Preceduto ieri sera da un incontro (e concerto) con John Butcher, Mark Wastell e Luigi Marino si apre oggi a Berlino un interessante convegno di due giorni su temi inerenti a storia, fondamenti, pratiche e prospettive nel campo della musica improvvisata, promosso a Kreuzberg dall'attivissimo exploratorium berlin con un fitto calendario di presentazioni e interventi - alcuni trasmessi in diretta streaming - da parte di studiosi e diretti protagonisti: Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation.
Many of the theoretical contributions and essential ideas about improvisation in recent years and decades have been written by the practitioners themselves. Like Wadada Leo Smith, Derek Bailey, in his seminal book Improvisation. Its Nature and Practice in Music, published in 1980, made the crucial assumption that musicians themselves are the most persuasive guarantors of their art. His initial idea in this early testimony to artistic self-revelation was “to show the significance of improvisation through the experience of those who use it”. This was in line with his assumption that “there was an important part of improvisation not easily indicated or conveyed by its results, a part which perhaps only those involved in doing it seemed to be able to appreciate or comprehend”.
With this in mind, the exploratorium berlin is organizing the conference Musicians’ Perspectives on Improvisation to explore the specific practices, ideas, visions and theories of improvising musicians and other improvising artists. Their voices are essential to understanding the depth, complexity and diversity of the practice of improvisation. The aim, to again refer to Derek Bailey, is to “imagine a meaningful consideration of improvisation from anything other than a practical and a personal point of view.” On the one hand, improvising musicians and artists themselves are invited to highlight aspects of improvisation that are crucial to them from their own perspective. On the other hand, academics are invited to present their views on what practitioners say about improvisation and to analyze their discourse on the subject.