Creativity in Jazz Norman Lawrence Meehan A thesis submitted to Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy New Zealand School of Music 2014 1 Creativity in Jazz ................................................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 7 Part One: Creativity and Jazz ......................................................................................... 8 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 9 Why are these questions important? .................................................................................. 9 The central idea ....................................................................................................................... 17 Thesis Plan ................................................................................................................................ 19 Chapter One: Creativity, and its importance ......................................................... 24 Why is creativity important? ............................................................................................... 24 Creativity in Music? ................................................................................................................ 27 Defining creativity .................................................................................................................. 32 What does creativity look like? .......................................................................................... 35 Flow ............................................................................................................................................................ 36 Divergent Thinking .............................................................................................................................. 37 Problem solving and problem finding ......................................................................................... 38 Metacognition ........................................................................................................................................ 38 Models of Creativity ................................................................................................................ 39 The Systems Model of Creativity ........................................................................................ 43 Fidelity to the values of the field ................................................................................................... 46 Maximally and minimally structured domains ....................................................................... 48 The Radius of Creativity ........................................................................................................ 51 Creativity as the communication of experience ........................................................... 53 Combine, Explore, Transform ............................................................................................. 57 Group Creativity ...................................................................................................................... 59 Intrinsic motivation and the centrality of process ................................................................ 60 Improvisation, unpredictability and complex communication ........................................ 61 Intersubjectivity and emergence ................................................................................................... 63 Group flow ............................................................................................................................................... 67 Summary of Group Creativity ......................................................................................................... 68 Motivation ................................................................................................................................. 70 Expertise .................................................................................................................................... 73 Environment ............................................................................................................................. 75 Groups ......................................................................................................................................... 76 Summary .................................................................................................................................... 77 2 Chapter Two: Jazz ........................................................................................................... 84 A lens through which to view Jazz ..................................................................................... 84 Jazz as Process .......................................................................................................................... 88 The development and expression of individual voices .............................................. 93 Improvised interactivity in group settings .................................................................... 99 The place of the individual in the collective ............................................................................. 99 Improvisation ..................................................................................................................................... 103 Appropriation and transformation ................................................................................ 111 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 115 Part Two: Case Studies ............................................................................................... 117 Introduction to Part Two ........................................................................................... 118 Chapter Three: Ornette Coleman – Play Your Own Thing .............................. 120 Ornette Coleman and the field of jazz ...................................................................................... 121 Self-belief and intrinsic motivation ........................................................................................... 124 Having the chance to perform ..................................................................................................... 125 Divergent Thinking ........................................................................................................................... 134 Coleman’s compositional techniques ....................................................................................... 136 Coleman’s performance techniques .......................................................................................... 138 No Copycats ......................................................................................................................................... 142 Chapter Four: Miles Davis – Alchemist ................................................................. 147 Appropriation and Transformation .......................................................................................... 149 Being ‘In the moment’ ..................................................................................................................... 158 Davis’s group practice ..................................................................................................................... 161 Davis’s leadership styles ................................................................................................................ 163 Where great art and music happens ......................................................................................... 173 Summary ............................................................................................................................................... 175 A comparison ...................................................................................................................................... 179 Chapter Five: Duke Ellington – Playing The Band ............................................. 184 Ellington/Auteur? ............................................................................................................................. 185 Ellington’s Sidemen: Saying Something .................................................................................. 190 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 202 Postlude: Charles Mingus .............................................................................................................. 205 Chapter Six: Jan Garbarek – Future Jazz ............................................................... 211 3 Appropriation and transformation in Garbarek’s practice ............................................. 211 Individual Voice ................................................................................................................................. 222 Improvised interactivity ................................................................................................................ 225 Jan Garbarek and Future Jazz ......................................................................................................