Misha Mengelberg on Improvisation

Han Bennink and Misha Mengelberg

Part of improvisation, the act of improvisation, playing with other people, has very much to do with survival strategy. You have, of course, all your expectations and plans, which are destroyed the moment you play with other people. They all have their own ideas of how the musical world at that moment should be. So there are two, three, five six composers there at the same time destroying each other's ideas. (John Corbett, Microgroove)