7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence

Molander, B., Netland, T., & Solli, M. (Eds.) (2023). Knowing Our Ways About in the World. Scandinavian University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215069135-23-07 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence Bjørn Alterhaug Abstract Based on his experiences as a jazz musician (“live” and in a recording studio) and as a teacher, the author argues for a shift in educational philosophy from an emphasis on accumulating facts to experimental processes of discovery. Fundamental to the success of these processes is the creative “space” and mindset that he calls aesthetic presence. The author also addresses the challenges of explaining the non-verbal processes of improvisation and the lingering myth that they do not require preparation. Keywords jazz | real-time interaction | improvising | aesthetic presence | knowing | generative practice 1. INTRODUCTION Art was born in the act of improvising. Jazz, improvisation, and teaching are true sources of artistic experience. My experiences as a professional jazz musician and teacher in various educational institutions have convinced me that real-time interaction in both disciplines offers new ways to acquire knowledge. As a jazz bassist, I have had the privilege to play with international jazz artists like Ben Webster, Lee Konitz, Billy Hart, Joe Henderson, Chet Baker, Monica Zetterlund, Karin Krog, Egil Kapstad, Jan Garbarek, Jon Christensen, Terje Bjørklund, Knut Riisnæs, John Pål Inderberg, Erling Aksdal, and others. Interacting in real time with these artists – mainly in the African American jazz tradition – has given me insights that I feel are important not only for music but for all kinds of endeavours in society, including education. With respect to the latter, my experience suggests shifting the focus from the emphasis on factual knowledge (common in European theories of “learning and knowing”) to learning as a developmental and generative practice. That is, to experimental processes of discovery. Studies of interaction in jazz and other genres in which art is produced collectively – in effect, contributing knowledge to their disciplines – are under-represented This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 124 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World in the general literature about music and art research. Bengt Molander, in the first chapter of this book, argues that instead of introducing additional types of knowledge we should “rather situate knowledge in the right place in the world.” I hope that my experience as a jazz musician with real-time “musicking”1 – which includes any activity related to music performance such as performing, listening, rehearsing, or composing – can show new places and perspectives on where and how knowing is developed and generated. To this day, much of the research on creative activity in music is based on Western composers and centred around the individual artist. It typically takes the form of biographies that highlight the creativity of classical composers and jazz musicians, such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and others. In the field of music, research seems to focus on the individual rather than collective practices of composition. Molander’s introductory chapter also considers examples of individual “knowing,” like Ryle’s marksman. One of his central propositions is that “knowing how” is “knowing how to go on.” In my understanding, “how to go on” presupposes that you know the way to go on. However, this does not address the fundamental conditions of real-time collective interaction. Prior to jazz performances, musicians do not prepare detailed plans or decisions for themselves or others. Improvisation comprises an unpredictable mixture of habit and creativity: norm and freedom. During the performance, the relations between musicians direct the way forward. “Knowing,” in this sense, is open-ended and collective and is shared by all members of the group. The performance’s creations cannot be anticipated or evaluated until the action is over. As a phenomenon and musical craft, the discipline of jazz is not widely understood in musical research and teaching. My experience with the education system generally is that the music is more tolerated than appreciated – and commonly neglected. One of the reasons is that Western philosophy has long been the province of white men. Their ethnocentric perspectives and teachings dominate the political fabric of our society. In this regard, society’s lack of familiarity with the learning methods and practices of African American musical traditions contributes to the problem. So do pernicious attitudes toward race and racism that philosopher Charles W. Mills sums up as “white ignorance.”2 1 2 Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Middletown, CT: Wesley University Press, 1998), 11. C. W. Mills, “White Ignorance.” In Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance, ed. S. Sullivan and N. Tuana (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007), 13–38. 