A group of performing musicians who improvise a lot is often referred to as a free improvisation group or simply an improvising ensemble. These groups focus on creating music spontaneously without preset rules, structures, or compositions, relying heavily on intuition and interaction among the musicians.
Key Characteristics
- They improvise music without general rules, emphasizing timbre, texture, rhythm, and spontaneous interplay rather than traditional harmony or fixed song structures.
- Their performances can be abstract, evolving in real-time based on the musicians’ intuitive responses to each other.
- Such groups often emerge from or are related to free jazz, experimental, and avant-garde music scenes
Examples and Notable Groups
- Spontaneous Music Ensemble and AMM are historic examples of free improvising groups.
- Other groups include A Band , AMM , Borbetomagus , Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza , and the Feminist Improvising Group
- Some well-known musicians involved in this style include Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, and Pauline Oliveros
Related Terms
- In jazz contexts, extended improvisation beyond typical song structures is sometimes called "stretching out" or "free jazz improvisation," with bands like The Grateful Dead, Phish, and artists like Sun Ra and Miles Davis’s second quintet known for this approach
- The term "free improvisation" can apply across genres and is not limited to jazz, encompassing experimental and avant-garde music.
In summary, a group of musicians who improvise extensively and freely is typically called a free improvisation group or ensemble, known for spontaneous, rule-free musical creation
