Grover Washington Jr.’s style of improvisation on the saxophone

Statement of the problem. Creativity of Gr. Washington Jr. studied, although he was a very popular performer and improviser. The official site provides the most detailed material on the heritage of Gr. Washington Jr., a section is not well of A. West’s dissertation (Aaron J. West) is devoted to the method of his improvisation, Gr. Washington Jr. is mentioned in studies on the theory and history of jazz (Aebersold, 1992; Ellenberger, 2005; Levine, 1995) as well as in a research essay on “smooth” jazz (Flynn, 2014; Mader, 2012). The purpose of the article is to outline the main features of Grover Washington Jr’s improvisation on saxophone. The research methodology combines several sources: works on the theory of improvisation (Ferand, 1957; Bailey, 1993; Stetsiuk, 2020; Zotov, 2018), works on performance style and interpretation as communication (Adorno, 2002, Nikolaevska, 2020). Based on a combination of methods, the article defines “style of improvisation” as a system of four dimensions: the phenomenological considers improvisation as a method of music-making based on the instantaneous transmission of what appears in empirical time; pragmatic – explores improvisation as a set of elements that are formed in the language of an individual musician and objectified “here and now” according to certain laws of form; personal – interprets improvisation from the standpoint of the psychological and spiritual qualities of a musician-improviser; communicative – studies improvisation from the point of communication between the musician(s) in the group and the musician(s) with the audience. The study uses this proposed definition to analyse Gr. Washington Jr’s works. Scientific novelty is declared by the analysis of “style of improvisation” as a system of four dimensions (phenomenological, pragmatic, personal and communicative). Conclusions and results of the study. The article revealed the features of Gr. Washington’s style of improvisation on the example of his albums “Inner City Blues” (1971), “Mister Magic” (1975) and “Winelight” (1980), which belonged to the crossover music of the 1970s and established musical and cultural paradigms of the smooth jazz in the 1980s. The pragmatic dimension of the style is evident in the saxophone timbre (“multi-timbre” instrument); modal harmony (an evolution from a “two-chord vamp” to richer harmonic thinking, from smooth jazz to fusion); predominantly “horizontal” melodic thinking; tendency to build short phrases. The communicative dimension is expressed in the predominance of the declamatory (recitative) style of jazz improvisation, which returned jazz to the traditions of the swing era, phenomenally manifesting itself in the work of Washington and influencing the further development of jazz.