’s style of improvisation on the saxophone." Problems of Interaction Between Arts, Pedagogy and the Theory and Practice of Education 62, no. 62 (September 16, 2022): 107–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.34064/khnum1-62.07.
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Statement of the problem. Creativity of Gr. Washington Jr. studied, although he was a very popular performer and improviser. The official site provides the most detailed material on the heritage of Gr. Washington Jr., a section is not well of A. West’s dissertation (Aaron J. West) is devoted to the method of his improvisation, Gr. Washington Jr. is mentioned in studies on the theory and history of jazz (Aebersold, 1992; Ellenberger, 2005; Levine, 1995) as well as in a research essay on “smooth” jazz (Flynn, 2014; Mader, 2012). The purpose of the article is to outline the main features of Grover Washington Jr’s improvisation on saxophone. The research methodology combines several sources: works on the theory of improvisation (Ferand, 1957; Bailey, 1993; Stetsiuk, 2020; Zotov, 2018), works on performance style and interpretation as communication (Adorno, 2002, Nikolaevska, 2020). Based on a combination of methods, the article defines “style of improvisation” as a system of four dimensions: the phenomenological considers improvisation as a method of music-making based on the instantaneous transmission of what appears in empirical time; pragmatic – explores improvisation as a set of elements that are formed in the language of an individual musician and objectified “here and now” according to certain laws of form; personal – interprets improvisation from the standpoint of the psychological and spiritual qualities of a musician-improviser; communicative – studies improvisation from the point of communication between the musician(s) in the group and the musician(s) with the audience. The study uses this proposed definition to analyse Gr. Washington Jr’s works. Scientific novelty is declared by the analysis of “style of improvisation” as a system of four dimensions (phenomenological, pragmatic, personal and communicative). Conclusions and results of the study. The article revealed the features of Gr. Washington’s style of improvisation on the example of his albums “Inner City Blues” (1971), “Mister Magic” (1975) and “Winelight” (1980), which belonged to the crossover music of the 1970s and established musical and cultural paradigms of the smooth jazz in the 1980s. The pragmatic dimension of the style is evident in the saxophone timbre (“multi-timbre” instrument); modal harmony (an evolution from a “two-chord vamp” to richer harmonic thinking, from smooth jazz to fusion); predominantly “horizontal” melodic thinking; tendency to build short phrases. The communicative dimension is expressed in the predominance of the declamatory (recitative) style of jazz improvisation, which returned jazz to the traditions of the swing era, phenomenally manifesting itself in the work of Washington and influencing the further development of jazz.
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Stetsiuk, R. O. "Saxophone jazz improvisation: texture and syntax parameters." Problems of Interaction Between Arts, Pedagogy and the Theory and Practice of Education 57, no. 57 (March 10, 2020): 88–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.34064/khnum1-57.06.
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Thisarticle offers a comprehensive overview of the “saxophonejazzimprovisation” phenomenon. It was noted that in the contemporary jazz studies, the components of this notion are, as a rule, not combined but studied separately. This work is the first study that proposes to combine them based on the textureandsyntaxparameters. For that purpose, a number of perceptions already developed in academic music studies have been corrected in this work, including the perception of the instrument’s textural style (A. Zherzdev), specifics of its reflection in improvisation, syntax as a “system of anticipations” (D. Terentiev), which has its own specifics in saxophonejazzimprovisation. Being one of the style “emblems” of jazz, saxophone combines the specifics and universalism of its aggregate sound, which makes its sound image communicatively in-demand. It was emphasized that the methodology and methodic of the topic presented in this work need to be concretized on the example of saxophone jazz styles, which offers prospects for further studies of this topic. The theory of jazz improvisation inevitably includes the question of instrument (instruments, voices) used to make it. At this point, we need to tap into information about the instrumental-type style (style of