Thursday, April 30, 2009
Improvisation
In its usual usages, 'jam' connotes something contrary to 'free-flowing'. Hence, the rubric 'jam band' applied to rock music is often ironic or snide, since what is classified as such is regarded by many as undisciplined, self-indulgent, and erratic. Possibly because this genre is held in such low esteem by an industry and an audience that prefers predictability and manageability in its products, the more honorific label 'improvisation' is rarely heard in this context. The latter term would assimilate this music more directly to its more respected cousins jazz and comedy 'improv', thereby revealing how difficulting it can actually be. For, improvisation requires personal inventiveness, which entails an ongoing development that is both coherent and novel from what has just transpired. Furthermore, the collectivity of the setting demands unceasing alertness, receptivity, and responsiveness to one's partners in the adventure. In other words, improvisation is collective creativity, a notion which imparts dignity to the idea 'jam band', while its combination of personal integrity and interpersonal respect can stand as a paradigm of Ethical excellence.
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I think you are misunderstanding the terms. A musical jam session ranges from musicians gathering and playing together. The jam could range from unstructured to very structured chord charts and progressions.
ReplyDeleteThe jam could be a more improvisatory play where the individual musicians "feelings" relative to the immediate environment are brought into the execution.
It's not that jam is more pejorative than improvisation, rather improvisation is a subset of jams---not always utilized.
Improvisation has a complicated lineage from both jazz and classical traditions. I don't have the space or energy to write about that, but will simply say that music of Jarrett, Mozart, Liszt, Avante-Garde jazz, Reinhardt, free jazz (Sun Re) and even the jams of swing-era jazz musicians are all part of this family tree.
Many writers speak about the Grateful Dead and their extended jams---this has roots in the psychedelic music evolution and the street and road music scene of the 60s based in San Francisco. Certainly their extended "space music" interludes would be classified as improvisations rather than merely jams. This, like much of the above, deserves extended individual comments that perhaps you could contribute to.
I haven't even touched on the related disciplines of improv acting, dance, film and poetry...
Keep up the good work, Senor!
Prof. Johnny Moped
Thanks for the comments. Note the title of the piece, the purpose of which, in conjunction with the notion of 'Expanded Horizons', and my ongoing attempts to redefine the scope of Ethics, is to sketch, in the limited time available to me, that and how Improvisation can serve as a general paradigm. So,for my purposes,'jam' is not the broader term. Perhaps a reference to That's It For The Other One, Neal Cassady, or The Merry Pranksters would have made that clearer, but they all speak for themselves better than I can. In any case, my initial riff on 'jam' was just for the benefit of those who might have gotten a wrong idea from the typical contemporary public usage.
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