Deconstructin(g) Jazz Improvisation: Derrida and the Law of the Singular Event

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Literary critic Jacques Derrida was skeptical that jazz improvisation could actually transgress or ignore preset formal and harmonic structure-the "law of jazz"-to achieve totally spontaneous creations and unique, unpremeditated events. Ramshaw argues that no event generated in jazz improvisation is ever totally singular, nor is such an event totally absent in legal institutions, otherwise held to be diametrically opposed to the spontaneity of jazz. She refers to Derrida's own writings on deconstruction for this insight.

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bebop, collaboration, deconstruction, improvisation, invention, Jacques Derrida, law, law of jazz, mysticism, Ornette Coleman, Post-structuralism, racism, rules of law, stereotypes