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Music and Aesthetic ChoicesImprovisationThe word jazz applies to many different kinds of sounds: stride, swing, bebop, cool, hot, free, fusion… Jazz defies definition. It is not a single—or even several—musical styles. More, it is a style of making music—an approach by the players to the process of creating. Many, although not all, consider improvisation its most distinguishing feature.Bearden himself often used musical analogies to describe his work and pointed to the improvisation that is inherent in collage: "The more I played around with visual notions as if I were improvising like a jazz musician, the more I realized what I wanted to do as a painter, and how I wanted to do it." "Once you get going, all sorts of things open up. Sometimes something just seems to fall into place, like piano keys that every now and again just seem to be right where your fingers come down." Bearden advised a younger artist to "become a blues singer—only you sing on the canvas. You improvise—you find the rhythm and catch it good, and structure as you go along—then the song is you." Improvisation offers artists great scope for self-expression, but it is not totally free—not chance, not chaos. Improvisation succeeds only because it operates within a structure. This is true for jazz solos and Bearden's compositions. The structure of his paintings was of utmost concern: |
Romare Bearden, Thank You… For F.U.M.L. (Funking Up My Life), c. 1978, Donald Byrd
"I am nonetheless thinking about how things are going together and have a feeling about how the work is going to go." "What I am trying to do is establish a vertical and a horizontal control of the canvas…I'd like the language to be as classical as possible."
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