What About Their Performance Do Free Jazz Improvisers Agree Upon? A Case Study.

ABSTRACT: When musicians improvise freely together-not following any sort of script, predetermined harmonic structure, or "referent"-to what extent do they understand what they are doing in the same way as each other? And to what extent is their understanding privileged relative to outside listeners with similar levels of performing experience in free improvisation? In this exploratory case study, a saxophonist and a pianist of international renown who knew each other's work but who had never performed together before were recorded while improvising freely for 40 min. Immediately afterwards the performers were interviewed separately about the just-completed improvisation, first from memory and then while listening to two 5 min excerpts of the recording in order to prompt specific and detailed commen

SUBMITTER: Pras A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5483471 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature