Tag Archives: music

Professor of Improvisation

Celebrating becoming Professor of Improvisation

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Bath Spa University is proud to announce our first Professor of Improvisation, Professor Nick Sorensen. Nick, who is currently Acting Head of the School of Writing, Performance and Humanities (WPH), embodies the spirit of interdisiplinary creative inquiry which defines our institution. His groundbreaking interdisciplinary research continues to shape our understanding of improvisation across music, education, the humanities, and social practice.

Professor John Strachan, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research at Bath Spa University, said: “Nick’s appointment as Professor of Improvisation reflects Bath Spa’s deep commitment to innovation, creativity, and the breaking of new ground in research. His work exemplifies the transformative power of the arts and education in reimagining our world”.

Nick Sorensen writes:

I am very pleased to have been able to become Professor of Improvisation as this title reflects the interdisciplinary nature of my research interests that have developed over the past 40 years. My MA thesis, “The Value of Improvisation for Arts Educators” (1988) was grounded in my experience as a drama teacher and jazz musician. However, I felt that this research begged more questions that it answered, which set me thinking about the pervading presence of improvisation in social contexts.

Eventually I discovered the way to explore this line of enquiry through asking questions about the relationship between improvisation and teacher expertise. This became the focus for my PhD research, a qualitative enquiry based around in-depth case studies of seven expert teachers. A monograph based on this research project The Improvising Teacher: reconceptualising pedagogy, expertise and professionalism was published by Routledge in 2023.

Becoming a Professor of Improvisation has provided me with the opportunity and motivation to continue and extend my research interests; these can be broadly divided into two areas of study. The first is centred on my practice as an improvising musician, exploring the importance of listening and silence within improvised performance, a line of enquiry stimulated by Miles Davis comment that “it’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play that matters”. The second is concerned with the application of improvisational skills within social contexts; developing an understanding of improvisation as a mode of professional creativity in teaching, leadership and organisations.

Simon Rose, in his excellent book The Lived Experience of Improvisation: In music, learning and life sees improvisation as ‘a pervasive aspect of being human, in every sphere of life, enabling existence; life without the improvisational response is difficult to imagine’. However, improvisation has always been a problematic concept, containing a multiplicity of senses and significances that are not necessarily compatible with each other. There is a need for a better understanding of improvisatory processes and enabling the clarity of practice that is found in music and the other arts to be developed in other areas. Being Professor of Improvisation provides opportunities and to share the knowledge and understanding of what the Roman rhetorician Quintilian refers to as ‘artful improvisation’. I look forward to establishing this dialogue with others.

The Nick Sorensen Trio

A big thanks to Stephen Morris for this lovely review of our gig at Holt Village Hall, Wiltshire on Friday 2 February 2024.

Nick Sorensen’s jazz ensemble played to a full house at Holt Village Hall in a set of virtuoso musicianship. A combination of their own compositions and nuanced interpretations of much-loved standards was rewarded by an appreciative audience of aficionados and newcomers to chamber jazz.

Gershwin’s A Foggy Day was beguiling: John Law’s piano and Paul Sandy’s bass creating a gentle tempo for Nick’s sparse, uplifting sax. For this and especially Monk’s ‘Round Midnight, the band resisted elaborate improvisation, adding some elegant, restrained touches but never straying far from the beauty of the original.

The emotion in John’s own composition The Last Dance, played as a duet with Paul, found a rapt audience needing no vocal to appreciate the yearning in the music. Benedictus – a piece for choir from Rod Paton’s Ascension Jazz Mass (look it up) – filled the hall with sound. Irving Berlin’s How Deep is the Ocean was stripped of Sinatra’s sentimentality; Stella by Starlight was lusciously bluesy.

Who expected Hendrix from a jazz three-piece? Even without Jimi’s sensational guitar Little Wing was recognisably Hendrix: sassy and loud, driven by pulse-quickening blasts from Nick’s saxophone that later had me digging around for the original recording. Hey Joe next time?

The night finished with the evocative Journey Home, the title track of Sorensen and Law’s 2010 album recorded at the Wiltshire Music Centre – a local jewel Nick was instrumental in creating and which makes our part of Wiltshire a musical hub.

Three fine musicians and an audience captivated by the music (‘a mesmerising evening’; ‘fabulous’) made for a near perfect gig – proof that our Holt Village Hall is a fine venue and one to be cherished.