Bilbo Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 I am just finishing a book called 'Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction' by Ingrid Monson and it has got me thinking about improvisation. When we talk about improv. in Jazz, we are talking about a intense and on-going dialogue between all parties involved in the music making (and some beyond). What one musician does creates the impetus for the others to respond and vice versa in a 2,3,4 or 10 way dialogue. My belief is that, in most other genres, a soloist who improvises does so on a pretty fixed backdrop; straight backbeat, set chords etc. I know there are exceptions: King Crimson, some Zappa etc but, mostly, improvisation is two dimensional in popular music. As for Jazz, the more I think about, the more I realise how damned hard it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crez5150 Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 [quote name='Bilbo' post='1174890' date='Mar 24 2011, 04:44 PM']I am just finishing a book called 'Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction' by Ingrid Monson and it has got me thinking about improvisation. When we talk about improv. in Jazz, we are talking about a intense and on-going dialogue between all parties involved in the music making (and some beyond). What one musician does creates the impetus for the others to respond and vice versa in a 2,3,4 or 10 way dialogue. My belief is that, in most other genres, a soloist who improvises does so on a pretty fixed backdrop; straight backbeat, set chords etc. I know there are exceptions: King Crimson, some Zappa etc but, mostly, improvisation is two dimensional in popular music. As for Jazz, the more I think about, the more I realise how damned hard it is.[/quote] Yep, thats how I would see it. To me, in more traditional formatted music, improvisation would be to play something different than what is normally played with the only condition that its thought up on the spot or live as such rather than pre written or arranged. In the Jazz content that you are describing, that to me is more like a group of musicians comunicating to each other and have a musical conversation, reacting instantly to what the other musicians have played in the same way a verbal conversation happens among people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endorka Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 Well that's the theory. As Bilbo points out though, it is incredibly difficult to achieve musical coherence doing this. In reality, a lot of jazz belongs to the aforementioned two dimensional grouping. It is wonderful when it does not though! Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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