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence The lingua-centric basis of formal education is a related issue that contributes to misunderstandings about jazz. To understand something, humans depend on having a concept for it. It is difficult for us to acknowledge what we cannot put into words. This is problematical for conveying the importance of non-verbal arts like jazz improvisation, to say the least. I think that the best way to get around the problem is through direct participation in the music’s creative processes. That is, by experiencing how musicians, utilizing all their senses, jointly and flexibly produce music with respect to the guidelines of a general plan or structure. I call the musicians’ special state of mind and heightened awareness in these situations aesthetic presence. Further below, I elaborate on this and the discipline it requires of performers. I will also discuss cultural differences in the use of the word improvisation that, to cite George Lewis, reflect Afrological and Eurological perspectives – and carry societal and political significance for education.3 Let me begin by introducing you the basic operations of jazz: in particular, how the situational openness of improvisation and musicians’ embrace of unpredictability form the basis for composing “in motion.” 2. REPORT FROM A STUDIO RECORDING Early in May 2022, I was in a recording studio4 with my colleague, saxophone player John Pål Inderberg, intent on recording part of our repertoire, acquired over 50 years. There was a lot to choose from. We had no specific plan in mind for a commercial release of the session, whether vinyl, CD, or digital. By recording our baritone-saxophone and double-bass duo, we sought only to document years of friendship and musical interaction. Having performed with musicians from many parts of the world (Europe, Africa, Asia, and America), we’d had experience with different genres and performance contexts. We’d played in dance bands, big bands, combos, classical orchestras, folk music ensembles, and so on. For the most part, we learned different musics by ear, as was crucial for our interplay with international musicians. We also had experience teaching at high schools and universities. On this occasion – because of our prior experiences playing the repertoire in many contexts (our long “sailing time”) – we did not rehearse the tunes in advance of the recording session. We felt relatively well prepared: open to the unpredictable, challenging, and exciting course that performances can take under such circumstances. One reason we could relax with this approach was that our sound 3 4 G. E. Lewis, “Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives,” Black Music Research Journal 16, no. 1 (Spring 1996): 93. Recorded and mixed by Celio Barros at Klarlyd Studio. Recorded May 5 and 6, 2022. 125 126 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World engineer, Celio Barros, was an experienced musician, a colleague, and a good friend. This freed us from the anxieties that musicians commonly experience when preparing for studio recording. In some instances, adjusting to a studio’s sound setting takes a disproportionate amount of time and energy, negatively affecting a person’s musical concentration when they are finally ready to record. Especially when recordings that take place in famous studios with well-known sound technicians, it can create external mental pressure on musicians. In this case, because we were three close colleagues and friends who felt comfortable with the situation, the recording could start after a brief sound-check. From the first moment, the atmosphere in the studio was relaxed and cheerful. Both of us had the freedom to choose the tunes we wanted to record, and we recorded them immediately. Mostly, we made recordings of our “first takes” (that is, using our initial performance of each tune). In our experience, the first take is usually fresh and full of energy and best captures the moment in real-time interplay – realizing artists’ expectations. It can be difficult to retain these qualities in repeated takes, especially if you try to copy the best part of your improvising from the first take. That approach can reduce your musical concentration and leave you sounding like a carbon copy of yourself. Moreover, when an individual opts for that problematic course, it can adversely affect the interaction between the musicians. That day, John Pål and I felt that we’d maintained a sufficient professional standard in our playing. Afterward, when we listened to what we had recorded, we knew that we could make minor musical and technical changes during the studio’s mixing process. From past experiences, we were expected to find unexpected twists and turns in our improvised musical episodes. Indeed, we discovered that at times we’d spontaneously created on-the-spot “solutions” to musical problems that had arisen, played things we’d never heard before. For performers, reviewing a recording is like reflecting on a conversation with friends you’ve had about everyday matters: evaluating some things critically, but taking pleasure in having found the most fitting and meaningful words there and then or new turns of phrase. During our performance, we’d aimed our improvising at untested possibilities and openings for innovations (“never before heard and felt” happenings). A quote from the Swedish sociologist Johan Asplund aptly describes the immediacy and intimacy of such interplay: “I don’t know what I have said until you have answered, and you don’t know what you have said until I have answered.”5 If we replace “said” with “played”, it’s close to the musical dialogue in which both musicians are prepared for the unpredictable. In this sense, a fundamental condition of collective 5 Johan Asplund, Om hälsningsceremonier, mikromakt och asocial pratsamhet (Göteborg: Korpen, 1987), 45. My translation. 