Improvisation strategies for navigating contemporary jazz compositions: A case study of Jamie Oehlers, Walter Smith III and Will Vinson

Abstract

Contemporary jazz compositions frequently feature uniquely complex forms and abstract harmonic environments that present challenges to improvisers attempting to navigate them. These unique features are often far removed from those found in the lexicon of jazz standards and American songbook repertoire jazz musicians devote hundreds of hours familiarizing themselves with. A survey of research concerning improvisational strategy shows that as the parameters of jazz compositions have broadened since the emergence of bebop in the 1940s, improvisational approaches have in turn become more diverse, arising in particular ways to meet particular challenges (Kernfeld 1981; White 2008; Waters 2011). This study contributes to an emerging field of scholarship concerned with mapping the improvisatory strategies of high-level jazz practitioners in order to assimilate new improvisatory systems into creative practice (Baynes 2015; Williams 2017; Robertson 2017). Drawing on interviews with preeminent contemporary saxophonists Jamie Oehlers, Walter Smith III and Will Vinson and a range of practice-based strategies for weaving together bespoke improvisatory strategies, this thesis documents the emergence of a portfolio of creative works comprised of original compositions and new realisations of works composed by Oehlers, Smith and Vinson.