This definition serves as a good reminder for how we should approach our music. I admit that I need this kind of reminder. As a musician, it’s easy to forget to play extemporaneously when we play with ...

These four virtues of jazz—tradition, collaboration, improvisation, and transcendence... are also gifts for the larger world outside of jazz... Any jazz aficionado knows the musical virtues of jazz, ...

Fingers graze a keyboard, poised to play. A trumpet rises to the lips. Drumsticks perch in the air, ready to fall. The improv begins, and this combo of jazz musicians instantly creates a piece of ...

Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise. ~ George Gershwin If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know. ~ Louis Armstrong The art of jazz embodies many of the lessons that can be ...

How does a freestyle rapper rhyme without rehearsal? How does a jazz improviser shape an instant solo? How do improv comedians wing it under pressure? Creativity is one of our most mysterious and ...

In a recent study at Johns Hopkins, jazz musicians improvised with each other while sitting in MRI machines. No doubt many of them were used to playing in tight spaces, but this was, all the same, odd ...

Jazz artist Louis Armstrong once said, “never play a thing the same way twice.” Although musical improvisation — composing new passages on the spot — is not unique to jazz, it’s perhaps the genre’s ...

The Bachelor of Music (B.M.) in Jazz and Improvisation is for musicians pursuing careers in jazz, studio recording, and performance in contemporary idioms (popular, world, experimental). The core ...