Jazz Improvisation and Somatic Experience

Abstract

In this article I investigate musical improvisation from a somaesthetic perspective. I first provide a reconstruction of somaesthetics’ relationship to music and explain why, in dealing with improvisation, I mostly focus on jazz. Then I connect the question of improvisation to the pragmatist attempt to reconcile art and life, and argue that improvised music can be understood as somatic knowledge. Finally, I exemplify my ideas by referring to jazz drumming and the improvisational capacities that it allows to display and that are of interest for theoretical, practical and pragmatic somaesthetics.