| Improvisation & Identity: a Qualitative Study
Guelph Jazz Festival & Colloquium, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Ontario, CANADA September 6-10, 2006
Introduction
In his article AMM and the Practice of Self-Invention (1995: 9-29) Eddie Prévost explains how the improvisations of AMM reflected the needs and aspirations of the musicians involved. He suggests that the identity of the group members was implicitly acknowledged as something offered to the group with openness towards how roles would form and develop. From this perspective, identity, arising from a certain discipline and commitment, is organised around the ways in which individuals exercise the freedom to assert and subordinate themselves. Prévost writes:
There is a tacit acknowledgement that AMM's strength comes from each member allowing other voices to impinge upon individual aspirations and sensibilities. No one is subdued or subordinated unless they allow themselves to be. (1995: 25-6)
This paper is informed by research of which the primary concern has been to explore the role and significance of identity within free improvisation and associated qualities of musical meaning. From a series of qualitative analyses it suggests that identity formation or the 'self' in improvisation can be observed within a web of relational dynamics and in the characteristics of its interactions. The emergent relational qualities, best described as continua, define both the context and the processes at work serving the construction and representation of self in improvised music making. As a body of work it supports and amplifies the notion of 'self-invention' described by Prévost and explores more fully the idea of how relational continua contribute to identity-formation through opportunities for the discovery and expression of self, its denial, rejection, affirmation, acknowledgement, acceptance, and-so-on.
"There are no soloists or leaders, and no rhythm section. Decision-making and identity comes from the manner in which AMM treats its own history. It is beholden on each player to find a role within AMM." (1995: 25)
Prévost, Edwin (1995) No Sound is Innocent: AMM and the Practice of Self-Invention. Meta-Musical Narratives. Essays (Harlow, Essex: Copula, 1995) [download]
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