A Listener's Guide to Free Improvisation

John Corbett has written a tiny pocket guide to aid novices and devotees alike in listening to and understanding free, improvised music. The term "improvised music” can mean many things: but in this book the focus is on experimental music that does not have a structured "song” or tune, and that operates mainly in the vein of jazz or a jazz hybrid (blues, etc.). There are elegant discussions of music fundamentals (rhythm, duration, interaction dynamics, transitions, personal vocabulary), advanced techniques for listening and watching in live concerts, excellent analysis grounded in anecdote about the role of the audience, ambiguity, as well as historical anecdotes and thoughts on what it means to be a listener and what role music might have in our lives. The tone is light, with a serious undertone.