Sven Bjerstedt

Improvisation and Intention. Jazz musicians' views on improvisational cognition

In previous research on jazz improvisation, questions about the role of intention seem to be subject to widely differing views. What role do intentions play in jazz improvisation? If the improviser has a conscious intention to play what is being played, is this simultaneous with the per­formance of it, or are intention and performance separate in time? The questions are investigated here through interviews with professional jazz improvisers. The results regarding improvisational cognition are discussed with perspectives drawn from, among other things, phenomenology and 4E cognition.

The collected first­hand perspectives suggest that to the extent that the performing improviser is aware of musical ideas, the ideas and their execution are separated in time. Several participants also point out that the improviser’s attention must be multidirectional (for example simulta­neously listening to both internal impulses and to the environment) – but they perceive this multidirectional attention as connected to and even dependent on a kind of freedom of consciousness. Such seemingly paradoxical conditions lead to a distinction between conscious intentions and unconscious (embodied) impulses in the jazz improviser.

Although the participants do not seem to perceive mindless coping as a complete and accurate description of what it means to master the art of jazz improvisation, mindless coping still appears as a significant ideal for several of them.