Re: This is your brain on jazz -- MRI studies of improvisation

["Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

Brilliant comment. We often do what comes natural to us, and few of us are 
masters at everything. We prioritize our efforts, weighed against our 
strengths. I feel at home improvising in total free form.  Ask me to sit 
down and transcribe a Charlie Parker solo, and I will fight tooth and nail 
against it. It's torture for me. I could learn it by ear, but still for me 
I 
get no satisfaction anymore from copying other peoples' material....not 
even 
my own!  I once quite an original band I led, because I started to feel 
like 
we were a cover band of our own material. That sickened me so much that 
soon 
after I disbanded the group and started to explore more improvised 
music...first structured, idiomatic, and then eventually I jumped off the 
deep end completely.

Kris

> The other side of the coin might well be those who innovate because they 
> lack the
> ability to imitate.
> andy butler