Jazz Improvisation and the Aesthetic of Risk

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Edidin, Aron

Keywords

Philosophy, Music, Jazz, Aesthetics, Improvisation

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

As much as it is an art of sound, jazz is an art of movement. This movement is twofold: on the one hand, it refers to the complex interaction between the offbeat rhythms and driving pulse, but it also gets at performers' instantaneous reaction to a bit of music. I argue that to appreciate jazz is to comprehend both the general goals of musical perfection and novelty, but also the specifically human qualities of improvisation. As such, there's an ambivalence towards jazz that reveals its dual nature as product and process. I am dealing with an article by Lee Brown in which he examines the aesthetic values of jazz improvisation. He argues that jazz is valuable because of the risks that musicians take to create music on the fly, thus exposing their performances to all sorts of mishaps. Unlike classical music, which is guided by an aesthetic of perfection, jazz operates under the general rubric of an aesthetic of risk. And while Brown's model rightly realizes the importance of improvisation qua activity, he goes too far with the preeminence of risk. I argue against Brown that musical perfection and novelty must also be considered in an analysis of jazz aesthetics.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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