Improvisation
Tom Service considers the art of musical improvisation, asking if improvising can ever be 'free'. With musician and writer David Toop and improvising bassist Joelle Leandre.
Tom Service considers the art of musical improvisation. When pianist Lenny Tristano first recorded free improvisations in 1949, his record company didn't want to release them. Today, Free Improvisation is a well-established genre. But can improvising ever be "free"? Tom discusses with musician and writer David Toop and improvising bassist Jo毛lle Leandre.
Improvisation is a fundamental part of music-making - it even has a place in Western classical music, such as the freely invented cadenza in a piano concerto. Other musical traditions are fundamentally based in improvising, such as the classical Indian tradition, and jazz. In the 1950s, Free Improvisation developed from experiments in extending jazz, as an attempt to make music spontaneously with no reference to any style or tradition. David Toop has written a book about improvising, and Joelle Leandre has had a long career as a free improviser, playing with a wide variety of musicians around the world. But, she says, "we cannot be free...".
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Music Played
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Sidney Bechet
Perdido St Blues
- Sidney Bechet In New York.
- JSP.
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Hariprasad Chaurasia
Raga Bhupali
- Beginner鈥檚 guide to Asia.
- Nascente.
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Olivier Latry
Improvisation
- Three Centuries of Organ Music.
- Naive.
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Spontaneous Music Ensemble
Karyobin
- Karyobin.
- Chronoscope.
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Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg concerto no.5, 1st mvt
Performer: John Butt. Performer: Dunedin Consort.- Six Brandenberg Concertos.
- LINN.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Piano concerto no.15 K450, 1st mvt
Performer: Robert Levin. Performer: Academy of Ancient Music. Performer: Christopher Hogwood.- Mozart - Piano Concertos 15 & 26.
- Oiseau Lyre.
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Louis Armstrong
West End Blues
- Louis Armstrong - Hot Five & Hot Seven.
- Giants of Jazz.
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Ravi Shankar
Raga Patdeep
- Rough Guide to Ravi Shankar.
- World Music Network.
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Jimi Hendrix
Bold As Love
Performer: The Jimi Hendrix Experience.- Axis: Bold as Love.
- Track Records.
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Karlheinz Stockhausen
Aus den Sieben Tagen
Performer: Ensemble Musique Vivante. Performer: Diego Masson.- Stockhausen - Aus den Sieben Tagen.
- Harmonia Mundi.
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Percy Grainger
Free Music
Performer: Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble.- Grainger Edition box.
- Chandos.
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Lennie Tristano
Digression
- Abstraction and Improvisation.
- FiveFour.
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Hession / Wilkinson / Fell
Snog with my drums
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- Bruce's Fingers.
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Derek Bailey
When your lover has gone
- Ballads.
- Tzadik label.
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Joelle Leandre & India Cooke
Just Now Two
- Joelle Leansre at Le Mans Jazz Festival.
- Leo Records.
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John Zorn
Cobra
- Cobra live.
- Hat Hut.
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The Listening Service
An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service