Improvising Complexity: The Philosophy of Jazz - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Improvising Complexity: The Philosophy of Jazz

The Nature of Improvisationin Jazz MusicSlide2

The

Nature & Methods of Improvisation

The

Etymology of “Improvisation” Improvisation versus CompositionIIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational?IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation & CompositionIIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluation Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?

Outline of

“

The Nature of

Improvisation

in Jazz Music”Slide3

The

Myths of Improvisation

IVa

. The Myths of Improvisation IVb. Refutation of the Myths Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz? The Possibility of Mistakes in Improvisations VIa. Mistakes are Impossible in a Jazz Improvisation VIb. Etymology of the word “mistake” VIc. The Definition of Mistake

VId. Mistakes Are Possible in a Jazz Improvisation

Outline of

“

The Nature of

Improvisation

in Jazz Music

” Slide4

Factors in Good Jazz

ImprovisationsVIIa. Positive Evaluations of Good

Improvisations

VIIb. Best Practices for Improvising: the Flow StateOutline of “The Nature of Improvisation in Jazz Music”You have been listening to bassist Charnett Moffitt’s “The Art of Improvisation” Slide5

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

Jazz improvisation typically is the process of spontaneously creating fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes in a song. An effective and standard improvisation typically bases itself off of the established musical systems of a pre-composed tune, but introduces new elements thereby producing thematically appropriate musical variety. IA. The Definition of ImprovisationSlide6

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

While often related to the melody, improvisations can also deviate from it and musicians may improvise on modes, chord or rhythm changes, or may even play totally freely. King Palmer in his book, The Piano (London: NTC Publishing Group, 1975) defines improvisation “as music which is created as it is performed, without previous preparation or detailed notation.” (p. 109) IA. The Definition of ImprovisationSlide7

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

One must be careful here not to place too much weight upon the notion of “without previous preparation.” An improvising jazz musician has obviously done a lot of studying and practicing of playing music and this certainly can count as preparations for improvising. Hence, what Palmer means is that the improvised solo has been produced spontaneously, but it need not have been produced without any preparation concerning the performance of the solo at all. IA. The Definition of ImprovisationSlide8

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

The dictionary gives as a synonym for “

spontaneous” that of “unpremeditated.” To produce music spontaneously means not to repeat precisely during one’s improvised solo a previously decided section of music. The decisions as to what to play must be made concurrently to the playing for it to count as a legitimate improvisation. IA. The Definition of ImprovisationSlide9

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

P

laying spontaneously does not require that what one plays has never been played by the performer before or that it has not been practiced. All that is required for the improvisation to count as legitimate is that the decisions as to what to play now are made and committed to at the moment of the musical performance and have not been previously decided upon.Slide10

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

Mark C. Gridley (and his co-authors, Robert Maxham and Robert Hoff) agree with the assessment that improvisers are permitted to repeat previously used patterns during an improvisation because “it would be unfair to expect that jazz musicians create not only fresh “paragraphs” and “sentences,” but even the “phrases” and “words” they use.” They conclude that “the frequent recurrence of standard patterns should not by itself DISQUALIFY a passage as [an] improvisation” . . . and “an improvisation CAN be constructed from pre-existing elements, only IF these elements are REORGANIZED, and they are reorganized at the very moment they are performed.” (“Three Approaches to Defining Jazz,” Oxford University Press, 1989)Slide11

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

Paul F. Berliner

notes that not only are improvisers permitted to repeat previously used musical elements, but that they are expected to use them. “There is no objection to musicians borrowing discrete patterns or phrase fragments from other improvisers, however; indeed, it is expected. Many students begin acquiring an expansive collection of improvisational building blocks by extracting those shapes they perceive as discrete components from the larger solos they have already mastered and practicing them as independent figures. They acquire others selectively by studying numerous performances of their idols. For some musicians, this is the entire focus of their early learning programs.” (Thinking in Jazz, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994, p. 101)Slide12

I. The Nature and Methods of Improvisation

A

melodic improvisation can be produced by using alternate notes and new syncopations (different emphases on the off beat) from the original melody so a new melody gets created.A harmonic improvisation works by substituting a new melody over the established chord changes and alternate tonal centers.Changing aspects of the original arrangement of a tune through embellishments of the original melody or through introducing and then developing a new theme produces a motivic improvisation, as Sonny Rollins, the saxophone player, often performs. IB

. Three methods of

jazz improvisation are melodic, harmonic, and motivic. Slide13

I. The Nature & Methods of Improvisation: Melodic

Marc

Sabatella, in his A Jazz Improvisation Primer, stresses the importance during melodic improvisations and musical development of maintaining a sense of continuity of the musical lines used during the improvisation. The contour or shape of the solo often will be modeled on that of a story.The structure of a story can start simply (introduction), then “build through a series of smaller peaks to a climax” and often finishes with a coda

, which is an independent passage at the end of a composition used to provide a satisfactory close.

