In Coates Hall, a video of Miles Davis playing “So What” comes on the projection screen. As Davis goes from playing in ensemble with the rest of the band to a solo, his posture changes. He pulls his face away from his trumpet and he rocks back and forth with the beat.
Davis is a legendary jazz trumpet player known for his improvisations. In this performance, Davis improvises during his solo, straying away from a scored composition and making on-the-spot decisions. Improvisation is a central element of jazz music and is essential to live performance.
But Philip Auslander, professor in the school of literature, communication and culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said something entirely different is happening. Auslander gave his presentation titled “Jazz Improvisation as a Social Arrangement” in Coates Hall Wednesday.
Auslander said the audience members are participating in the performance as if Davis is improvising. When Davis suggests he is improvising through his movements and actions, the audience does not question him.
“The fact that music is improvised is impossible to distinguish by listening to it,” Auslander said.
Auslander said just because a musician plays a piece “differently” live than it is on a recording does not mean he or she does not always play it that way.
Auslander offered the hypothesized scenario of a musician changing one note of a solo during a live performance. He asked the audience if this qualified as improvisation.
Because so many things factor into a live performance such as surprise and interaction with other players, it is difficult to tell if something is legitimately improvised or just intended to appear as if it is.
But Auslander said he is not saying all live performance is planned in advance. Rather, his point was that live music is best enjoyed assuming that things are happening as the musician makes them appear.
Auslander also said the musician is just as much a part of the agreement that the performance needs to be enjoyed rather than deciphered as the audience is.
“The performer does not need to persuade the audience that he is improvising,” Auslander said. “Musicians, too, must act as if they’re improvising.”
In this sense Auslander said improvisation in jazz performances is the same as any social interaction. He said when someone is approached with a handshake, for example, he must take the gesture “at face value.”
Auslander read his planned lecture to the audience nearly verbatim from his paper. The lecture even came to a halt when he accidentally overlooked a line.
—-Contact Ben Bourgeois at [email protected].