Browsing by Author "Shepherd, Kyle"

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    Interrogating the own: a practise-based, auto-ethnographic reflection on musical creation with reference to the work of Abdullah Ibrahim, Zim Ngqawana and Kyle Shepherd
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Shepherd, Kyle; Vos, Stephanie; Muller, Stephanus; Eato, Jonathan; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines my artistic practice as musician, improviser and composer as a research process. Auto-ethnographic reflections on my performances, whether on the jazz bandstand, in the recording studio or in informal improvisation sessions, enable me to illuminate and analyse the artistic process, thereby contributing to artistic research in jazz. Discussions of practice-based research (also known as artistic research) and auto-ethnography as methods serve as theoretical points of departure. I situate this study as practice-based research, and argue that auto-ethnography offers a particularly suitable mode to reflect on the deeply individual nature of improvisation as an exploration and realization of the self. In the first chapter, I explore the processes of learning, transmission and artistic development in jazz practice, particularly with reference to two musicians who shaped my artistic development, Abdullah Ibrahim and Zim Ngqawana. Situated outside of formal institutions, the artistic development I describe emerges as an improvisatory process in itself, since musicians select their own musical models and influences to hone their practice. The second chapter presents a reflection on the processes involved in creating my practice of improvising, composing and performing. I consider the importance of what I call a situational awareness, and the different dynamics and challenges inherent in three modes of my work: solo playing, ensemble playing, and film music composition. In the third chapter, I explore how the above influences and dynamics (discussed in Chapters 1 and 2) come into play in the performance portfolio that forms the practical component of this degree. This thesis, therefore, forms one component of a practice-based Masters degree, which compliments and expands the performance portfolio submitted.