The coda can serve as an extension and/or a re-elaboration of preceding themes or motifs heard during the main melody.Slide14

I. The Nature & Methods of Improvisation: Common Forms

There are two

common forms found in much jazz music: the blues form and the AABA song form.The blues form typically has twelve bars of music based on three four bar phrases. In its original form, the second phrase repeats the first phrase while the third phrases supplies an answer or response to the first two. It is AAB in form.Slide15

I. The Nature & Methods of Improvisation:

Common Forms

Because of the simplicity of the basic

blues form it is rarely strictly followed in modern jazz playing.The basic blues form uses only three chords: The I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord.Simple blues consisted of three vocal phrases (AAB) and eight musical measures (each four pulses or beats long). Musical measures varied between eight, twelve, and sixteen, but twelve measures became the standard. Slide16

I. The Nature & Methods of Improvisation:

Common Forms

A standardized

blues form consists of twelve measures with the harmonic progression of I, I, I, I7, IV, IV, I, I, V7, V7, I. I. Each roman numeral indicates a chord built on a specific tone in the scale to be played for one measure.One characteristic found in the blues are blue tonalities, notes not found on any one key of the piano. To produce a blue tonality on a piano requires hitting two notes simultaneously. For example, E-flat (black key to the left of E) and E-natural or B-flat and B-natural.Marc Sabatella provides a general description with specific examples relating to the playing of an F-blues in A Jazz Improvisation Primer.Slide17

II. Etymology of “

improvisation”

The

etymology of the word “improvisation” is revealing as to the nature and purpose of a jazz improvisation.The word “improvisation” is compounded of two Latin roots: “in” meaning “not” and “provisus” meaning “foreseen” so an improvisation is something that is unforeseen. Slide18

II. Etymology of “

improvisation”

The word “

improvisation” also relates to cognates in both French (“improviser” meaning “compose or say extemporaneously” from 1786) and from Italian (“improvvisare” meaning “unprepared”). The Latin word “provisus” besides meaning “foreseen” can also mean “provided” so an improvisation is something that is not provided beforehand. This reading is consistent with the contemporary meaning of a jazz improvisation being a spontaneous (not previously thought out) musical composition.Slide19

If a musical passage has been previously prepared, then it is not truly an

improvisation. By its very nature a jazz improvisation is a spontaneous creative act of music making.

These points help to answer and address the question of whether all music making is

improvisational. This claim has been made by Bruce Ellis Benson in his book, The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue: A Phenomenology of Music, (Cambridge University Press, 2003). IIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational? III. Improvisation versus CompositionSlide20

In his book,

Benson challenges the binary schema of “composing” versus “performing” music and argues that “this distinction does not describe very well what musicians actually do.” (p. 4)

Benson

requires that “all music making is fundamentally improvisational” (his italics). This thesis is partially correct, but more wrong than right.While it is true that no musical score CAN precisely dictate in every possible respect what a performer of that music must do to produce the music from that score, it does not follow that all music making is improvisational in the sense used by jazz musicians. IIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational?Slide21

In his article “On Musical Improvisation,

Philip Alperson explains that “

jazz

musicians use the term ‘improvisation’ to refer specifically to the improvised choruses rather than to the whole musical work from first note(s) to last,” contrary to Benson’s view that all music is improvised. ” (in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 43, No. 1, Autumn, 1984, fn. 28, p. 29)What Benson seems not fully to appreciate is the need to make a distinction between an interpretation of a pre-composed score that contains improvisational aspects, such as how much vibrato to use when playing a note, versus the spontaneous composing of new music not previously composed, an improvisation

IIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational?Slide22

Many musical performers are incapable of

improvising in the jazz sense as has been frequently discovered amongst classical musicians. A classical musician’s skill sets do not normally include improvisational

skills since they are not expected to be able to make spontaneous

compositions. The classical musician must be technically proficient at satisfactorily reproducing a musical composition to the conductor’s liking. If anything, a conductor would disallow any classical musician from improvising since then he or she would not be playing the music as intended by the composer. IIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational?Slide23

Steve Lacy

points out one of the flaws in equating composition with improvisation when he remarks:

“

In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds.”A non-improvised composition can be created piecemeal, over extended periods of time, revised with parts rejected and never performed. This is impossible for an impromptu jazz improvisation because, unlike compositions, they cannot be altered after their initial establishment. Editing is impossible—an improvised musical phrase cannot be altered, deleted, or taken back. It is what it is and eternally remains as such.

