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Interaction Strategies in Improvised Jazz Duos

Jazz improvisation as a subject concerns a vast area where some of the fields are based on defined musical language skills in combination with communicative skills. A personal expression has always been and will always be the basis for artistic representation.

My Ph.D. project is a study investigating the extent of information that can be identified and captured in a communicative situation between two jazz musicians. The main contribution is to develop jazz improvisation theory towards embracing more artistic expressions and choices made in real life musical environment. In jazz, applied improvisation theory otherwise usually consists of scale and harmony studies within quantized rhythmic patterns.

The ensembles in the recent pilot study are duos performed by TG at the piano and horn players (trumpet, alto saxophone, clarinet, and trombone) –all advanced jazz students at Royal College of Music, Stockholm.

Torbjörn Gulz: senior lecturer jazz theory and piano KMH, Ph.D. KTH

Main supervisor: prof. Anders Friberg (KTH)

Co-supervisor: assistant prof. André Holzapfel (KTH) and prof. Joakim Milder (KMH)

Team