(Routledge. 254 pp. Book Review by Tony Dudley-Evans)
Jazz research is becoming increasingly vibrant in Europe, and from
here in Birmingham it is particularly pleasing to witness Birmingham
City University’s Jazz Research Group led by Dr. Nicholas Gebhardt at
the forefront of it. A number of musicians are taking advantage of the
opportunity to conduct research at doctoral level to investigate their
own practice, and find ways to elucidate and demystify the act of
improvisation. Some of the work resulting from it is now being
published by Taylor and Francis, part of the Routledge Group, in a book
series under the title of Transnational Studies in Jazz, edited by
Profs. Tony Whyton and Nicholas Gebhardt.
Jazz on the Line by Petter Frost Fadnes is
the latest book in the series; it is based on a PhD thesis that Frost
Fadnes successfully submitted and defended at the University of Leeds.
At present it is only available in digital form as distribution of the
book has been delayed by the Covid-19 crisis.
Frost Fadnes was a member of
the lively improv scene there and a founder member of Leeds Improvised
Music Association (LIMA). He is now back in his native Norway, teaching,
researching and playing in Stavanger. In Jazz on The Line he
draws on his experience as a player with the UK-based trio The Geordie
Approach and the Stavanger–based Kitchen Orchestra to reflect on the
nature of improvisation in contemporary jazz. Frost Fadnes states in his
introduction that academic research tends to be based on the ‘outside
of performativity’, that is looking in, whereas he wishes to investigate from a subjective point of view, looking out.
In the chapters concerned with the nature of improvisation he manages
to bring together an extensive review of the relevant literature,
combining it with reflections on his own experience playing in very
different situations on tour. There are also two rather different
chapters, one based on a number of detailed interviews with the German
pianist and composer Alexander von Schlippenbach, a key
musician in the development of European free jazz, the other a very
interesting description of aspects of the music scene in Japan,
especially in Tokyo, and the jazu kissa listening palaces, specialist
coffee bars where customers listen to top class recorded jazz while
drinking high quality coffee. In both chapters Frost Fadnes relates his
observations to his overall theme of the nature of improvisation.
Frost Fadnes is at pains to dismiss the romantic idea of jazz
improvisation whereby the performer reaches some sort of magical
inspiration on stage when playing, and emphasises that improvisation in
music is based on a clear-cut performance technique. He uses the example
of Philippe Petit, the tightrope walker who in 1974 crossed between the
Twin Towers in New York on a tightrope. Petit is described as an
aerialist and Frost Fadnes likens the activity of the improviser in
music to that of the aerialist and describes improvisation as a
‘perpetual aerialist balancing act’ designed to test the laws of
physics, potentially leading to ‘a crashing to the ground’. He also
quotes Cambor, Lisowitz and Miller (1962*) who describe the jazz
improviser as seeming ‘to be trying to penetrate far into the complexity
and chaos of his (sic.) inner self to emerge with something organised
and meaningful and to communicate this to the listener as a pleasurable
reassurance that inner chaos can be conquered’.
Frost Fadnes is concerned with the ‘improvisational architecture’, by
which he means the context for improvisation and the effect that this
has on the improvisation. This will include the room in the performance
takes place which has a role in shaping the performance and the audience
without which the performance is not complete. He gives the very
interesting example of Keith Jarrett’s justification
for the different instrumentation of his European group compared with
his American group which is that the sound of European venues, i.e.
concert halls, is different from that of American venues, i.e. clubs.
Jarrett argues that a walking bass works in an American club, but not in
a European concert hall. I can certainly confirm that from my
experience in a large concert hall such as Symphony Hall Birmingham
where it is difficult to hear a walking bass.
Frost Fadnes raises the issue of whether recordings of improvised
music retain their validity as examples of improvisation. In a
wide-ranging chapter, he discusses many aspects of recordings in jazz,
such as pianist Bill Evans’ greater spontaneity in live
performance as compared with recordings, and audiences’ possible
reluctance to attend concerts by ECM artists because of the variance in
sound quality between the live and recorded sound. He suggests that
recordings cannot be regarded as true improvisations in that they are
subject to editing, selection of material and possible sound
manipulation which are aspects of composition. Nonetheless he
acknowledges the importance of recordings.
The chapters on Alexander von Schlippenbach and the Japanese scene
both discuss the ways in which a local contemporary jazz scene has
developed, both seeking their own identity without rejecting the
American model. Schlippenbach is a key figure in the development of the
European free scene in the 1960s and 70s, but has always acknowledged
the influence of the American avant-garde, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler. That and the influence of the German contemporary classical composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann
come out very clearly in this chapter. The chapter on the scene in
Japan, especially Tokyo is fascinating, both in its discussion of the
jazu kissa cafes and the ways that the Japanese alternative scene has
developed and had an influence back on American jazz, particularly
through the work of John Zorn.
In the final chapter Frost Fadnes extends the discussion by drawing
on his experience of touring underground venues in Europe. He shows how
the process of setting up a gig through contact with the promoter, the
actual day of performance with travel, sound checks, the actual
performance and the post-gig hang are all part of the improvisational
architecture.
I enjoyed reading this book and found it stimulating in the way it
draws on the experience of an active improvising musician. The
description of the Japanese scene is vivid, perceptive and detailed.
However, I have to admit that the book as a whole is a challenging
read. It is based on Frost Fadnes’ PhD and, while its extensive surveys
of the literature and detailed argumentation are appropriate for a
doctoral thesis, I would suggest that a book of this type could and
should reach out to a broader audience – by summarising its argument in
simpler prose and by relegating the detail of its surveys of the
literature to footnotes.
(*)Reference: Cambor, Glenn C., Gerald M. Lisowitz, and Miles D.
Miller. 1962. “Creative Jazz Musicians: A Clinical Study.” Psychiatry 25
(1):1–15. Quoted in Jazz on The Line
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