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence jazz interaction is that musicians do not know in advance “where and how to go on” and, in the face of challenges, must create the best musical way forward. For John Pål and me, the most important prerequisite for managing these situations was our extensive training and ability to improvise in real time – mainly rooted in the ear-based African American jazz tradition. 3. TRUBBEL A specific example of how John Pål and I searched for untried possibilities in our studio performance was our treatment of a well-known song by the Swedish songwriter Olle Adolphsson, Trubbel (Eng. “Trouble”).6 We had played Trubbel’s melody together many times before as a duo and in other group configurations. Consequently, we were well acquainted with the musical possibilities that the song contains, especially what lies latent in its underlying chord sequences. Our saxophone-bass duo allowed greater possibilities for musical invention than larger ensembles. With only one musician to communicate with, the bassist has more textural space than in other arrangements. That gives them the freedom to create bass lines that connect the harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, and sonorous elements in a seamless way. In turn, the saxophonist can choose to improvise in relation to the fundamental bass tones, rather than responding to a piano accompaniment’s complex chord structures. Alternatively, given a duo’s rhythmic flexibility and openness, the saxophonist can play something related to the bass line’s emphasis on semi and quarter tones. From the outset of a performance, both musicians express themselves interactionally in a musical landscape where different “force fields”7 are unfolding and in which they are “forced” to respond instinctively. This is a kind of “transcendent exercise” or “encounter” in which sensibility leads creative invention. In this instance, John Pål began with a freely improvised solo before playing the melody in tempo. The instant that he began the melody, and I joined him with a bass accompaniment, I found myself by playing a bass line that – as far as I can remember – I had never played before! The back story is that right before recording, John and I had decided to give the song’s arrangement a new twist: experimenting with ending the rendition in Bb minor, instead of remaining in 6 7 The whole session is available on vinyl and Spotify: Bjørn Alterhaug and John Pål Inderberg, Stripped Down – Leisurely-Thoughtful. AMP Music &Records 2023. Daniel Smith, John Protevi, and Daniela Voss, “Gilles Deleuze,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2022 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta: Section 3.1, Difference and Repetition, with reference to G. Deleuze, Difference and Repetition (London: Athlone Press, 2004). 127 128 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World the predominant key of G minor. When that point in the performance arrived, however, and I tried to transpose the bass line I had been playing into the new key, the change made it difficult to execute the line as I had intended to. Ideally, as a professional musician, my mastery of all keys should have prevented my technical problems when the keys changed. However, we had not tried out Trubbel in different keys in this context before, and the transition to Bb minor came up so unexpectedly that I instinctively resorted to an “emergency solution” and in the process conceived a variant bass line. In that moment, my experience, “knowing” – and, importantly, my interplay with the saxophonist – guided me to a tolerable alternative. Even if it didn’t meet the standards of my trained ears – my envisaged “ideal” – the new and simple bass line worked well in its musical context, holding together the piece’s melodic and harmonic features. Below, I have noted in sheet music the piece’s key in G minor, 4/4: G-A-Bb-B-C-DEb-E-F-F#-G-G#-A-Bb (rhythmic deviations and intonation nuances are not noted): This musical excerpt (7 bars) can be heard here: Subsequently, because the Bb minor version of the bass line was unsatisfying to my ears, we decided to correct it in the studio’s mixing room where we could escape some of the liabilities of real-time creation. Facilitated by technology, we had the opportunity to work out – through slow thinking, calculated and logical – the way we wanted the bass line to sound. The final recording included the version we’d repaired in the mixing room. Listen to the whole track of “Blodskriket/Trubbel” here: 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence Whether it is better “aesthetically” than