Useful Reading
Date: 09/01/2011
Sadly, good authoritative writing is on free improvisation and experimental music is relatively rare. Much is confused, all-considered, poorly written or just plain rubbish. Here is a list of works I have found particularly insightful and authoritative, many of them written by performers themselves (indeed the best works are often by authors with personal experience of the music).
Date: 09/01/2011
Sadly, good authoritative writing is on free improvisation and experimental music is relatively rare. Much is confused, all-considered, poorly written or just plain rubbish. Here is a list of works I have found particularly insightful and authoritative, many of them written by performers themselves (indeed the best works are often by authors with personal experience of the music).
Some are now sadly out of print (especially the excellent books by Roger Dean) but a good library will be able to secure a copy. I have split the list up into broad areas of interest, but inevitably there are large areas of overlap.
On Free Improvisation:
Derek Bailey | 1992 | Improvisation: its Nature and Practice in Music | A standard work by a leading exponent |
David Borgo | 2002 | Negotiating Freedom: Values and Practices in Contemporary Improvised Music.' Black Music Research Journal 22, (2) 165-18 | A survey of aspects surrounding improve such as venues, role of critics, etc. |
David Borgo | 2003 | Sync or Swarm: Improvising music in a complex age | Fascinating book using modern scientific theories. |
Cornelius Cardew | 1971 | Towards an Ethic of Improvisation (in Treatise Handbook) | An early and important work outlining an approach to improv |
Stephen Day | 1998 | Two Full Ears: Listening to Improvised Music | Unusually, written from a listeners perspective |
Roger Dean | 1989 | Creative Improvisation | Sadly out of print |
Roger Dean | 1992 | New Structures in Jazz and Improvised Music Since 1960 | Another excellent Dean book sadly out-of-print |
George Lewis | 1996 | Improvised Music after 1950:Afrological and Eurological Perspectives.' Black Music Research Journal, 16, (1) 91-122 | Important and controversial paper outlining differences in approach between musical traditions |
Tom Nunn | 1998 | Wisdom of the Impulse. | Now available in pdf. |
Edwin Prevost | 1995 | No Sound Is Innocent. | Hard going in places but worthwhile |
On Free Jazz:
Ian Anderson | 2007 | This Is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties and American Culture | Places free jazz in the cultural and socio-political milieu |
Mike Heffley | 2005 | Northern Sun, Southern Moon: Europe's Reinvention of Jazz. | Deals with all-important European response to US developments |
Ekkehard Jost | 1994 | Free Jazz (the Roots of Jazz) | Superb insightful book including analysis |
Mazzola, G. B. and Cherlin, P. B | 2009 | Flow, Gesture, and Spaces in Free Jazz. | Uses some advanced maths, but useful |
Val Wilmer | 1980 | As Serious as Your Life | Survey of musicians |
On Experimental Music:
John Cage | 1973 | Silence: Lectures and Writings | Valuable collection of works by Cage |
David Cope | 1997 | Techniques of the Contemporary Composer | Good as a starting point but not in-depth. |
Michael Nyman | 1999 | Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. | The standard early work |
James Pritchett | 1996 | The Music of John Cage | Authoritative work |
James Saunders (ed) | 2009 | The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music | Wide-ranging survey written by experts |
