I hold a master´s degree in anthropology of education from Aarhus University in Denmark. For my thesis I conducted a 4 months long field work in New York City where I closely followed the work of the free jazz collective Arts For Art.
My thesis explores how a collective of Free Jazz artists and the organization they are closely associated with - Arts For Art - take the values they find in the genre of Free Jazz and its main principle, improvisation, as the inspirational basis for ways of organizing themselves and as a means to create a better world. I discuss their use of Free Jazz to challenge larger global narratives such as racism, diversity, inclusion/exclusion, sexism and the marginalization of Free Jazz from the dominating canon of the jazz tradition. I argue that AFAs way of organizing their community can be regarded as prefigurative politics. As musicians improvise together, they can share a sense of connectedness, potentially creating the perfect conditions for a supportive environment in which individuality and differences are encouraged and understood as productive elements of a creative common reality. I discuss how improvisation can be imagined as a space where equality, at least momentarily, can be realized, as it has the power to create a multitude which promotes social cooperation. Moreover, I argue that improvisation, not only in music, but in life, is necessary for coping with the indeterminacy of change. It is not easy to improvise one's way within an established system of control, however, which demands a specific performance of its subjects - musically and economically; AFA still operates within the current monetary system and works within a limited budget. Thus, I conclude that Free Jazz alone cannot solve issues, such as lack of money, discrimination or racism, but does present a creative answer to them. My analysis leads me to suggest implementing improvisation in democratic teaching, as a tool to transmit the idea of the multitude, an empowering concept for building societies founded on the principle of equality.