More important, however, is that improvisation is a SOCIAL practice that goes far beyond the relationship between soloists and instrument. Improvisation is driven by the relationships that are taking place across the entire ensemble. One cannot understand Coltrane’s behavior without taking into account the other members of his quartet. Any experiment that does not take this social dimension into account can only provide an impoverished body of data. In fairness, however, the idea of designing an experiment that would yield more valid data is so challenging as to be virtually impossible, at least with current equipment.

This is an excellent example of what happens when we run up against the limitations of what Thomas Kuhn called “normal science.” We need to reassess both the questions we ask and the methods we design to answer them. Kuhn called this a “paradigm shift.” Unfortunately, when funding for scientific research is limited, “normal science” tends to prevail; and the result is a collection of well-funded scientists running in circles like a dog chasing its tail!