Improvisation rattles some listeners. Maybe they're even suspicious
of it. John Coltrane's saxophonic flights of fancy, Jimi Hendrix's
feedback drenched guitar solos, Ravi Shankar's sitar
extrapolations--all these sounds seem like so much noodling or
jamming, indulgent self-expression. "Just" improvising, as is
sometimes said. For these music fans, it seems natural that music
is meant to be composed. In the first book of its kind, John
Corbett's A Listener's Guide to Free Improvisation provides a
how-to manual for the most extreme example of spontaneous
improvising: music with no pre-planned material at all. Drawing on
over three decades of writing about, presenting, playing, teaching,
and studying freely improvised music, Corbett offers an enriching
set of tools that show any curious listener how to really listen,
and he encourages them to enjoy the human impulse-- found all
around the world-- to make up music on the spot. Corbett equips his
reader for a journey into a difficult musical landscape, where
there is no steady beat, no pre-ordained format, no overarching
melodic or harmonic framework, and where tones can ring with the
sharpest of burrs. In "Fundamentals," he explores key areas of
interest, such as how the musicians interact, the malleability of
time, overcoming impatience, and watching out for changes and
transitions; he grounds these observations in concrete listening
exercises, a veritable training regime for musical attentiveness.
Then he takes readers deeper in "Advanced Techniques," plumbing the
philosophical conundrums at the heart of free improvisation,
including topics such as the influence of the audience and the
counterintuitive challenge of listening while asleep. Scattered
throughout are helpful and accessible lists of essential
resources--recordings, books, videos-- and a registry of major
practicing free improvisors from Noel Akchote to John Zorn,
particularly essential because this music is best experienced live.
The result is a concise, humorous, and inspiring guide, a unique
book that will help transform one of the world's most notoriously
unapproachable artforms into a rewarding and enjoyable experience.
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