any types of music according to V. Kholopova) available in jazz practice in both of its historical forms: traditional and contemporary. Saxophone becomes one of the key objects of this study, being an instrument of new type capable of conveying the entire range of jazz intoning shades represented in such origins of jazz as blues, ballad, religious chants, popular “classical music”, academic instruments. To generalize, it is worth noting that information about saxophonejazzimprovisation is concentrated in two areas of study: organological (jazz instruments and their use: solo, ensemble, orchestral) and personal (portraits of outstanding jazz saxophonists made, as a rule, in an overview and opinionbased style). The historical path of saxophone as one of the most in-demand instruments of jazz improvisation was quite tortuous and thorny. The conservative public considered this instrument “indecent” and believed that its use in jazz does not meet the requirements of high taste (A. Onegger). It was emphasized that specifics of jazz saxophone sound indeed lay in the instrumentalization of expressive vocal and declamatory intonations originating from blues with its melancholy and “esthetics of crying”. It is manifested especially vividly, and with even greater share of shock value than in jazz, in the use of saxophone in rock music, which exerted reverse influence over jazz that gave birth to it (V. Ivanov). The timbre-articulatory diversity found in saxophone is identified when taking its organological characteristics out of the dialectics of the pair of notions “specifics – universalism”, where the deepening of the former (specifics) means overcoming thereof towards the latter, universalism (E. Nazaikinskyi). As a result, we have a textural style of saxophone based on melodic nature of this instrument, its specific timbre enriched by the influence of other instrumental sounds, including trumpet, piano, and later, electric guitar. Among the existing definitions of texture in music, there are three key, determinant parameters of the approach to the study of texture style of saxophone in jazz. The first of them is spatial-configurative (E. Nazaikinskyi), the second is procedural-dynamic (G. Ignatchenko), and the third is performance-based (V. Moskalenko). On aggregate, the textural style of jazz saxophone is defined in this article as the synthesis of the instrument’s “voice” and the “voice” of the improviser saxophonist. The former defines the typical in this style, and the latter defines the individual, unique. The specifics of texture in jazz, including saxophone jazz, are special, because this improvisation art does not have the component of final “finishing” of musical fabric. The formulas existing in saxophone jazz texture are divided into three types: specific (typical for jazz itself), specifized (stemming from the folklore and “third” layers), and transduction-reduction (according to S. Davydov, borrowed from the academic layer). The syntactic composition of saxophone jazz improvisation correlates by the textural one, taking the shape of textural-structural components (a term by G. Ignatchenko) – units of the first scaled level of the perception of form, which are related to the one and the other. The mechanism of anticipation – a forestalling perception of the next segment of the process of improvisation, and the intuitionallogical orientation of an improviser saxophonist toward the number “7” have great significance (E. Barban). Like in academic practice, syntax in jazz improvisation is built on the basis of “stability” and “instability” semantics (D. Terentiev), forming a complex system of paradigms and syntagmas (the former are typical for traditional jazz, the latter for contemporary one). The rules of jazz improvisation semantize, because the most important thing for a jazz musician is the process, not the result. At this point, the aspect of temporal distance from the “cause” to the “effect” becomes especially distinguishable: the farther they are from each other the less predictable improvisation becomes, and vice versa. The process of improvisation is largely structured by choruses, which represent sections of a form related to variant reproduction of a theme (standard theme or author’s theme). In addition, improvisation (including saxophone improvisation) may contain elements of general forms of sound used as the bridges connecting sections inside choruses.
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Feige, Daniel Martin. "Jazz als künstlerische Musik." Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft Band 59. Heft 1 59, no. 1 (2014): 29–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.28937/1000106235.