the original line is hard for me to evaluate. However, the chosen one sounded better as a musical whole and, as such, was satisfying to my ears. The combination of these methods – real-time interaction and post-performance editing – characterizes most of recorded music today. Both methods have much to offer pedagogical situations and invite further research. Reflecting on the session, I’m reminded of how difficult it is to explain these complex multifaceted processes, variously implicating the conscious and unconscious, thought and intuition, intention and realization, and so on. Conceiving and articulating musical ideas – this real-time way of knowing – depends not only on psychological but also on numerous other circumstantial factors: environmental, physical, and social. At times, musicians must not only rely on memory, but have the discipline to “forget” what they have practiced (the “knowing” they possess) and create new ideas. They must free themselves from expectations of predetermined performance outcomes, devoting themselves unconditionally to the moment. “The improvising and competent jazz musician knows her technique and craft. However, she shows her true character when she transcends her technique and craft, and along with the others, is able to ‘stand in the open.’”8 In other words, knowing proceeds through wonder and presence. To stay in the open shows a way to a deeper understanding of the existential and pedagogical dimension in guidance and teaching. It is an open opportunity in which, from collectively created starting points, musicians develop their performances with the intention of making mutually influential contributions that seamlessly slide into, shape, and complement those of their associates. Where and when problems arise, musicians resolve them together. The process involves intense listening, experimentation, sharing immediate experiences, and trust. The full range of circumstances and operations above and the predominant mental state that actors must bring to them for successful outcomes is what I have come to think of as “the aesthetics of presence.” In my experience, it has as much relevance in the classroom and in artistic disciplines as in the recording studio or concert hall. 4. AESTHETIC PRESENCE Having been inspired in the late 1960s by my interactions with international musicians, I subsequently formed numerous improvisation groups at NTNU in 1975, 8 F. T. Hansen, At stå i det åbne: dannelse gennem filosofisk undren og nærvær (Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag, 2010), 259. My translation. 129 130 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World as a member of the Department of Musicology at the University of Trondheim.9 Most participants were classically trained students. Because I had been self-taught and learned by playing in jazz bands, my teaching was initially based on the premise that all students – whatever their musical backgrounds – had to have experience of improvising. I did not understand that, for most of them, it had never been part of their musical training. For their perspective, the challenges of improvising were akin to learning a new language. For all my good intentions, my lack of sensitivity to their anxieties led many to drop out of my “fear-based” improvisation classes. Their exodus was caused by an inexperienced and eager teacher bent on strengthening their abilities and confidence and on helping them find their own way of expressing themselves. Obviously, I was wrong and had to change my approach. Adopting a new method, I considered the students’ backgrounds and used music with which they were familiar as the basis for training their ears and imaginations. In part, I emphasized simple ear-based vocal and rhythmical exercises, combined with bodily movements. I also stressed the importance of copying parts (here, meaning transcription initially or by ear) of renowned musicians’ recordings and learning to play them with their instruments. Ultimately, I worked with the students to help them find their own personal voices. This was based on the fact that music has been a fundamental aspect of identity construction before the invention of written music and language and includes all kind of musics worldwide. Fundamental to my teaching were African American pedagogical approaches based on the aural/ oral tradition and geared to developing the ear and musical personality in the context of collective interplay. To help students make sense of these matters, I introduced them to my concept of the aesthetic presence. It was a “space,” I explained, in which they could open up during improvised performances and, over-riding any feelings of insecurity and vulnerability, become receptive to the contributions of the others in their groups. I hoped that beyond participating in my exercises, students would reflect on how the exercises’ approaches to learning contributed to their musical and personal development. After a period of adjustment, they seemed to be content with my teaching, even inspired. This has been confirmed by comments I received from students 40–45 years after I initiated my program. 