The emancipatory potential of jazz improvisation
A popular characterization of jazz is that it is a music of freedom and resistance. Themes such as racism, black music or the subcultural resistance of a supposed underground are often placed in the foreground. The aesthetic object and improvisation are often ignored. However, jazz improvisation in particular offers an interaction alliance in which emancipatory potential can not only be assumed, but according to statements by musicians also comes to concrete realization. However, the question arises as to what is constitutive for an equal improvisational interaction, on the basis of which criteria the musicians negotiate their respective positions in the group, and how the interaction is ultimately structured in terms of content.
So what characterizes improvisational interaction in jazz? In addition, it must be taken into account that jazz does not take place in a self-sufficient space, but within the culture industry, which does not leave the artifact, as well as the musicians, untouched. Thus, not only the positive potentials, but at the same time the possible ruptures of jazz improvisation have to be considered - but again also how improvisation relates to commodity production.
Based on the theory of the culture industry, the lecture will thus attempt to explain sociologically how improvisational interaction in jazz functions, what emancipatory potential lies therein, and how ultimately the mediating relationship between the individual and the collective is characterized. The lecture will be based on insights gained in the context of a recent empirical study with young jazz musicians.
Martin Niederauer holds a degree in sociology and is currently pursuing a doctorate at Goethe University in Frankfurt on the topic of "The Resistance of Jazz."