Jazz Analysis as Cultural lmperative (and other urban myths): a Critical Overview of Jazz Analysis and its Relationship to Pedagogy

Abstract

Little critical attention has traditionally been paid to jazz analysis, a relatively recent addition to the larger discipline of jazz musicology. In a similar evolutionary development to its Western Art music counterpart, jazz analysis has so far succeeded in establishing a unique identity apart from other related musicological fields such as jazz history, criticism and, most significantly, jazz pedagogy. While many of its methodologies have greatly assisted in clarifying the fundamental and often hidden structures underpinning improvisation, they have, however, often demonstrated scant regard for the performance or perceptual experience of jazz. That these same monolithic models have provided the basis for popular jazz pedagogic methods poses a further problem for a tradition which has evolved with little recourse to such theoretical models. It is the purpose of this article to provide a critical overview of jazz analysis, its major methodologies, its often uneasy relationship with performance pedagogy and theoretical issues concerned with representing and analysing jazz.