Until the 1960s jazz was still considered an oral tradition, and many professional musicians were still self-taught. According to some authors (Nicholson 2005), as self taught musicians are free from the constrictions of formal curriculum, this is relevant in terms of the creativity and vitality of the music. In fact, until the 1960s, such creativity fuelled endless stylistic revolutions (e.g. bebop in the 1940s). From the 1960s onwards, however, with the spread of formal jazz education in universities, the scope of these innovations seems to have narrowed, to the point that some authors speak of the "death of jazz". The old type of self-taught training was based on the jam session: the informal meeting of musicians, where they learned (and learn) to improvise by playing together and by exchanging hints and opinions (Berliner 1994: 36-59). This presentation is based on the ethnographic research I did in a weekly, "non-competitive" jazz jam session, held at Tony’s bar in Brooklyn, NY, attended by both professionals and amateurs. The interesting aspect of Tony's jam is that it has an implicit "ideological" foundation: the resistance to the “academic” transformation of jazz which has spread in the US (and globally) (Ake 2002) and its negative consequences on creativity. In fact, in the jam at Tony’s, the emphasis is on learning to play by ear, on the oral knowledge of jazz tradition and on spontaneity, rather than on the stiff, formal curriculum- based, sight-reading professional skills which tend to dominate the contemporary jazz scene.

Self-taught improvisers: jam sessions as resistance to formal jazz curriculum.

Anselmo Roberto Paolone
2019-01-01

Abstract

Until the 1960s jazz was still considered an oral tradition, and many professional musicians were still self-taught. According to some authors (Nicholson 2005), as self taught musicians are free from the constrictions of formal curriculum, this is relevant in terms of the creativity and vitality of the music. In fact, until the 1960s, such creativity fuelled endless stylistic revolutions (e.g. bebop in the 1940s). From the 1960s onwards, however, with the spread of formal jazz education in universities, the scope of these innovations seems to have narrowed, to the point that some authors speak of the "death of jazz". The old type of self-taught training was based on the jam session: the informal meeting of musicians, where they learned (and learn) to improvise by playing together and by exchanging hints and opinions (Berliner 1994: 36-59). This presentation is based on the ethnographic research I did in a weekly, "non-competitive" jazz jam session, held at Tony’s bar in Brooklyn, NY, attended by both professionals and amateurs. The interesting aspect of Tony's jam is that it has an implicit "ideological" foundation: the resistance to the “academic” transformation of jazz which has spread in the US (and globally) (Ake 2002) and its negative consequences on creativity. In fact, in the jam at Tony’s, the emphasis is on learning to play by ear, on the oral knowledge of jazz tradition and on spontaneity, rather than on the stiff, formal curriculum- based, sight-reading professional skills which tend to dominate the contemporary jazz scene.
2019
978-88-944888-1-4
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/1170192
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