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Der Text gilt einer Klärung der spezifischen Qualität des Jazz als künstlerischer Musik. Eine solche Qualität wird im Rahmen einer Analyse dreier wesentlicher Dimensionen dieser Musik vorgenommen, die zwar keineswegs als disjunktiv notwendige und konjunktiv hinreichende Dimensionen des Jazz im Sinne einer Definition profiliert werden, gleichwohl aber als für seine Wertschätzung zentrale Dimensionen diskutiert werden: Improvisation, Interaktion und Intension. Die Logik der Improvisation im Jazz wird kontrastiv zur Logik des Spielens eines musikalischen Werks in der europäischen Tradition künstlerischer Musik erläutert. Zugleich wird geltend gemacht, dass selbst dieses Spielen von Werken in gewisser Weise noch von der ausgewiesenen Logik der Improvisation bestimmt ist. Interaktion wird so spezifiziert, dass Jazz wesentlich als eine Form eines dialogischen Antwortgeschehens im Medium der Musik verstanden werden muss. Intensität schließlich meint die vor allem, aber keineswegs ausschließlich anhand der rhythmischen Dimension ausweisbare Fokussierung des Jazz auf jeden einzelnen Zug und jedes einzelne Moment seiner Darbietung. Der Jazz erweist sich dabei mit Blick auf seine philosophische Relevanz als eine künstlerische Musik, die wesentliche Aspekte künstlerischer Praxis überhaupt explizit macht.<br><br>The aim of the paper is an analysis of the specific quality of jazz as a kind of artistic music. Three dimensions are brought forward as central for jazz music: improvisation, interaction and intensity. Even though these dimensions are not understood in terms of a definition – as solely necessary and jointly sufficient conditions –, they are meant to be central qualities in our appreciation of jazz music. The logics of improvisation are explored in contrast to the practice of performing a composed work in the European tradition of art music. Despite this difference the thought is articulated that the performance of a composed work is in some way governed by a similar logic. Interaction is specified in terms of jazz being fundamentally a kind of dialogical practice in the medium of music. Intensity finally is spelled out as a certain focus of jazz music toward every single moment of its performance that is mainly but not solely due to its specific rhythmic dimension. Jazz music proves to be a kind of artistic music that renders aspects of artistic practice in general explicit.
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Norgaard, Martin, Samantha N. Emerson, Kimberly Dawn, and James D. Fidlon. "Creating Under Pressure." Music Perception 33, no. 5 (June 1, 2016): 561–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2016.33.5.561.
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A growing body of research suggests that jazz musicians concatenate stored auditory and motor patterns during improvisation. We hypothesized that this mechanism allows musicians to focus attention more flexibly during improvisation; for example, on interaction with other ensemble members. We tested this idea by analyzing the frequency of repeated melodic patterns in improvisations by artist-level pianists forced to attend to a secondary unrelated counting task. Indeed, we found that compared to their own improvisations performed in a baseline control condition, participants used significantly more repeated patterns when their attention was focused on the secondary task. This main effect was independent of whether participants played in a familiar or unfamiliar key and held true using various measurements for pattern use.
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Revzis, Inessa M. "About the Development of Improvisational Skills in the Pupils of Children’s Music Schools." ICONI, no. 2 (2019): 106–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.33779/2658-4824.2019.2.106-115.
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A considerable amount of pedagogical manuals and the programs devoted to methods of instruction of improvisation is connected with examining improvisation in the context of jazz pedagogy, or the art of performance (most frequently — piano). However, the development of the composer’s improvisational skills is deemed to be more important. The diffi culties of creation of the algorithm of instruction of this type of activities, but quite apparent is the set of conditions connected, fi rst of all, with the natural inclination towards improvisation, and also the presence of compositional abilities; second, with the mandatory mastery of an entire complex of music theory knowledge. Upon the combination of these two factors, it becomes possible to speak of a high level of development of improvisational skills. The article offers the point of view regarding the organization of the process of acquisition of skills of improvisation, the basis of which is comprised by six basic components, presenting six types of improvisation: melodic, poetical, harmonic, textural, ornamental and genre-related. Each separately presented subject is signifi cant, most notably, for the content of the course of “Composition,” which reveals the basic laws of construction of a musical composition, which, in their turn, are fundamental for the development of improvisational abilities. And because improvisation frequently becomes the fi rst impulse for creating a musical composition, which presumes its expression through spontaneity, it follows that both improvisation and composition thereby exist in close mutual connection.
