Swedish Stories? Culturally Dependent Perspectives on Jazz Improvisation as Storytelling

Stealing Knowledge in a Landscape of Learning: Conceptualizations of Jazz Education

“…The main aim of a recent interview study with Swedish jazz musicians (Bjerstedt, 2014) was to clarify the ways in which the concept of storytelling is used by Swedish jazz practitioners. The means to achieve insights into this usage was by way of extensive open-ended interviews with fifteen musicians of national and international renown.…”

“…Pianist/trombonist Ulf Johansson Werre points to the diffulties to design exercises based on the playing of an important and influential improviser such as Cannonball Adderley: ‘To me he has the qualities I'm looking for [but it is] completely impossible to turn him into didactics’. Trumpeter Peter Asplund believes that jazz educators often put too much focus on rhythmical and harmonic aspects at the expense of what he understands as storytelling aspects (Bjerstedt, 2014, pp. 284–297).…”

“…You can only learn that in life.’ Ann-Sofi Söderqvist, after mentioning the analyses and techniques a jazz teacher may be able to provide, continues: ‘it's still up to the student to make something of it’. Peter Asplund suggests that ‘input from theatre and literature’ may facilitate jazz improvisation learning with regard to storytelling aspects (Bjerstedt, 2014, pp. 287–8).…”

“….] But otherwise, if it's a good story-teller who hasn't got stuck in that rather internal way of telling a story, then of course those who are sitting a bit further away from the centre, that is, the audience, can also appreciate the story’ (Bjerstedt, 2014, p. 215).…”

“… Theoretical approaches to learning in practice-based jazz improvisation contexts include situated learning and ecological perspectives. This article focuses on how interest-driven, self-sustaining jazz learning activities can be matched against the concepts of stolen knowledge (Brown & Duguid, 1996) and landscape of learning (Bjerstedt, 2014). Based on an extensive interview study with Swedish professional jazz musicians, it argues that the multidirectedness involved in jazz improvisational practice calls for a rich learning ecology framework including several didactic loci. …”