IIIa

. Is All Music Making Improvisational?Slide24

Even this last point is not entirely true. An

improvising musician who notices a mistake or a flaw while performing can use various techniques to either cover the flaw or mistake or make it seem like it is not one.For example, when

Charlie “Bird” Parker

and Miles Davis were having a discussion as to whether one can play ANY note during an improvisation, Miles claimed that one could not play a D sharp if one was playing a blues. Later, during a solo by Lester Young that Parker and Davis were observing, Young played this inappropriate note. After Bird suggested to Miles that Miles’s position had been refuted because Young had played the impossible note, Miles replied that he still had had to bend or smear it to remain in the context of a blues performance.

IIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational?Slide25

Another time when saxophonist

David Sanford said to Miles that he was embarrassed by what he perceived as a gaffe during one of his own improvisations

and wished that he had played something differently,

Miles, somewhat surprisingly, responded with the advice that “You should have played it twice.”Presumably this advice suggests that what one considers a flaw may not be perceived as a “mistake” if one repeats an inadvertent passage a second time thereby making it look like it was done intentionally the first time as well.In these ways it is paradoxically even possible to approximate editing oneself during a spontaneous improvisational musical performance. IIIa. Is All Music Making Improvisational?Slide26

Distinctive Features of

Compositions and Composers:

A

composition can be developed over extended periods of time and at different times.A composition can have parts changed or even deleted.A composition can be edited prior to performance.The intentions of the composer are typically not identical to those of a performer. A composer may write a piece of music with the intention that it never be performed. A composer need not concern himself or herself with whether an audience approves or disapproves or has any reaction whatsoever to a composition.

IIIb

. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide27

Distinctive Features of

Compositions and

Composers

:A composer can write music as an exercise or for purely theoretical reasons. A possible example would be Ravel’s “Bolero” if it were not intended to be performed.A composer by definition is someone who “writes and arranges music.” A composer need not in any sense be a performer of music. Hence compositions are musical products that do not require any actual sound production to exist.IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide28

Distinctive Features of

Improvisations and Improvisers

:

Virtually nothing that has been said of compositions and composers is true for improvisations and improvisers.An improvisation is typically performed for the listening enjoyment of an audience and not for any theoretical reasons; rather for practical reasons.An improviser by definition is someone who “produces and makes music through sound production.” A composition is inert; an improvisation is active and dynamic.An improviser must be a performer of music and hence requires the existence of actual sound events to exist during the performance.

IIIb

. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide29

Distinctive Features of

Improvisations and Improvisers:

Improvisations

can only exist in real time and must be developed during a musical performance.At no time after the sound production event has occurred can any change or deletion or editing take place relative to the production of this part of the musical event.An improviser’s intentions will usually include an interest in producing a quality musical experience that can be enjoyed by a listening audience. This, of course, will often also be a composer’s intention as well, although as pointed out it need not be.IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide30

Distinctive Features of

Improvisations and Improvisers:

No currently

improvising musician could reasonably have the intention that the performance not occur.Even more telling, perhaps, is the differences in risk taking between a composer and an improviser. Because a composer can take his or her time and consider many possibilities for the production of a successful musical work a composer has a relatively lesser risk in the production of a musical score than an improviser.IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide31

Distinctive Features of

Improvisations and Improvisers

:

Composers can test out sound combinations and reject or incorporate a myriad number of possible musical events during the production of the composition. An improviser must necessarily take enormous risks with a much greater chance of musical failure precisely because of the spontaneity involved during improvisations. Snap judgments are required. One cannot consider fifty different possibilities and then choose the best one.IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide32

Distinctive Features of

Improvisations and Improvisers

:

Improvisers cannot test out different combinations and then reject them while actually performing at the moment. Anything played has not been ‘rejected’ and cannot be rejected because it already exists in the musical performance. It is true that an improviser can make choices that have been previously tested out in a past improvisation or prior performance. IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation and CompositionSlide33

Distinctive Features of

Improvisations & Improvisers:

These distinctive differences between

improvisations and compositions entail a difference in aesthetic judgments regarding the evaluation of these two musical components. Because of the increased difficulty of needing to spontaneously compose during an improvisation, an improviser must be given extra credit for what results over that of the unhurried composer. The improviser can also be more easily forgiven any musical mistakes over that of the composer for similar reasons. IIIb. Differences Between Improvisation

and

CompositionSlide34

Ted

Gioia, in The Imperfect Art: Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture,

(Stanford Alumni Association,

1988), argues that improvisation requires a different set of aesthetic principles to evaluate the musical performance precisely because jazz music has the disadvantage of having to produce spontaneous improvisation rather than contemplative compositions developed over extended periods of time. In Gioia’s Chapter 3 “The Imperfect Art” he holds that “If improvisation is the essential element in jazz, it may also be the most problematic.” (p. 54)IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for