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Alterhaug, Bjørn. "Improvisation on a triple theme: Creativity, Jazz Improvisation and Communication." Studia Musicologica Norvegica 30, no. 01 (January 19, 2004): 97–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.18261/issn1504-2960-2004-01-06.
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Friedman, J. Tyler. "On Narrativity and Narrative Flavor in Jazz Improvisation." Philosophy of Music 74, no. 4 (December 30, 2018): 1399–424. http://dx.doi.org/10.17990/rpf/2018_74_4_1399.
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This essay investigates an established question in the philosophy of music: whether, and in what respect, music may express narratives. However, this essay departs in two essential respects from traditional treatments of the question. First, the jazz tradition instead of European art music is used as the primary source material. Second, instead of merely posing the question of whether music can harbor a narrative, this essay is oriented by what it argues is a common experience of “narrative flavor” in music – the feeling of having heard a story in non-representational sound. The essay seeks to account for the experiential givenness of “narrative flavor” with the assistance of contemporary philosophical work on narrative and musicological work on improvisation and musical motion. Working with a minimalist definition of narrative that requires (1) the representation of two or more events that are (2) temporally ordered and (3) causally connected, music is found to be able to satisfy the second and third conditions. However, the questionable representation capacities of music lead to the conclusion that music cannot, in the strict sense, harbor a narrative. The experience of narrative flavor is explained with reference to J. David Velleman’s concept of emotional cadence, Brian Harker’s work on structural coherence in improvisation, and Patrick Shove and Bruno Repp’s work on the perception of musical motion. These sources are utilized to demonstrate that improvisations can be structured so as to give the listener the impression of having heard a story by initiating and carrying out an emotional cadence.
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Sparti, Davide. "Acta Fluens – Generatives Handeln und Improvisation im Jazz." Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft Band 59. Heft 1 59, no. 1 (2014): 49–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.28937/1000106237.
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Obwohl jede menschliche Handlung mit einem gewissen Grad an Improvisation erfolgt, gibt es kulturelle Praktiken, bei denen Improvisation eine überwiegende Rolle spielt. Um das Risiko zu vermeiden, einen zu breiten Begriff von Improvisation zu übernehmen, konzentriere ich mich im vorliegenden Beitrag auf den Jazz. Meine zentrale Frage lautet, wie Improvisation verstanden werden muss. Mein Vorgehen ist folgendes: Ich beginne mit einem Vergleich von Improvisation und Komposition, damit die Spezifizität der Improvisation erklärt werden kann. Danach wende ich mich dem Thema der Originalität als Merkmal der Improvisation zu. Zum Schluss führe ich den Begriff affordance ein, um die kollektive und zirkuläre Logik eines Solos zu analysieren. Paradigmatisch wird der Jazzmusiker mit dem Engel der Geschichte verglichen, der nur auf das Vergangene blickt, während er der Zukunft den Rücken zugekehrt hat, und lediglich ihr zugetrieben wird. Weder kann der Improvisierende das Material der Vergangenheit vernachlässigen noch seine genuine Tätigkeit, das Improvisieren in der Gegenwart und für die Zukunft, aufgeben: Er visiert die Zukunft trotz ihrer Unvorhersehbarkeit über die Vermittlung der Vergangenheit an.<br><br>While improvised behavior is so much a part of human existence as to be one of its fundamental realities, in order to avoid the risk of defining the act of improvising too broadly, my focus here will be upon one of the activities most explicitly centered around improvisation – that is, upon jazz. My contribution, as Wittgenstein would say, has a »grammatical« design to it: it proposes to clarify the significance of the term »improvisation.« The task of clarifying the cases in which one may legitimately speak of improvisation consists first of all in reflecting upon the conditions that make the practice possible. This does not consist of calling forth mysterious, esoteric processes that take place in the unconscious, or in the minds of musicians, but rather in paying attention to the criteria that are satisfied when one ascribes to an act the concept of improvisation. In the second part of my contribution, I reflect upon the logic that governs the construction of an improvised performance. As I argue, in playing upon that which has already emerged in the music, in discovering the future as they go on (as a consequence of what they do), jazz players call to mind the angel in the famous painting by Klee that Walter Benjamin analyzed in his Theses on the History of Philosophy: while pulled towards the future, its eyes are turned back towards the past.