9 The Trondheim Conservatory of Music was established as a private music school in 1911. This school was divided into the Trondheim School of Music and the Trondheim Conservatory of Music in 1973. In 1979 the Department of jazz (“Jazzlinja”) was established by Terje Bjørklund, as part of the conservatory. The Department of Musicology was founded in 1962 as a section of the Norwegian Teachers Academy. The Trondheim Conservatory of Music and the Department of Musicology were merged into a single Department of Music in 2002. 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence At the same time, I acknowledged that one of the challenges introducing students to the creative practices of jazz is that they exist in a realm of artistic sensibility that exceeds the possibilities of linguistic description. To me, linguistic and aesthetic expressions are separate domains, akin to the distinction between the cognitive and emotional. Although the impulses/auditory messages transmitted through real-time musical interaction are based on preparation, they depend on a reflective state of mind and spontaneous thinking in the language of music. In part, the processes involved are analogous to Csikszentmihalyi’s “flow”.10 Notwithstanding the limitation of linguistic explanations, the commentaries of artists working in different disciplines can be helpful, since each in their own way touches on different characteristics of what I call the aesthetic presence. In an interview, Norwegian artist and painter Håkon Bleken quotes Picasso: “I don’t seek, I find.” Bleken adds: “Almost all significant art exists between passion and reflection … A number of coincidences occur when you work with art, and you have an inner voice that you are not aware of even once, but which others can point out in your pictures.”11 His reference to the inner voice points to the space where intuition and the subconscious reign. In painting or music, even if the artist is not aware of her inner voice, it can arouse the passion of other people for the aesthetic object. In another interview, Finnish classical conductor Klaus Mäkelä notes: Music can touch spontaneously. There and then. No matter what prior knowledge you have. There is almost nothing in the world that can do it in the same way. Music hits you immediately. I also notice as a listener, that it must be alive. Which makes you discover something you had no idea was there … I hate listening to music where you know what you’re getting. Predictability in music is cancer. Neutrality too. Every single note must live. That’s what Sibelius said.12 Such testimonies from a classical conductor and composer indicate that music – whatever style and historical period – has the power to release people’s sensitivity and “knowing” in a domain apart from linguistic formulation. 10 11 12 Intense and focused concentration on the present moment, according to M. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal experience (London: Ebury Press, 2008). Håkon Bleken, “Bleken mener denne mannen har utmerket seg,” interview by Børge Sved, Adresseavisen, October 20, 2022. My translation. Klaus Mäkelä, “Dirigent for det hele,” interview by Sverre Gunnar Haga, Klassekampen, October 24, 2022. My translation. 131 132 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World The statements of two of Norway’s foremost jazz musicians, Jan Garbarek and Jon Christensen, speak to some of the challenging questions surrounding realtime jazz interaction and the difficulty of explaining its transcendental musical events. In a Norwegian magazine, Garbarek discusses Jon Christensen’s significance in his life: Jon is probably the musician I have learned the most from. But I can’t put it into words. It has to do with the fact that he does not force things to happen, he waits for things to come naturally. When the groove comes, he is a master at keeping it up, and not letting go! He has a bottom in himself, an enormous resource.13 To me, Garbarek’s words above implicate Polanyi’s concept of tacit knowledge.14 In 1967, Jon Christensen touched on the inter-related themes of learning, imitation, and copying, about which he developed a clear understanding at an early stage. When asked about his career, he replied: I have always tried to keep up with the development of the modern drumming. I have listened a lot to the leading musicians, but have always set out to learn from them – not to copy or plagiarize them. This is probably the main reason why I have not stagnated.15 (my italics) Jon’s emphasis on learning from other musicians – rather than copying them exactly – suggests that copying is not his main approach to learning. He has kept up with the leading drummers, which is the reason he hasn’t stagnated. He has focused on listening to find his own personal drum voice and soul, which no other could imitate, to be an original musician with his own personality and identity. In my own experience, one of the ways in which a personal inner voice is best developed is by copying the masters during mutually affective exchanges in real-time interaction. In this regard, playing with Jon has always been an adventure, filled with excitement, tension, deep concentration, surprises, musical solutions, and joy – combined qualities that for me belong to the aesthetic presence. The latter might be an existential state that is part of every human being, as the Roman rhetorician 13 14 15 Jan Garbarek, “Det essensielle er det du ikke kan si noe om,” interview by Bjørn Stendahl, Jazznytt, no. 3. 