Possibilities and directions, a new approach in Double Bass Improvisation

Stefan Lievestro
Promotors: Matthias Heyman

In free improvisation on double bass, the area in between functional contexts on the one hand and the creation of unconventional sounds by means of extended techniques on the other, remains largely unexplored. By means of investigating the structures and mechanisms in the free and modal improvisations of Herbie Hancock, and modifying these materials in accordance with the limitations and possibilities of the contrabass, Stefan aims at developing strategies and methods that should enable bassists to achieve a higher level of cohesive abstraction in the realm free improvisation.
Free improvisation is very much about interaction and intuition, but the more readily available, practical information there is for intuition to work with – the larger the base of applicable knowledge – the deeper, richer and freer, personal expression in free improvisation will be.