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Купіна, Д. Д., and М. В. Дидак. "Jazz jem sessions in the aspect of listener perception." Музикознавча думка Дніпропетровщини, no. 16 (December 19, 2019): 141–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.33287/221930.
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The purpose of the article is to identify the characteristic features ofjazz jam sessions as creative and concert events. The research methods arebased on the use of a number of empirical approaches. The historicalmethod has characterized the periodization of the emergence andpopularity of jam session as an artistic phenomenon. The use of themethod of comparison of jazz jam sessions and jazz concert made itpossible to determine the characteristic features of jams. An appeal toaxiological research methods has identified the most strikingimprovisational solos of leading jazz artists. Of particular importance inthe context of the article are the methods of analysis and synthesis,observation and generalization. It is important to pay attention to the use ofa structural-functional scientific-research method that indicates theeffectiveness of technological and execution processes on jams. Scientificinnovation. The article is about discovering the peculiarities of the jamsession phenomenon and defining the role of interaction between theaudience of improviser listeners and musicians throughout the jams. Theprocesses of development of jazz concerts and improvisations at jamsessions are revealed. Conclusions. The scientific research providedconfirms the fact that system of interactions between musicians amongthemselves and the audience, as well as improvisation of the performers atthe jam sessions is immense and infinite. That is why modern jazz singersand the audience will always strive for its development and understanding.This way is worth starting with repeated listening to improvisation, in theimmediate presence of the jam sessions (both participant and listener).
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Murphy, John P. "Jazz Improvisation: The Joy of Influence." Black Perspective in Music 18, no. 1/2 (1990): 7. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1214855.
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Waterman, Christopher A., and Ingrid Monson. "Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction." Yearbook for Traditional Music 31 (1999): 161. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/768001.
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Peretti, Burton W., and Ingrid Monson. "Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction." Notes 55, no. 1 (September 1998): 129. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/900379.
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Jr., Guthrie P. Ramsey, Ingrid Monson, Burton W. Peretti, and Ronald M. Radano. "Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction." American Music 17, no. 2 (1999): 205. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3052715.
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Bitz, Michael. "Teaching Improvisation outside of Jazz Settings." Music Educators Journal 84, no. 4 (January 1998): 21–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3399111.
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Love, Stefan Caris. "An ecological description of jazz improvisation." Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain 27, no. 1 (2017): 31–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000173.
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Bellman, Howard. "Improvisation, Mediation, and All That Jazz." Negotiation Journal 22, no. 3 (July 2006): 325–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2006.00104.x.
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Bratt, Renata. "JAZZ improvisation for Strings? Why Bother?" American String Teacher 52, no. 4 (November 2002): 53–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000313130205200408.
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Seddon, Frederick A. "Modes of communication during jazz improvisation." British Journal of Music Education 22, no. 1 (March 2005): 47–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265051704005984.
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This study investigated modes of communication adopted by six student jazz musicians during rehearsal and performance. Six one-hour rehearsal sessions and a performance were observed and videotaped for analysis. Results revealed six modes of communication that formed two main categories, verbal and non-verbal, each containing three distinct modes of communication: instruction, cooperation and collaboration. Non-verbal collaborative mode displayed empathetic attunement, which is a vehicle for empathetic creativity. Empathetic creativity is a theoretical concept proposed by the author based on the concept of empathetic intelligence (Arnold, 2003, 2004). Practical applications of empathetic creativity are discussed with reference to music education, focusing on evaluation of individual contribution to group creative performances.
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Duffau, Hugues. "Jazz Improvisation, Creativity, and Brain Plasticity." World Neurosurgery 81, no. 3-4 (March 2014): 508–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2013.10.006.
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Lumm, George. "Introducing Jazz Improvisation in General Music." General Music Today 8, no. 1 (October 1994): 13–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104837139400800104.
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