Leading “Improvisational” Team
A leader in digital age ,like the leader of an improvisational jazz group, understands what the customer – the audience – is looking for. S/he has a composed music that has been proven to please audiences, s/he also feels the sound which s/he wants. S/he is not happy with performers who can only play what others have written for them. The leader has assembled a team of creative performers that not only know playing a composed music but know how to work as a team to innovate and improvise playing off each other’s ideas, responding to what the audience likes, and creating something exciting and new.
Now consider the roles of the other team members in an “improvisational” team. The leader facilitates the team’s innovation to stay balanced in meeting the needs of the audience and the needs of each performer and only takes some level of control if one of the performers gets self-absorbed and forgets the needs of the audience and other team members.
Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous invention of fresh melodies over the continuously repeating cycle of chord changes of a tune. All band members know the tune and the role of their instrument. The guitar, piano, bass and drums, while all able to solo, basically provide the rhythm and harmony over which the soloist will create improvised variations. You can find 3 improvisation samples below.
Confirmation [0:43] https://youtu.be/zV6y1f7CU-A by Charlie Parker
Giant Steps [0:35] https://youtu.be/2kotK9FNEYU by John Coltrane
Bye Bye Blackbird [1:15] https://youtu.be/seNLGODY_ew by Miles Davis