Schizophrenia Behind the Great Jazz

Abstract

Charles "Buddy" Bolden's schizophrenia forced him to play his cornet through improvisation. From that, a new genre of music was born in 1917, known today as jazz. Tom Harrell, a well-known and award-winning jazz musician in the 1970s, also had schizophrenia. Speculations arose about how schizophrenia might contribute to their creativity and finesse in playing music, specifically jazz. By analyzing their cases and stories and reviewing theories and research on schizophrenia and music, this article provides an alternative scientific explanation of how such speculation can be true. This rather new and different perspective on schizophrenia as a severe psychological disorder then might shift people's negative stigma of schizophrenics.