Silent form: embodied structure in transitional jazz performance practice

This is a 24-month research project that will investigate a period of transition in jazz that spanned the latter part of the 1950s and early 1960s, during which key musicians - including pianist Cecil Taylor, and saxophonists Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane - made music that sought to break down many of the methodological norms established during the preceding decades. The music of this transitional period is generally recognised as a precursor to the 'free jazz' movement of the middle to late 1960s.

While it is true that some key proponents of transitional jazz would go on to perform free jazz - and the two types of practice are often conflated (see, for example, Jost (1974)) - there are some key methodological differences. This project will analyse these differences and consider the impact of doing so on the way we understand and contextualise 1) the body of work made by Coleman and Coltrane during this period and 2) the wider implications for the way we understand the subsequent free jazz movement.

The musical, cultural and political impact of the 'free jazz' movement of the middle to late 1960s has been widely studied, but the significance of the music made during this transitional period in jazz remains underrepresented. A primary aim of this project is to increase our understanding of the cultural and historical significance of transitional jazz in terms of its relationship to wider cultural changes that occurred during the period between the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as the subsequent free jazz movement of the later 1960s.

A broader aim of the project is to contribute to the emerging discourse that foregrounds embodied knowledge and group interaction as factors that are fundamental to the understanding of jazz improvisation, and consequently to challenge traditional understanding of the relationship between composition and improvisation. The project will emphasise the value to jazz studies of a research methodology that combines traditional and practice-led methods by highlighting the significance of extra-musical factors that cannot be understood using solely traditional musicological means.

A further aim of the project is to explore ways of communicating practice-led research questions and outcomes to jazz audiences beyond academia. The practice-led research will be closely linked to a series of presentations/concerts in partnership with Birmingham-based organisations Jazzlines and TDE Promotions.

An open-source transcription resource will allow researchers to develop new insight into the methodological practices and group interaction in transitional 1960s jazz practice. Practice-led research will be used to investigate the concept of 'silent form' in order to shed new light on ways that embodied knowledge of standard jazz performance practices can influence free improvisation.

By amassing a portfolio of transcriptions of key early-1960s recordings by the bands of Coleman and Coltrane, by articulating and researching the concept of 'silent form' using both traditional and practice-led methods, and by drawing on the combined expertise of practice-researchers as well as non-academic performers, this project emphasises the embodied knowledge of standard jazz forms as a central component in both the transition towards free jazz as well as subsequent types of jazz performance practice.

By incorporating a systematic study of audience engagement with, and reaction to, the research questions, the study will also enhance our understanding of impact strategies and the relationships between practice and research.