Notable Names:

(Et. al)

Literature:

Bailey, Derek. Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. (1993).

Barre, Trevor. Convergences, Divergences and Affinities: The Second Wave of Free Improvisation in England, 1973-1979. (2017).

Barrett, Frank J. Coda: Contingent Encounters, Improvisation in Music and Everyday Life. (1998).

Beins, Burkhard. Vocal Adventures: Free Improvisation in Sound, Space, Spirit and Song. (2011).

Belgrad, Daniel. Noise Orders: Jazz, Improvisation, and Architecture. (2009).

Benjamin, William E. Chasin’ the Sound: Learning Jazz Improvisation through Historical Models. (2003).

Berliner, Paul F. Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation. (1994).

Borgo, David. Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age. (2005).

Caines, Rebecca; Heble, Ajay. The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts. (2015).

Caines, Rebecca; Heble, Ajay. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation. (2013).

Dean, Roger T. Hyperimprovisation: Computer-Interactive Sound Improvisation. (2003).

Fadnes, Petter Frost. Jazz on the Line: Improvisation in Practice. (2020).

Ferand, Ernest T. Improvisation in Nine Centuries of Western Music: An Anthology with a Historical Introduction. (1961).

Fischlin, Daniel, et al. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation. (2013).

Freundlich, Douglas. The Development of Musical Thinking: Case Studies in Improvisation. (1978).

Friesen, Eugene; Friesen, Wendy M. Improvisation for Classical Musicians: Strategies for Creativity and Expression. (2014).

Gioia, Ted. The Imperfect Art: Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture. (1988).

Gioia, Ted. The Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life. (2019).

Goldstein, Malcolm. Sounding the Full Circle: Concerning Music Improvisation and Other Related Matters. (1988).

Hamilton, Andy. Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser’s Art. (2007).

Heffley, Mike. Northern Sun, Southern Moon: Europe’s Reinvention of Jazz. (2005).

Iyer, Vijay. Improvising: Structure and Expression in Real-Time. (2004).

Jost, Ekkehard. Free Jazz. (1975).

Lewis, George E. A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. (2008).

Lewis, George E.; Piekut, Benjamin. Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music. (2016).

MacDonald, Raymond A. R.; Wilson, Graeme B. The Art of Becoming: How Group Improvisation Works. (2020).

McAuliffe, Sam. Improvisation in Music and Philosophical Hermeneutics. (2023).

Miller, Mark, and Art Lande. Being Music: The Art of Open Improvisation. (2020).

Monson, Ingrid T. Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. (1996).

Montelione, Joseph. Forging Pathways to Improvise Music: For Classical, Jazz, Comedic, and Church Musicians. (2024).

Mortensen, John J. The Pianist’s Guide to Historic Improvisation. (2018).

Muyumba, Walton M. The Shadow and the Act: Black Intellectual Practice, Jazz Improvisation, and Philosophical Pragmatism. (2009).

Nachmanovitch, Stephen. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art. New ed., (2024).

Nettl, Bruno; Russell, Melinda. In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation. (1998).

Nettl, Bruno; Solis, Gabriel. Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society. (2009).

Nielsen, Cynthia R. Interstitial Soundings: Philosophical Reflections on Improvisation, Practice, and Self-Making. (2015).

Peters, Gary. The Philosophy of Improvisation. (2009).

Piekut, Benjamin. Experimentalism Otherwise: The New York Avant-Garde and Its Limits. (2011).

Sloboda, John A. Generative Processes in Music: The Psychology of Performance, Improvisation, and Composition. (1988).

Prévost, Edwin. Minute Particulars: Meanings in Musicmaking in the Wake of Hierarchical Realignments and Other Essays. (2004).

Santi, Marina. Improvisation: Between Technique and Spontaneity. (2017).

Sawyer, R. Keith. Group Creativity: Music, Theater, Collaboration. (2003).

Schuursma, Ann. The Instant Composers Pool and Improvisation Beyond Jazz. (2017).

Schweizer, Irène, and Gérard Rouy. This Uncontainable Feeling of Freedom: Irène Schweizer - European Jazz and the Politics of Improvisation. (2006).

Snell, Alden, and Suzanne Burton. Ready, Set, Improvise!: The Nuts and Bolts of Music Improvisation. (2018).

Such, David G. Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians: Performing “Out There.” (1993).

Toop, David. Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970. (2016).

Tufnell, Miranda, and Chris Crickmay. Body, Space, Image: Notes Towards Improvisation and Performance. (1990).

Krin, Gabbard. Among the Discourses. (1995).

Wegman, Rob C.. Improvising Early Music: The History of Musical Improvisation from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Baroque. (2017).

Wilmer, Valerie. As Serious as Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957–1977. (1977).

Wilson, Peter Niklas. The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958. Translated by Wulf Teichmann, (1999).

Wright, Jack. The Free Musics. (2023).

Frederic, Rzewski. Nonsequiturs: Writings & Lectures on Improvisation, Composition and Interpretation. (2023).

Publications:

A Jazz Noise

Avant Scena

Cadence Magazine

Destination Out

Different Perspectives In My Room

Ear-Rip

Free Jazz Blog

Free Jazz From Slavery

Improvised News Scandinavia

Improvised Music - Open Scores

Improjazz

Intuitive Music

The Improvisor

Jazz Improv Magazine

JazzPort

Juxtaposition Ezine

Spring Garden Music

Sound Projector

Wire

Audio-visual:

A Bright Nowhere: Journeying Into Improvisation

Amplified Gesture

Berliner Improvisation

Fire Music

Free improvisation: still the ultimate in underground music?

Imagine The Sound

Inside Out In The Open (An Expressionist Journey Into The World Known As Free

Jazz)

In’sive

Last Days in Moers

Taking The Dog For A Walk

Warren Smith: WIS on Monk

Lectures:

Christian Asplund: Extended Techniques

Cullam Olsen: Improvisation from the Perspective of a Classical Musician

Eddie Provost Lecture Series

Exploratorium Berlin: Various Speakers

George E. Lewis: Why Do We Want Our Computers to Improvise?

John Russell: Lecture on Free Improvised Music

International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation: Workshops

Improvisation | SAIC Digital Collections

Mick Beck: Sheffield free improv scene.

Richard Barrett: Free Improvisation

Simon Rose: Improvisation, music and learning: An Interpretive

Phenomenological Analysis

Verband aktuelle Musik Hamburg: Various Speakers

Podcasts:

Brooklyn Living Room Sessions

Improviser

The Plaza

Misc:

ImprovFreedom

Virtual London Improvisation Workshop

Blank Canvas

Improv Community Canada

Curious Ear

Improvisors Without Borders

F.I.E.M.R/Free Improvisation & Experimental Music Resource

Euro Free Improv

Contact Improvisation Edinburgh

London Improvisers Orchestra

Improvisers’ Networks Online

ImprovNotes Archive

FreeImprovisation.com

Experimental Music Catalogue

Europe Jazz Network: Free Improv

Zu Casa

The Volunteer’s Collective

Allan Chase

The Shfl

Further Reading:

Music Links

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