Improvisation and Composition?Slide35

From a different perspective, U.S. music critic,

Henry Pleasants (b. 1910), complains in his "A Performer's Art," Serious Music And All That Jazz

,

(Simon & Schuster, 1969) that “The jazz musician is denied the dignity accorded the composer because not everything he composes is first written down, or, necessarily, written down afterward, or, once written down, considered immutable. And he is denied the dignity accorded the Serious-music performer because the latter is an "interpreter" of presumably great music. The musician, in other words, who makes up his music as he goes along, or makes up a good deal of it, or who rarely plays the same music twice in the same way, is, we are given to understand, inferior to the musician who makes no music of his own. For all his undisputed virtuosity and inventive fancy, the jazz musician cannot, we are led to believe, be granted equality with the Serious musician who can read and play the notes written down for him by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner a century or so ago.”

IIIc

. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide36

Gioia continues on the next page by asking several probing questions: “Yet does not jazz, by its reliance on spur-of-the-moment

improvisation

, relegate itself to being a second-rate, imperfect art form?” “Does not its almost total lack of structure make even the best jazz inferior to mediocre composed music?” “Why, we ask, should the spontaneous prattle of an improvising musician interest us as much as the meticulously crafted masterpieces of the great composers?” (The Imperfect Art, p. 55) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and

Composition

?Slide37

Gioia concludes this paragraph with what he takes to be an extremely telling point: “The dilemma jazz

faces was stated with clarity by

composer Elliott Carter, when he suggested that the musical score serves the essential role of preventing ‘the performer from playing what he already knows and leads him to explore other new ideas and techniques.’” (The Imperfect Art, p. 55) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide38

My argument with

Gioia and Carter is that I take quality improvisers

to be achieving precisely the goals which

composer Carter claims is served by the pre-composed musical score when he states that a musical score prevents “the performer from playing what he already knows and leads him to explore other new ideas and techniques.” “Exploring new ideas and techniques and not playing what one already knows” is precisely what quality improvisers achieve regularly. They explore musical avenues that they have not anticipated and test things out often with surprising outcomes. IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide39

Paul Rinzler comments on Gioia’s presumption of the alleged inferiority of an improvised

composition

. “Improvised music has been evaluated sometimes as being the aesthetic inferior of composed music. The processes of improvisation and composition differ, and these differences create what have traditionally been considered disadvantages for improvisation.” (The Contradictions of Jazz, p. 141) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition

?Slide40

A primary motivation for regarding composition a superior musical form than spontaneous composition concerns formalist’s claims of the superior

structural complexity of a pre-composed as compared to a spontaneously composed piece of music.

Rinzler

claims that “structural complexity is a primary value in Western aesthetics. It is perhaps the single most important aspect of a Western composed music on which claims of a composer’s genius or a composition’s worth are founded, and it is the basis for much musical analysis. IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide41

Rinzler explains the nature of structural complexity quoting Leonard Meyer and Judith Becker (p. 142):

Music must be evaluated syntactically . . . Western art music is structurally more complex than other music; its architectonic hierarchies, involved tonal relationships, and elaborated harmonic syntax not only defy complete analysis but have no parallel in the world.

IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide42

Among Western musicologists, . . . musical complexity correlates with levels of hierarchical structures, to the number of musical ‘lines’ occurring simultaneously, to the relationships between similar musical elements found in different sections of the composition, and in some sense to the length of the composition. (

Contradictions of Jazz

, pp. 142-43) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide43

Paul Rinzler’s response to the alleged advantages of composition over improvisation is sophisticated. He first argues that

“it appears unlikely that improvisation can compare favorably with composition in terms of structural complexity, given the different situations in which the improviser and the composer are found. The primary difference is that the composer does not work in real time; that is, the compositional process does not occur when the performance of the composition does.”

(Contradictions of Jazz, p. 143) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide44

Rinzler next analyzes four specific advantages that composition enjoys following the work of Philip Alperson. These four advantages are:Creating an Overall Plan.

“The broad sweep of a composition can be carefully constructed. Each unit and subunit can be fit into place and coordinated within the entire hierarchy, allowing the composer to create a high degree of structural complexity

.” (Contradictions of Jazz, p. 143)Whereas a composer can review the entire blueprint of a composition, Rinzler notes, the improviser can only use the retrospective method of looking backward at what has just been improvised and shape the next phase of music relating to what has gone before. IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide45

Revision and Editing.

