A Sense of the Possible: Miles Davis and the Semiotics of Improvised Performance

Smith, Christopher

doi:10.2307/1146463

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Yet, interaction among performers in jazz is an essential component of ensemble playing in jazz (Berliner, 1994(Berliner, , 1997Monson, 1996;Sawyer, 1992;Seddon, 2005;C. Smith, 1998).…”

Section: Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Artist-Level Jazz Musicians

Norgaard

2011

Journal of Research in Music Education

107

147

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Thought processes of seven artist-level jazz musicians, each of whom recorded an improvised solo, were investigated. Immediately after completing their improvisations, participants listened to recordings of their playing and looked at the notation of their solos as they described in a directed interview the thinking processes that led to the realization of their improvisations. In all of the interviews, artists described making sketch plans, which outlined one or more musical features of upcoming passages. The artists also described monitoring and evaluating their own output as they performed, making judgments that often were incorporated into future planning. Four strategies used by the artists for generating the note content of the improvisations emerged from the analysis: recalling well-learned ideas from memory and inserting them into the ongoing improvisation, choosing notes based on a harmonic priority, choosing notes based on a melodic priority, and repeating material played in earlier sections of the improvisation.

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“…Yet, interaction among performers in jazz is an essential component of ensemble playing in jazz (Berliner, 1994(Berliner, , 1997Monson, 1996;Sawyer, 1992;Seddon, 2005;C. Smith, 1998).…”

Section: Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Artist-Level Jazz Musicians

Norgaard

2011

Journal of Research in Music Education

107

147

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“…Not only did the experience allow students to get to know each other musically and socially in a rather unique way, it also helped them to clearly identify key issues associated with musical improvisation that they would continue to wrestle with long after their stay in the program was over. Indeed, as a musical game Cobra creates a kind of 'ritual space' (Smith, 1998) wherein key elements of free improvisation are writ large. But despite its many challenges, Cobra is inclusive: playful conflict and contestation are as important as consensus; a rock guitarist is as welcome as a be--bop saxophonist, a zheng player or a non--idiomatic improviser as long as they are all willing and able to play.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, Runeson and Frykholm (1983) have shown that bodily movements may express mental dispositions and intentions in ways that are clearly distinguishable to onlookers. And the relevance of movement and gesture to musical expression has been examined empirically by Davidson (1993Davidson ( , 2005 and considered theoretically in a jazz context by Smith (1998) in terms of semiotics. Furthermore, Cobra demands a deep personal understanding of one's own musical arsenal as an improviser as well as the "open skills"--the musical, technical, conceptual flexibility (Thompson & Lehmann, 2004)--required to adapt to the complex demands of the moment: While the various cues in Cobra do signify specific event types, they are also content free; they are filled and structured in real--time by the musical material the performers bring to them; as signs they are incomplete, waiting to be achieved by the very events they initiate.…”

Section: ____________________________________________________________mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Free Improvisation Game: Performing John Zorn’s Cobra

Schyff¹

2013

JRMP

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The use of improvisation is wide spread in musical practice around the world.Nevertheless, Western academic circles tend to ignore this ubiquitous activity and have maintained a focus on composition and interpretation. This is beginning to change, however, and the role of improvisation in performance and music education is receiving an increasing amount of attention. This paper contributes to this project by examining the practice of 'free improvisation' in a large ensemble context. A rehearsal and performance of John Zorn's Cobra--a 'game' piece for improvisers--is analyzed from a first--person perspective; relevant research in music psychology is considered; and suggestions are made with regard to how we may better understand the nature of musical communication in improvised contexts. Pedagogical applications are also considered.

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“…This fact forces them to come up with alternative ways of generating and immersing themselves in contextually meaningful contingency. Their self‐devised forms of training and the challenges these forms respond to are thus radically different from what one typically finds in descriptions of apprenticeship of neophyte improvisers in various ethnographic contexts (Bryant ; Lord ; Smith ).…”

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confidence: 79%

Sociable robots, jazz music, and divination: Contingency as a cultural resource for negotiating problems of intentionality

Wilf

2013

American Ethnologist

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In practices that range from mechanical divination in Central Africa to gamelike interactions among jazz students and the development of a jazz‐improvising humanoid robot marimba player in the United States, contextually meaningful contingency is widely used as a cultural resource for negotiating problems of intentionality. Whereas anthropologists have been concerned with the use of contingency mostly as a cultural resource for increasing predictability of intentions in conflictual situations, I highlight contexts pervaded by modern normative ideals of creativity in which predictability of intentions constitutes a problem, for which contextually meaningful contingency is used as a solution.

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A Sense of the Possible: Miles Davis and the Semiotics of Improvised Performance

Cited by 12 publications

References 2 publications

Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Artist-Level Jazz Musicians

Descriptions of Improvisational Thinking by Artist-Level Jazz Musicians

The Free Improvisation Game: Performing John Zorn’s Cobra

Sociable robots, jazz music, and divination: Contingency as a cultural resource for negotiating problems of intentionality

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