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Music and Community

Photo: Girls' Jazz and Blues Camp, 2009
Ellen Seeling and Jean Fineberg, founders/directors
The Jazz School Berkeley, CA
(photo credit: Hali McGrath)

Musical Communities can be powerful sources of political, emotional, physical, and spiritual sustenance for musicians and listeners and potential sites to promote positive social change. In helping to support affirmative musical community, this section of the website will offer a forum for people’s experiences in music communities, links to various music communities and their projects, an introduction to some important issues in music and community, historical and bibliographic information, and other resources.

Improvisation is, simply put, being and living this very moment. No one can hide in music, and improvising in music is to be truly in this very moment and being completely yourself, with all your qualities and faults. It is probably the most honest state for a human being to be in.

– John McLaughlin in an interview with Daniel Fischlin.