“Because composition occurs before a performance, changes in any aspect of the composition may be made prior to its performance. Revision and editing confer a great advantage to composition.” (Contradictions of Jazz

,

p. 144)Whereas a composer can consider and then reject vast numbers of possible solutions until she finds one she settles upon, the improvising musician can only use the one actually performed. IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide46

Notation.

“Notation is a powerful tool for conceiving, organizing, and documenting elements of a composition. For an

improviser

, notation might function as a mnemonic device that refers to some predetermined musical elements, but it does not function as a compositional tool as it does for the composer.” (Contradictions of Jazz, p. 144) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide47

Responsibility of

Composition. Rinzler argues that because of the advantages of

composition

, the composer is “expected to produce a complete, final, and perfect . . . product (in principle). Complexity and (near-)perfection are reasonable standards because the conditions of composition enable the achievement of those standards.” (Contradictions of Jazz, p. 144)Whereas any perceived mistake can be expunged by a composer, an actual mistake made by an improviser during a performance is irreconcilable. Ilic. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation

and

Composition?Slide48

Rinzler

defends an aesthetics for jazz that focuses not exclusively on the musical work produced, the product, which is the actual sounds made during the musical performance, or the music represented by the musical score, but rather he wishes to switch the emphasis on to the artist and the performance product in a dialectic.

“The key to an aesthetics of jazz does concern the artist as a person as well as the musical object itself, in a dialectic.” (The Contradictions of Jazz, p. 149) Ilic. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide49

By switching from only considering the formalist considerations of structural complexity as the primary thing of aesthetic value found in a musical performance, Rinzler

opens up a new area for aesthetic appreciation and investigation of the value of a spontaneously created musical work by a performing

improviser. Ilic. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide50

In an interview

with Miles Kington, jazz critic of the London Times, Fall 1967, André

Previn

(b. 1929), German–born U.S. classical musician explained a basic difference between classical music and jazz: “The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven's Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.” (Quoted in "A Performer's Art," Serious Music And All That Jazz, Simon & Schuster, 1969) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for

Improvisation and Composition?Slide51

Surely, if

Previn’s insight is correct this has profound implications for the critique of improvised jazz

music over that which is a performance of a

composed piece. Russell Lynes (1910-1991), U.S. critic, stresses the significance of performance in jazz because it was improvised. IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide52

“

Improvisation was the blood and bone of jazz, and in the classic, New Orleans jazz

it was collective

improvisation in which each performer, seemingly going his own melodic way, played in harmony, dissonance, or counterpoint with the improvisations of his colleagues. Quite unlike ragtime, which was written down in many cases by its composers and could be repeated note for note . . . by others, jazz was a performer's not a composer's art.” ("From Ragtime to Riches," The Lively Audience: A Social History of the Visual and Performing Arts in America, Harper & Row, 1985) IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for

Improvisation and Composition?Slide53

Surely, if

Previn’s and Lynes’s insights are correct this has profound implications for the critique of improvised

jazz music over that which is a performance of a composed piece. So what are the implications for assessing an improvised jazz performance versus assessing the straightforward performance of a composed piece of music? IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide54

One of the

basic differences is that one can complain if a performer fails to play what is in the musical score, but this complaint is non-existent for an improvised piece.

This makes for a

fundamental difference in approaching basic assessments of the success of composed versus improvised musical performances. When assessing a successful jazz performance one will use the considerations discussed later in section VII. The Epistemology of Jazz: Factors of Good Improvisations. IIIc. Do Aesthetic Evaluations Standards Differ for Improvisation and Composition?Slide55

There are myths concerning both

improvisations as a process and as a musical product. There are related myths regarding musicians who improvise.All of these myths regarding the nature of

improvisations

and improvising musicians have been recognized as such amongst contemporary knowledgeable commentators of the jazz scene.However, to explain why each of these improvisation myths are false or mistaken requires that one first delineate them prior to their refutation as is done in the next slide.IV. Philosophy of Jazz: The Myths of ImprovisationSlide56

Improvisers

are primitive and unstudied musicians who naturally produce improvisations not based on memory.

The

improvisations are not particularly governed by rules or conventions.Improvisation cannot be taught.Free jazz improvisations not based on chord changes are easier to play than straight ahead jazz improvisations because they need not conform to any particular rules.IVa. Philosophy of Jazz: The Myths of ImprovisationSlide57

Improvisers are primitive and unstudied musicians who naturally produce improvisations not based on memory.

From the very beginning of jazz many musicians were highly accomplished and well trained in European musical conventions.

