Making “Anti-Music”: Divergent Interactional Strategies in the Miles Davis Quintet’sThe Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965

This article examines three improvisations by the Miles Davis Quintet from their recording The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965 through the lens of a new theory of musical interaction. It shows how the quintet favored divergent over convergent interactional strategies in the interpersonal, referent, role, and style domains in its quest to create what one band member called “anti-music.”