Performing Improvisation: Bill Evans and Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Mawer, Deborah (2018) Performing Improvisation: Bill Evans and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. In: The Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies. Routledge, New York, pp. 281-291. ISBN 9781138231160

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

How can one (re)perform an improvisation? How much spontaneity remains, and where might composition enter into this equation? A transcultural prism is adopted via the recordings of Jean-Yves Thibaudet as a French concert pianist of some of the iconic works of jazzman Bill Evans. Chosen early-late loci include ‘Waltz for Debby’ (1956), ‘Peace Piece’ (1958), and especially the late oeuvre ‘Song for Helen’ (1978) and ‘Your Story’ (1980). I argue that while boundaries between improvisation and composition become more blurred in the process of re-performance, substantive differences are still revealed between Evans and Thibaudet, even when handling what is supposedly the same material.

Item Type:	Book Section
Dates:	Date Event 18 December 2018 Published
Subjects:	CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-02 - performing arts > CAH25-02-02 - music
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
Depositing User:	Deborah Mawer
Date Deposited:	29 Jun 2020 08:40
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2022 16:54
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9398

Actions (login required)

View Item