Improvisers

often know from memory what kinds of musical responses are appropriate for a given context and have studied them in great detail. Charlie Parker learned how to play the same tune in all twelve keys, etc.IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythSlide58

Many accomplished

improvisers often use individually distinctive musical phrases and sounds typical of one of his or her own ways of playing. Individual musicians voices are often discernible

in how that person makes his way through an

improvisation. Charlie Parker has musical licks distinctive of how he plays as does Stan Getz and Miles Davis, etc. IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythSlide59

The improvisations are not particularly governed by rules or conventions.

Bill Evans in “The Universal Mind of Bill Evans

” was at great pains to stress the importance of conforming one’s improvisation to the original melody. He believed that there were numerous constraints that one should follow to produce a quality improvisation.

IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythSlide60

The improvisations are not particularly governed by rules or conventions.

There are many musical rules that musicians often obey during an improvisation.

For example, limiting one’s solo to a specific number of bars of music.

Staying in the same musical key. Keeping in the same harmonic range. Using the appropriate notes for a pentatonic versus a diatonic musical scale.IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythSlide61

Improvisations are not particularly governed by rules or conventions.

Playing in the appropriate style (Dixieland, modal, Latin, a blues, etc.).

Playing in a conventional manner so that your fellow musicians know where you and the music are during a performance.

Each of these is a rule governed activity.IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythSlide62

Improvisation

cannot be taught. As jazz

music schools from Maine to California know,

improvisation is offered as a class from beginning to advanced improvisations. One can teach oneself how to improve one’s own improvisations and this is a kind of teaching. One learns from one’s own experiences and reflections upon what worked and did not work during one’s improvisations.IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythsSlide63

Free jazz

improvisations not based on chord changes and so are easier to play than straight ahead jazz

improvisations

because they need not conform to any particular rules. On the contrary, improvising from chord changes supplies the musician with an obvious jumping off point. There is a place to start and a place to which one can return or dip back into. During a free improvisation, on the other hand, it remains a constant challenge how one will accomplish saying something musically interesting given that there is no starting point.IVb. Philosophy of Jazz: Refutation of the MythsSlide64

V. Is

Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

Different authors have had different opinions as to the answer to the question posed above. Some have argued that

improvisation is not essential to jazz and some have argued that it is using the very same phrase of “essential to jazz.”Depending upon how someone interprets what “essential to jazz” means both sides could possibly be correct.Start by defining “essential” as meaning the same thing as a necessary condition where a necessary condition is such that were it to fail to occur then what it is a necessary condition for can also not occur. [Va] What Can Be Meant By Essential to JazzSlide65

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

The question becomes whether it is possible for a musical performance to count as a

jazz performance while nevertheless lacking any improvisation during the performance?The answer is that few would argue that this was impossible. Many jazz scholars agree that Big Band music of the 1930’s and 40’s often did not contain much improvisation, but still should count as jazz. Similarly, Harvey Pekar, noted jazz commentator, urges the recognition of non-swinging music still counting as jazz in his “Swing As An Element of Jazz.” (in CODA, August/September, 1974, pp. 10-12; updated in Jazzis, June, 1996)

[Va] What Can Be Meant By Essential to JazzSlide66

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

Therefore,

improvisation fails to be a necessary condition for jazz to exist.However, there are other interpretations that can be given for what “essential to jazz” can be taken to mean. [Va] What Can Be Meant By Essential to JazzSlide67

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

Consider the following situation: Could a musician who never

improvises or only improvises poorly ever qualify as a master jazz musician?Here the answer is clearly “No.” Any musician who is not an expert in improvisation cannot qualify as a jazz performer of the first order. Hence, in these terms, improvisational ability is required as a necessary condition for being a qualified jazz master. [Va

] What Can Be Meant By

Essential to JazzSlide68

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

The above conclusion regarding the necessity of

improvisational skills being required for any genuine jazz musician is not shared by every commentator. Mark Gridley disagrees when he remarks that “Is it important that aspiring performers develop an improvisatory technique? No, not necessarily.” (Gridley, ibid., p. 11)Nevertheless, such differences in what is meant by “essential” helps to account for why different commentators intuitions about the essentiality of improvisation to jazz can differ. [Va] What Can Be Meant By Essential to

JazzSlide69

V. Is

Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

Bill Evans

in conversation appears to require that improvisation actually is essential to jazz even in light of Leonard Feather’s comment that a musical performance could count as jazz that lacked any improvisation. Why is that possible?One answer may be that besides using different interpretations of the phrase “essential to jazz,” Evans may be stressing how important improvisation is to jazz performance and its musical production. [

Va

] What Can Be Meant By Essential to JazzSlide70

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

Here are some quotations on the subject:

