Abstract In this essay, I seek to bridge discussions of jazz improvisation and the existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre, specifically his notion of the committed writer. To Sartre, a committed writer uses their artistic output to comment on the world in a manner that changes their readers’ perceptions of the world. I argue that Charles Mingus's approach to improvisation demonstrates his artistic commitment that was intended to galvanize his audience toward concrete action. I begin by summarizing Sartre's theories of literature and then apply them to jazz improvisation to contend that the way jazz musicians produce improvisations reveals insights into how they attempt to communicate abstracted political messages to their listeners. In the second half of this essay, I shift my focus back to Mingus's improvisational method to demonstrate how he directed musicians to produce novel improvisations that could explicate both his and their feelings toward the world. Through a mix of biographic quotation, archival research, transcription, and theoretical analysis, I argue that Mingus's unique approach to improvisation signaled his commitment to a politicized form of improvisation. By doing so, I draw explicit parallels between the ways Mingus created music, the music he ultimately created, the political valence of his work, and the biographical details that caused him to have such political opinions. I end by demonstrating how my existential reading of Mingus challenges notions of “freedom” as they relate to jazz cultures.
Varun Chandrasekhar (Wed,) studied this question.