JAZZOLOGY: A STUDY OF THE TRADITION IN WHICH JAZZ MUSICIANS LEARN TO IMPROVISE (AFRO-AMERICAN)

The general objective of this dissertation is to gain deeper insight into the nature and values of the jazz community and thereby ultimately to discover more about the meaning of jazz. Because of the number and diversity of individuals within the worldwide jazz community, this study spotlights the group involved most closely with the creation of jazz, the improvisers themselves. By creating a representative biography from among their memoirs, the study asks what elements are most typical, common and persistent in the process through which different jazzmen and women have learned to improvise musically, and what values are inherent in the tradition this process represents. Under community-study methodology the conclusions reached are applicable to the entire jazz community worldwide. This study treats a worldwide group as a folk community, a somewhat unusual idea in a folklore which oftentimes deals with communities geographically and socially of much smaller scale. Also, the study considers the evolution of training and values among jazz musicians and within the jazz community over severa eras, and the development of a jazz tradition within a variety of national cultural settings. Results of the study indicate that the jazz community exists as a geographical, biological, historical and cultural entity founded and focused upon a basic unit of sociality, the human band. Autobiographical literature and personal interviews with jazz musicians show that, worldwide, individuals pass through a common cultural process in learning to perform jazz improvisations. The five developmental stages through which jazz improvisers traditionally passed were: (1) attraction to jazz music; (2) ear training and observation; (3) music per se and manipulation of instruments; (4) emulation of models and refinement; (5) self-actualization and individual stylistic development. Also, as a result of learning to perform jazz improvisation, individuals acquired the same or similar attitudes and values which are culturally specific to the jazz community. One central value is a belief that the competent jazz improviser, or any culturally competent person, is an inheritor of a tradition in musical expression of ideas handed down by great exemplars who are worthy of emulation. Since jazz was originated by African-Americans, to understand or to play jazz improvisation, one must understand and appreciate African-American cultural traditions and values and the great African-American exemplars who created the jazz tradition