Ted Gioia claims that “improvisation, if not restricted to jazz, is nonetheless essential to it.” (The Imperfect Art, p. 53)“Part of the education of a jazz musician is learning to create improvised melodies that are coherent and emotionally engaging.” (from Essential Jazz: The First 100 Years, Henry Martin and Keith Waters, Belmont, CA: Thompson Learning, Inc., 2005)“Improvisation is defined as the act of simultaneously composing and performing. It is an essential element

in the performance of most, but

not all, jazz.” (History & Tradition of Jazz, Thomas E. Larson, 2nd ed., Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 2002)

[

Va

] What Can Be Meant By

Essential to JazzSlide71

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

Paul F. Berliner

, in his book, Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation, discusses some of the aspects of interpreting a song versus improvising on it.“Beyond its variable key, a piece’s precise melodic features can differ from version to version. Within an arrangement, singers or instrumentalists who carry the melody can transform it to varying degrees, engaging in compositional activities of increasing ‘levels of intensity’ that Lee Konitz [alto saxophonist born 1927] distinguishes along a continuum from interpretation to improvisation. Success at one level provides the conceptual grounding and ‘license’ musicians need to graduate to successive levels, each increasing its demands upon imagination and concentration.” (p. 67)

[

Va] What Can Be Meant By Essential to JazzSlide72

Berliner

continues to explain some of the levels of intensity leading from interpretation to improvisation.

“At the outset of a performance, players commonly restrict themselves to

interpretation. They reenter the piece’s circumscribed musical world along the rising and falling path of a particular model of the melody, focusing firmly on its elements and reacquainting themselves with the subject of their artistic ventures. Musicians take minor liberties when orienting themselves to a piece at this level of intensity, coloring it in numerous ways. They vary such subtleties as accentuation, vibrato, dynamics, rhythmic phrasing, and articulation or tonguing, “striving to interpret the melody freshly, as if performing it for the first time” (Lee Konitz).” (p. 67)

V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?

[

Va

] What Can Be Meant By

Essential to JazzSlide73

Berliner

goes into a great amount of detail as to how a musician can use different aspects of the musical elements just mentioned to interpret a piece of music. He then moves on to discuss a higher level of intensity that he terms “

embellishment

.” He explains how trumpeter Kenny Dorham embellished a tune, with fellow trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer being impressed by how “he could say all that, just by playing the melody.”“Rendering the piece with his warm, intimate tone, Dorham embellished the melody with spare grace notes and varied its phrasing with subtle anticipations and delays. He articulated sustained pitches with soft unaccented attacks before bending them down and drawing them quickly back again, then allowing them to sing with an increasingly wide vibrato. Only once did he interject into the performance a phrase of his own by filling a rest with melodic motion.” (p. 69) V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?Slide74

Berliner

now explains that the highest level of intensity of musical production lies in improvisation.“Finally, musicians periodically raise performances to improvisation

, the

highest level of intensity, transforming the melody into patterns bearing little or no resemblance to the original model or using models altogether alternative to the melody as the basis for inventing new phrases. These artistic episodes can occur at various points in a performance, as when players add short melodic figures in such static areas of tunes as rests or sustained pitches at the ends of phrases. Additionally, if the player carrying the melody is the first soloist in the group, he or she may depart from the melody before its completion to improvise a musical segue to the solo. . . . Typically, however, players restrain themselves during the melody’s formal presentation, reserving their most extensive compositional activity for improvised solos.” (p. 70) V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?Slide75

Finally,

Berliner notes how improvisation while musically interesting in and of itself and posing a significant challenge for the performer may also lead to the development of new songs based in part or whole on the improvisation

.

“At the same time, the combined operations from interpretation to improvisation have the potential to “carry musicians more than halfway to creating a new song,” [says Lee Konitz] within the framework of another melody. Such situations underscore the extent to which pieces serve jazz musicians not simply as ends in themselves, but as vehicles for invention. Just as these procedures, taken in sequence, provide artists with a routine for practicing pieces, their sequential mastery corresponds, for some artists, to the progressive stages of their development.” (p. 70) V. Is Improvisation Essential to Jazz?Slide76

Some might argue that

mistakes are impossible during an improvisation since there is no pre-determined musical score

that one is trying to mimic or reproduce with accuracy.

