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Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation Paperback – 17 October 1994

4.7 out of 5 stars 99 ratings

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A landmark in jazz studies, Thinking in Jazz reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice, Paul Berliner documents the lifetime of preparation that lies behind the skilled improviser's every idea.

The product of more than fifteen years of immersion in the jazz world,
Thinking in Jazz combines participant observation with detailed musicological analysis, the author's experience as a jazz trumpeter, interpretations of published material by scholars and performers, and, above all, original data from interviews with more than fifty professional musicians: bassists George Duvivier and Rufus Reid; drummers Max Roach, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and Akira Tana; guitarist Emily Remler; pianists Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris; saxophonists Lou Donaldson, Lee Konitz, and James Moody; trombonist Curtis Fuller; trumpeters Doc Cheatham, Art Farmer, Wynton Marsalis, and Red Rodney; vocalists Carmen Lundy and Vea Williams; and others. Together, the interviews provide insight into the production of jazz by great artists like Betty Carter, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Charlie Parker.

Thinking in Jazz overflows with musical examples from the 1920s to the present, including original transcriptions (keyed to commercial recordings) of collective improvisations by Miles Davis's and John Coltrane's groups. These transcriptions provide additional insight into the structure and creativity of jazz improvisation and represent a remarkable resource for jazz musicians as well as students and educators.

Berliner explores the alternative ways―aural, visual, kinetic, verbal, emotional, theoretical, associative―in which these performers conceptualize their music and describes the delicate interplay of soloist and ensemble in collective improvisation. Berliner's skillful integration of data concerning musical development, the rigorous practice and thought artists devote to jazz outside of performance, and the complexities of composing in the moment leads to a new understanding of jazz improvisation as a language, an aesthetic, and a tradition. This unprecedented journey to the heart of the jazz tradition will fascinate and enlighten musicians, musicologists, and jazz fans alike.

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From the Back Cover

A landmark in jazz studies, 'Thinking in Jazz' reveals as never before how musicians, both individually and collectively, learn to improvise. Chronicling leading musicians from their first encounters with jazz to the development of a unique improvisatory voice.

About the Author

Paul F. Berliner is the Arts and Sciences Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Music at Duke University in North Carolina. He is the author of several books, including The Art of Mbira and Mbira's Restless Dance, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ *University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (17 October 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 904 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226043819
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226043814
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 22.91 x 15.34 x 4.83 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 99 ratings

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  • Michael Alexander Gauthier
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on 2 March 2016
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  • chrigue
    5.0 out of 5 stars State of the Art! - im deutschsprachigen Raum gibt es nichts Vergleichbares
    Reviewed in Germany on 26 May 2010
    Verified Purchase
    Das vorliegende Werk ist eine musikwissenschaftliche Studie über Jazz, die (nahezu)keine Fragen mehr offenläßt. Die Entwicklung des Jazz wird aus theoretischer und praktischer Sicht beleuchtet, mit O-Tönen von Musikern versehen und zeigt auf eine sehr differenzierte Weise, dass Jazz nicht nur Musik, sondern auch Lifestyle ist. Nichts bleibt unerklärt oder unbesprochen. Im Anhang finden sich die Notenbeispiele mit den entsprechenden Analysen wieder, auf die im Text penibel mit Fußnoten verwiesen wird, um den musikwissenschaftlichen Anspruch eindrucksvoll zu unterstreichen. Trotz dieses wissenschaftlichen Zugangs ist der Text aber weder eintönig noch zu methodisch, sondern durch Anekdoten aufgelockert, die einem immer wieder bewusst machen, dass trotz aller akademischer Gelehrtheit noch immer der ordentliche "Groove" das Entscheidende beim Musizieren ist.
    Wer sich mit Jazz ernsthaft auseinandersetzen will, wird um dieses Werk nicht herum kommen. Etwas Vergleichbares mit einer solchen Breite und gleichzeitigen Tiefe gibt es im deutschsprachigen Raum nicht. Für Einsteiger oder solche, die nur kurz grundlegende Dinge erfahren wollen, ist das Ganze wohl zu aufwändig bzw. gibt es günstigere Literatur... aber was nicht ist, kann jederzeit noch werden!
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  • Guillem Pons Taltavull
    5.0 out of 5 stars Gran recopilación de información de cómo los maestros del estilo han logrado su maestría
    Reviewed in Spain on 22 June 2020
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    Detallada y muy precisa, toda la cantidad de información (a través de entrevistas formales e informales, transcripciones detalladas y demás material) que presenta el autor, hace de éste libro un documento imprescindible para entrar en el mundo de la improvisación y ampliar fronteras a quienes están inmersos en tan bella y ardua tarea. Muy recomendable para todo el mundo, músico o no.
  • Eddie Landsberg
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Monumental Breakthrough in Jazz Studies ! ! ! ! ! ! !
    Reviewed in the United States on 21 October 2001
    Verified Purchase
    The blurb on the back cover of this book has a slight understatement... It begins, "A landmark in jazz studies,"
    Not since the advent of the long playing record and the publication of Leonard Feather's "Encyclopedia of Jazz" has anyone made such an enormous, substantive, light shedding contribution to Jazz (outside a recording studio.) This book is a must for everyone... and in fact, its divided into two parts... one which *is* for everyone, and goes into how musicians come up, hone their skills, learn to interact, develop and whatnot, and then the second half, which is more for musicians and features close to 400 pages of musical examples - - a text book in musical studies itself.
    As a musician myself, I have long suspected that Jazz isn't just a bunch of patterns and scales. It is a culture, an attitude, an approach, and way of thinking... this book not only confirms it, but it substantively will take you into the mind of its foremost vetarans and practitioners. With its balance between information that's anecdotal as well as analytical, and Berliner's excellent writing style (despite the size of the book, he just draws you in the pages flow by one by one) - - this is must reading...
    Almost a half a century ago Leonard Feather told us about the masters, now Berliner draws us into their minds. It is my hope that Jazz students (and fans) alike will begin taking up this book as they begin their journeys, and as a result, it invigorates and revitalizes the music as its never been before !
  • Hedwig
    5.0 out of 5 stars ジャズが20世紀最高の音楽芸術であることを認識できる本
    Reviewed in Japan on 1 May 2013
    Verified Purchase
    実に壮大な本で、著者には頭が下がります。 超一流のジャズミュージシャン達を徹底的にインタビューし、彼らが演奏するときに何を感じ考えているのか、またそこに至るまでの膨大な準備の内容が詳細に描かれています。 演奏法や理論を解説した教本は無数に存在しますが、超一流演奏者の内面にここまで切り込んだ本はなかなかないと思います。 ヴァーチュオーソ達がその場の瞬時のインスピレーションと判断で高度の芸術を作り上げている様子がよくわかります。 マイルスのグループのメンバーがスタジオに入るまで何をするのか全く知らず、その場のマイルスの指示で全て作りあえられていたという話は有名ですが、カウントベイシーのようなビッグバンドでもその場のヘッドアレンジが中心に創作されていたというのは驚きで、一流のバンドのメンバーがいかに非凡な音感、リズム感、イマジネーションなど持っているかが良くわかります。二十世紀に誕生した音楽芸術の代表は間違いなくジャズであり、今後も現代音楽をリードしていくであろうと改めて認識いたしました。