Pathways for Teaching Vocal Jazz Improvisation

2014 ◽  
pp. 303-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Hargreaves
Keyword(s):  
Jazz Improvisation ◽  
Vocal Jazz

scholarly journals Choose your own adventure: Vocal jazz improvisation, conceptual metaphor, and cognitive embodiment

2021 ◽  
pp. 102986492110627
Author(s):  
Melissa Forbes ◽  
Kate Cantrell
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Conceptual Structure ◽  
The Body ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Jazz Improvisation ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Vocal Jazz ◽  
Embodied Experiences ◽  
Musical Improvisation

Creativity in the form of musical improvisation has received growing attention from researchers informed by the literature on embodiment. To date, this research has focused on the embodied experiences of improvising instrumentalists rather than those of improvising singers. This article investigates the experience of embodiment during improvisation through a systematic analysis of the metaphorical language used by an artist-level jazz singer in her reflections on practice. Extensive interview data with the participant were analyzed to identify and reconstruct metaphorical expressions into conceptual metaphors. In this process, the metaphor of IMPROVISATION IS AN ADVENTURE was identified as the overarching conceptual structure that the participant used to make sense of her experiences of improvisation. This metaphor and its mappings illuminate the cognitively embodied dimension of vocal jazz improvisation. These findings will be of interest to jazz singers and vocal jazz educators who are encouraged to explore more fully the role of the body–mind’s interactions with its environment in order to establish expertise in improvisational ways of knowing. This research illuminates the multidimensional nature of an expert singer’s experiences of improvisation and is presented as a provocation for future research to include singers as participants when investigating musical improvisation and cognitive embodiment.

Three studies in the philosophy of jazz

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Troy S. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Performance Practice ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Jazz Improvisation ◽  
Instrumental Performance ◽  
University Of Missouri ◽  
Vocal Jazz ◽  
The Third ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The University ◽  
Comprehensive Discussion

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation comprises three studies which in turn discuss jazz ontology, jazz improvisation, and the question of whether jazz has ended as an artform. The first study discusses Andrew Kania's work on jazz ontology and attempts to clarify and extend his position regarding the principled exclusion of vocal jazz and jazz Fusion from his jazz ontology. Further, it introduces a quasi-realist strategy for making sense of jazz-work ontological discourse. The second study is a unique, comprehensive discussion of the jazz drummer's history and role in jazz improvisational contexts, in which the full range of instrumental performance practice (timekeeping, comping, and soloing) is explored. The third study is a provocative investigation of the possibility that the artform of jazz has "ended." Here, the end-of-art theses of Hegel and Danto are recalled and examined for their relevance in determining whether jazz has become a closed concept. The conclusion reached is that it is plausible to affirm that jazz has ended, even if it has not died.

Specifying the Flexible Mental Representation Used in Jazz Improvisation

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helga Noice ◽  
Roger Chaffin ◽  
Tony Noice ◽  
John M. Jeffrey ◽  
James Pelletier
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Jazz Improvisation

The effect of mental practice on melodic jazz improvisation achievement.

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Peter Miksza ◽  
Kevin Watson ◽  
Iantheia Calhoun
Keyword(s):  
Mental Practice ◽  
Jazz Improvisation

Babbitt’s Beguiling Surfaces, Improvised Inside; Part III: Opportunities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Banks Mailman
Keyword(s):  
Music Composition ◽  
Jazz Improvisation ◽  
The Third ◽  
Partial Orderings ◽  
Compositional Structures ◽  
Surface Patterns ◽  
Inside Part ◽  
Musical Activities

Babbitt’s relatively early composition Semi-Simple Variations (1956) presents intriguing surface patterns that are not determined by its pre-compositional plan, but rather result from subsequent “improvised” decisions that are strategic. This video (the third of a three-part video essay) considers Babbitt’s own conversational pronouncements (in radio interviews) together with some particulars of his life-long musical activities, that together suggest uncanny affiliations to jazz improvisation. As a result of Babbitt’s creative reconceptualizing of planning and spontaneity in music, his pre-compositional structures (partial orderings) fit in an unexpected way into (or reformulate) the ecosystem relating music composition to the physical means of its performance.

Landmarks in the Study of Improvisation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Nettl
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Jazz Improvisation ◽  
Single Model ◽  
Oral Transmission ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Music Making ◽  
History Of

Historically, research on improvisation has been related to the discovery of non-Western musics, folk music, and jazz, and has depended on the development of recording techniques for its principal kinds of data. The concept of improvisation is not unitary, but includes many vastly different kinds of un-notated music-making, which casts some doubt on the efficacy of the term itself. In the history of Western art music, improvisation was originally ignored or seen as craft rather than art, but since ca. 1980 it has occupied increased attention. The association of improvisation with oral transmission has sometimes been misunderstood. The most successful standard research study has been the comparison of performances based on a single model, for example, raga in India, maqam and dastgah in the Middle East, or a series of chord changes or a tune in jazz. Improvisation as a concept—for example, as a metaphor of freedom—has been important in recent research.

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