Someone might argue that there are no mistakes in an improvisation, but only better or worse choices of notes.An argument could be made that since a mistake can occur if someone understands something wrongly that this makes them impossible to occur during an improvisation since there is nothing to wrongly understand since the improvisation is fresh, original and unique. [VIa] Mistakes are Impossible in a Jazz Improvisation

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of MistakesSlide77

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

The etymology of the word “

mistake” according to the American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, 2009 is that the word comes from several sources. From Middle English the word “mistaken” means to misunderstand. From Old Norse “mistaka” means “to take in error.” In Indo-European roots the prefix “mis-” means “wrongly” (related to “mei”) and “taka” means “to take” so a mistake happens when one wrongly takes something (typically in comprehension). [VIb] Etymology of the word “mistake”Slide78

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

The definition of a

mistake is to be in error relative to an action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, or insufficient knowledge, etc. A mistake can be the result of a misunderstanding or a misconception. To wrongly understand, interpret, or evaluate something produces a mistake.[VIc] Definition of a mistakeSlide79

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

There are at least

two basic types of mistakes that can and do occur in jazz improvisations: execution mistakes and interpretation mistakes.An execution mistake directly relates to performance skills. For example, when a performer intends to play a specific note, but actually plays a different note, then this is a flaw in performance execution. A second way an execution mistake can occur is to flub a note and produce a flawed sound by honking, coughing, not finishing, splatting, etc.[VId] Mistakes DO occur during

jazz

improvisationsSlide80

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

An

execution mistake occurs when a performer:Uses poor intonation.Plays with uncharacteristic tone quality.Lacks interaction and fails to dialog with accompaniment.Plays with a lack of confidence. [VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz improvisationsSlide81

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

An

interpretation mistake concerns creative development and can occur in numerous ways such as when a performer:Makes poor decisions.Plays schmaltzy when one should not.Gets lost during the performance.Plays too many cliches.Does not relate the improvisation thematically to the tune being played. [VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz improvisationsSlide82

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

Overly repetitious performance.

Plays an improvisation with an inappropriate time feel and/or rhythm. [VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz improvisationsSlide83

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

The reason why these

interpretation mistakes count as mistakes is because each satisfies the definition of a mistake. As was seen in the definition of mistake as an error in judgment caused by insufficient knowledge or reasoning, a jazz improviser can lack sufficient or appropriate knowledge about how to play a particular song or reason poorly about the song’s structure and how it relates to his or her improvisation. Beginning musicians make these kinds of errors and mistakes all of the time. [VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz improvisationsSlide84

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

What should one say about a beginner’s weak and impoverished

improvisation other than the person lacks knowledge of the right chord changes to play or some other flaw in how the person proceeds in producing a musical event.Paul Berliner recounts the story of trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer as a youngster playing with Miles Davis.“[Hillyer] laughs ruefully as he recalls losing his place after the first eight bars and how brutally thereafter each pitch of his impassioned performance clashed with the band. When the dismal solo finally aborted, Davis pulled him off the stage and grumbled hoarsely, “You don’t know your chords, do you?” When Hillyer confessed to this, Davis told him not to return to the club until he had mastered harmony.” (Thinking in Jazz, p. 71)

[VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz improvisationsSlide85

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

Even professional

jazz musicians can be accused of having made mistakes of interpretation during a non-improvised performance. Thelonious Monk, who composed the song, often accused Miles Davis of not playing the bridge properly for one of his tunes. Since Monk wrote the song he has a point.On the other hand, Miles may just have been producing an alternative version of the tune and in the history of jazz oftentimes a famous soloist’s musical production has been adopted by future players as a good way to play that particular song. [VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz

improvisationsSlide86

VI. The Epistemology of

Jazz: Possibility of Mistakes

If one can make

mistakes relating to knowledge of a song’s structure during the non-improvised performance, then if one bases one’s improvisation on the mistaken knowledge regarding the song’s structure, then this would count as an additional error relative to that musical structure. [VId] Mistakes DO occur during jazz improvisationsSlide87

VII. Epistemology of

Jazz: Factors of Good Improvisations

On the other hand, one can specify what

jazz educators and musicians consider positive aspects of an effective jazz solo during an improvisation. An effective improvisation occurs when a performer:Demonstrates a knowledge of musical theory.Uses melodic motifs and/or sequences.Plays with appropriate time feel and/or rhythm.Plays with good technical facility. [VIIa] Positive Evaluations of Good ImprovisationsSlide88

VII.

Epistemology of Jazz: Factors of Good Improvisations

Develops the solo in a logical manner.

Plays with emotional expression.Plays with appropriate style.Shows imagination and creativity.Effectively uses chromatic approach tones. Has effective interaction and dialog with musical partners.To fail at any of the above factors is to make one’s performance open to the criticism that one has made mistakes. [VIIa] Positive Evaluations of Good ImprovisationsSlide89

VII

. Epistemology of Jazz: Factors of Good Improvisations

Important factors for assessing the quality of an

improvisation: Personal/individual voice (auditory tonal style)Individual expression (can express musical ideas that reveal emotions or show a 'spirituality,' etc.)Clarity of musical thought and purpose.Aesthetic relationships related to the following: consistent with, aberrant from, poorly executed, masterfully performed, extended and insightful musical addition, etc. to the original composition. [VIIa] Positive Evaluations of Good Improvisations