Improvisation, Correlation, and Vibration: An Interview with Steve Coleman

Abstract

While working on a study on the relation between improvisation and language (Depth and Indebtedness: Jazz, Improvisation, Language, forthcoming 2007), I asked saxophonist Steve Coleman to participate in a Berlin-New York phone interview. Although I was well aware of how outspoken and eloquent an artist Coleman is (an amateur saxophonist myself, I had taken Steve's improvisation class at U.C. Berkeley, where he taught from 2000 to 2002), I was taken by surprise by Steve's endurance. After two hours, I ran out of fresh tape. Luckily I found some old ones to overdub, as Steve kept unfolding his philosophy of cosmic energy, as well as his ideas on improvisation, language, structure, freedom and innovation, often making his points with the help of highly personal anecdotes. Still going strong after four hours non-stop, Steve explained his motivation: "If we're going to do this, we better do it right." JV