Fourteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

So much occurs in between generating creative product, in particular, internal and external process; as a response to 21st-century society, knowledge, experience and environment, as influences in artistic practice. I suggest a different approach to developing artistic practice: investigating the space in which ideas germinate, are organized, and contribute to product. I suggest this approach as a means for comprehending and fostering creative outcomes and intend to demonstrate this process in the context of small jazz ensemble composition. Small jazz ensembles have enabled individuals to collaborate with others in the form of improvisation and/or composition as a collective space and experiment of sorts. This type of music scenario is a catalyst; engagement in the community to internal/external stimulus, observed as intuitive/intellectual underpinnings, reflect metaphysical/physical planes as “creative design,” occurring independently in the musician/composer, and interdependently in collaboration with others as a common thread. The arts, in particular, jazz music has been a medium for accommodating and communicating ideas/ideals as/through community; allowing the artist to reflect, respond, and contribute to society at a given point in time and history. I intend to explore this theme, in particular, process and interrelationships occurring in writing, rehearsing, arranging and performing small jazz ensemble composition as a model for observation, interpretation, and development of artistic practice in contemporary culture.