1984. My translation. Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (New York: Anchor Books, 1967). Jon Christensen, “‘Buddy’-vinner Jon Christensen,” ed. Hallvard Kvåle, the interview was not signed, Jazznytt, no. 5 (1967). My translation. 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence Quintilian hinted in antiquity: “… a speaker’s most important ability cannot be imitated: talent, ingenuity, expressiveness, eloquence – all what the rules of art cannot convey.”16 5. THOROUGH PREPARATION Paradoxically, preparation lays the ground for the “free” and “spontaneous” in improvisation. In music and art, it does not require detailed plans or prescriptions, but a multitude of other things. In the jazz tradition, for instance, it begins with knowing the various instruments thoroughly. Ultimately, musicians’ command of their instruments, their openness to the possibilities of invention, and their constant awareness of what their associates are playing enable successful musical exchanges. Underlying these operations is the cultivation of the aural skills to instantly comprehend and imitate one another’s rapidly unfolding ideas, as well as the cumulative experience working under the pressures of real-time invention. In these real-time learning processes, you always have to “keep an ear” to your own personal voice as a personality and musician: developing and playing with your own original “voice.” A short story from my personal musical experience might illustrate this point. In 1970, the world-renowned saxophonist Ben Webster came to Trondheim. Two locals and I were invited to play three concerts with him. I was rather tense and nervous about accompanying such a famous musician. To handle this, I tried as best I could to imitate and learn from his earlier LPs. During the first concert I carefully and intensely tried to follow his playing and to satisfy and please the star in the best manner. The others in the group were out of my thoughts. Ben sensed the situation and commented: “Yeah, Bjørn, you’re doing fine. – But – you shouldn’t listen that much to me, then you lose yourself. You know, I need your initiative to play my best and then our best!” As I’ve indicated, improvisations are always “underway” in this unpredictable performance zone. Ideally, musicians – present, alert, and well trained – can resolve problems that arise on the spot through cooperative interaction. Everyone must do their part of the job, hopefully making their associates better. The demands of such situations – whether in performance or when teaching in the classroom – require individuals to have the courage, integrity, and personal strength to express themselves honestly and civilly. The sad fact is that improvisations always run the risk of being qualitatively unstable. At the extremes, they may be excellent or really bad. Proper preparation helps individuals stay on the former side of the dichotomy, as 16 Øivind Andersen, I retorikkens hage (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1995), 222. My translation. 133 134 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World we see in performances by great players like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett, and others.17 Jazz remains strongly connected with the word improvisation, but to this day in the popular imagination, the word is used in ways that are incomplete and or otherwise misleading. In a newly released Norwegian book for children, for instance, improvising is defined as “making up the music there and then; without having prepared it in advance.”18 (my italics) Since the 1970s, I have advocated for more adequate definitions of “improvisation” than generally found in popular sources and encyclopaedia. In fact, as every serious artist in music knows, preparation is the very foundation that frees them to create and interact with other musicians. Therefore, I proposed a new definition in the Store Norske Leksikon (Great Norwegian Lexicon) to set the record straight: “In art and music … improvisation is the result of thorough preparation.”19 (my italics) To put the concept of improvisation in historical perspective, the Latin word – improvisus: im [not] -pro [before] -visus [seen] – was used in antiquity to signify unforeseen or unpredictable actions.20 In the rhetorical tradition where the concept had a prominent place, teachers developed guidelines for the art of speech and for the preparation of rhetoricians. Mimesis [Latin; imitiatio] – the imitation of exemplary rhetoricians and model speeches – played a crucial role pedagogically and methodically. As implied earlier, improvisation and imitation are interdependent processes in the training of jazz musicians and in the production of music. In fact, to become a skilled musician, craftsperson, or competent practitioner in any field, you must carefully imitate your role models. This is not an end-in-itself, but a way of developing a base of knowledge and garnering inspiration for one’s own