Interaction, Improvisation, and Interplay in Jazz

Interaction, Improvisation, and Interplay in Jazz Performance offers a new and exciting way to listen to and understand jazz. When describing a performance, most jazz writers focus on the improvised lines of the soloist and their underlying harmonic progressions. These often overlook the basic fact that when one listens to jazz, one almost never hears a single line, but rather a texture, a musical fabric woven by several musicians in real time. While it is often pragmatic to single out an individual solo line, it is important to remember that an improvised solo is but one thread in that fabric; and it is a thread supported by, responded to, and responsive of the parts being played by the other musicians in the group. Interaction, Improvisation, and Interplay in Jazz Performance explores the process of player interaction in jazz, and the role this interaction plays in creating improvised music.The book opens with a discussion of the nature of jazz improvisation and performance. How exactly do jazz musicians improvise to create a musical composition? The author then addresses the roles of the accompanying instruments (piano-bass-drums), both individually and as partners in creating the musical fabric. Next comes an in depth look at jazz harmony and form, and how they are generated in performance. Again, without a written score, how do the musicians generate jazz harmonic and thematic structures on the fly? The author proposes some provocative new ideas about these important processes that are central to the jazz ethos. Finally the author explores how the boundaries between soloist/melody and harmony/rhythm were broken down in the free jazz history, composition, andperformance, as well as to the general jazz audience.