Der Analytiker-Blues
Anmerkungen zu Entwicklung und Dilemma der Jazzanalyse von den 30er Jahren bis heute
Just as in all other areas of historical musicology, analysis of improvised music is mainly a working tool to describe socio-cultural, aesthetic or sound-specific developments of African American music. Since the 1930s, different approaches for a better analytical understanding of jazz have been developed. Such approaches, using methods from the field of ethnomusicology, methods derived from the analysis of European composed music, or methods specifically developed for jazz research itself, have been able to deepen the understanding of the general stylistic evolution of jazz as well as of specifics within the personal style of distinctive musicians. Jazz has proved one of the most individualistic musics, and this fact often has made it difficult for musical analysis to reach beneath its surface. To analyze jazz, one has to know about its historical, mythological and socio-cultural traditions. Examples from the field of literary criticism have shown how to approach this problem which mainly derives from the difference between the written tradition (such as literary criticism itself) and the orality of its subject (within African American traditions). The present paper tries to discuss and critically evaluate the different analytical approaches which have been developed in jazz research since the 1930s. In looking back to what has been done and what needs to be done, it argues in favor of a multi-dimensional analytical approach making use of musical analysis just as well as of socio-cultural, reception, perception and communication analysis.