creative power. In a local TV news program, John Pål Inderberg describes an aspect of this succinctly and with an ironic twist: “We are practicing for hours every single day – practicing and practicing – so as not to play what we do practice on.”21 17 18 19 20 21 Paul Berliner, Thinking in Jazz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). Anne Balsnes Haugland, Cecilie Halvorsen, and Tiril Valeur, Historier om den klassiske musikken – Musikkhistorie for barn og unge (Oslo: Musikk-husets forlag, 2021), 207. The definition of improvisation changed 2021. The new text is in Bjørn Alterhaug, “improvisasjon,” in Store norske leksikon på snl.no. Accessed January 24, 2023, at http://snl.no/improvisasjon. My translation. Gunhild Vidén, professor, Department of History and Classical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, conversation with author, 2004. John Pål Inderberg, interview by District TV-news NRK, Møre and Romsdal, November 16, 2022 at 19:55. 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence 6. ART WAS BORN IN THE ACT OF IMPROVISING As I’ve indicated above, it’s a challenging and risky endeavour to describe in words how real-time jazz interaction happens. For me, linguistic and artistic expressions both belong to complex ways of knowing: the one, privileging concepts; the other, sensations and sensibility. They represent distinctive but complementary spaces for interpreting the world. To consider either without the other is inevitably reductive and incomplete. Other discourses have broadened my perspective on these processes, illuminating improvisation’s varied applications in different expressive domains. In my introduction, for instance, I cited George Lewis’s distinction between Afrological and Eurological approaches to real-time composition. In his view, they were typified by the music of Charlie Parker and John Cage, respectively. The way that John Cage composed real-time music has been called aleatoric. That is, in performances of the “same” composition, particular elements are rearranged, based on chance. Like the roll of the dice, each performance’s configuration is unpredictable. This is quite different to the jazz tradition’s way, in which improvised invention is based on the physicality of performance, deep musical experiences, and collective exchanges in the moment. As discussed, in the literature, some approaches to realtime composition implicate not only aesthetic considerations but also those once considered “extra-musical,” such as race, ethnicity, and class. Lewis contends: “My constructions make no attempt to delineate ethnicity or race, although they are designed to ensure that the reality of the ethnic or racial component of a historically emergent sociomusical group must be faced squarely and honestly.”22 As a jazz musician and teacher for nearly 60 years, I have become aware that around the world, artists in different disciplines have developed different practices of improvisation, and I’ve been inspired by the latter’s potential for learning and creative work. Bill Evans, one of the foremost musicians in jazz history, writes insightfully about the subject from a cross-cultural perspective in his liner notes (entitled “Improvisation in jazz”) on the famous LP “Kind of Blue.” Indeed, he manages to explain what he describes below as “something captured [by the artist] that escapes explanation”: There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous. He must paint on a thinly stretched parchment with a special brush and black water paint in such a way that an unnatural or interrupted stroke will destroy the line or break through the parchment. Erasures or changes are impossible. 22 Lewis, “Improvised Music after 1950,” 93. 135 136 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World These artists must practice a special discipline, that of allowing the idea to express itself in communication with the hands in such a direct manner that deliberation cannot interfere. The resulting images lack the complex composition and textures of ordinary painting, but those who look closely are said to find something captured that escapes explanation. This conviction that direct deed (“doing”) is the most meaningful reflection has, I believe, prompted the evolution of the extremely serious and unique disciplines of the jazz or improvising musician. Group improvisation is a further challenge. Aside from the weighty technical problem of collective coherent thinking, there is the very human, even social need for sympathy from all members to bend for the common result.23 In my introduction, I proudly named a selection of international jazz artists who were part of my personal history of knowing, learning, and education from the late 1960s. In hindsight, I realize how important and decisive my real-time interaction with these artists – and the environment in Trondheim – has been for me personally both in art and in teaching over my career. Thanks to my colleagues, our students, and the institution’s supportive social and political environment for more than 40 years. NTNU now has a jazz department24 that is regarded as one of the most successful ones in Europe. In my view, the basis for our program’s