The Sonic Archive of Black Spatiality

The epilogue expands on the purpose of the book and the author’s approach to it. Although the book does not abandon positivism, the author never privileges traditional research musicological methods over his own lived experience—as an African American improviser, composer, and theorist—or the lived experiences of the improvisers discussed in the book. The chapter expresses a hope that the book will provide further insight into the relationship between African American improvised music and cultural notions of spatiality in relation to improvisation. The chapter further elaborates on Black musical space: it is not defined by a defiance of whiteness or white supremacy. It is defined by joy, struggle ad infinitum, and reliance on community. Black musical space expressed through humanity ultimately escapes attempts to codify it. The chapter continues with a final summary of the author’s findings about each musician discussed in the book. While Blanchard, Higgins, Carrington, Akinmusire, and Hill express their ideas differently in the language of Black musical space, they are all connected by how they cross bar lines to emphasize the social context connection between their lived experiences and their improvisational and compositional practices.