Synchronous Creativity and the Penetrability of Social Barriers within the Philadelphia Jazz Community.

Abstract: My presentation will focus on the unique characteristics of a worldview, or "imagined world," that I call the "jazz aesthetic." This shared understanding is a collection of cultural models structured on learned schemas that individual jazz musicians uses and the larger collective jazz community relies upon to make sense of its exceptional life experiences and each individual's search for personal and musical complexity. My cultural modeling research is based on the work of cognitive anthropologists Roy D'Andrade, Dorothy Holland, Charlotte Linde, and my creativity research looks to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The discussion will also be utilized to understand how synchronicity is experienced within the context of collective improvisation on the bandstand, which teaches individual musicians to see themselves as equal competitors and supporters of each other, no matter the social or racial differences, in the moment, inspiring human joyousness. As a long-time jazz musician, I believe this jazz aesthetic is crucial to the cohesiveness of the jazz community. This aesthetic transcends racial and gender boundaries, validates each individual's life choices as a professional musician, and encourages the exquisite camaraderie of synchronous, in the moment, improvisation by the players, dissolving socially constructed boundaries while creating a mutually sensed oneness.