success mainly lies its implementation of Afrological perspectives and ear-based methods in real-time interaction, teaching, and learning. Charlie Parker’s words hit the core of this life-musical philosophy: “Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn.”25 In this context, the research project at NTNU (1999–2004): “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Improvisation,” which Professor Paul F. Berliner26 was part of, is worth mentioning. Through his lectures, books, and studies on African and 23 24 25 26 Bill Evans, “Improvisation in jazz.” Liner notes on the LP “KIND OF BLUE”, Miles Davis (Columbia Records, 1959). My parentheses. Founded 1979, by Terje Bjørklund (jazz pianist). John Pål Inderberg and Erling Aksdal (musicians and colleagues) have through the years been important co-workers for a consistent methodology at the Department of Jazz (“Jazzlinja.”) at NTNU. Oxford Essential Quotations, ed. Susan Ratcliffe, 5th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press online, 2017). Paul Berliner, Thinking in Jazz, The Art of Mbira (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), and Mbira’s Restless Dance: An Archive of Improvisation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020). 7. Jazz, real-time interaction, and aesthetic presence African American musics, he has contributed to a deeper understanding of improvisation as an important human trait in all cultures of the world. Today, our former NTNU students perform all over the world and express themselves musically in a plurality of musical styles and forms. Very few are playing in a conventional African American style. However, all of them have a pedagogic ballast and musical perspective rooted in jazz that emphasize the aural African American tradition of real-time interaction – and, as importantly, draw inspiration from folk music from different parts of the world.27 To return to my premise: Art was born in the act of improvising. Over my career, I have observed how learning and discovery in jazz have provided musicians with lifelong incentives and a basis for inspiration and motivation. In my experience with the everyday, when collaborations, interactions, and learning situations fall short of the mark, improvisation has the potential to help people out of their dilemmas: recovering their inborn capacities for curiosity and adventure. I continue to discover new disciplines in which improvisation underlies creative competence and to appreciate its crucial place in human activities. Today, I believe it is more important than ever that our society and its educational system use multicultural resources and the power of the arts to stimulate students’ potential. The key to this – a starting point for creative, personal, and social development – is providing students with opportunities in which they can learn music and art through real-time interaction. Practiced in open discursive philosophical, sociological, psychological, and ontological settings, such activities strengthen students’ aesthetic presence and cultivate their capacities for vigilance, empathy, and joy. Grounded solid preparation, the activities give students the courage and strength to act creatively and spontaneously. This experimental attitude – changing, shaking up, multiplying, and creating – contributes to a more complex and holistic view of the world of which we are part. Tomas Tranströmer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2011, expresses this intention in a poetic and unifying way: “Deep in the forest there’s an unexpected clearing that can be reached only by someone who has lost his way.”28 27 28 An article (in two parts) dealing with how this kind of learning works methodically in the Jazz Department, NTNU, is Mattias Solli, Erling Aksdal, and John-Pål Inderberg, “Learning the Jazz Language by Aural Imitation: A Usage-Based Communicative Jazz Theory (Part 1).” Journal of Aesthetic Education 55, no. 4 (2021): 485–505, and Part 2, The Journal of Aesthetic Education 56, no. 1 (2022): 94–123. Tomas Tranströmer, The Great Enigma. New Collected Poems, trans. Robin Fulton (New York: New Directions, 2006), 144. Thanks to Bengt Molander and Paul Berliner for kind support, comments and criticism. 137 138 Alterhaug | Knowing Our Ways About in the World BIBLIOGRAPHY Alterhaug, B. “Improvisation on a Triple Theme: Creativity, Jazz Improvisation and Communication.” Studia Musicologica Norvegica 30 (2004): 97–118. ———. “Mellom panikk og kjedsomhet. Om improvisasjon i jazz”. In Improvisasjon, edited by Kjetil Steinsholt and Henning Sommerro, 55–78. Oslo: Damm Forlag, 2006. ———. “Improvisation as Phenomenon and Tool for Communication, Interactive Action and Learning.” In Improvisation. Between Technique and Spontaneity, edited by M. Santi, 103–135. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2010. ———. “Jazz, Improvisation and Education.” In Education as Jazz, edited by M. Santi and Elenora Zorzi, 29–48. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2016. ———. “Improvisasjon.” In Store norske leksikon på snl.no. Accessed January 24, 2023, http://snl. no/improvisasjon. Alterhaug, B., S. H. Jørgensen, and S. 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