Study: Jazz Improv Cranks Up Brain's Creativity
When jazz pianists are improvising riffs, their brains act much more like the dreaming brain, with inhibition turned down and creativity cranked way up, a new study finds.
It's a brave new musical world. Between downloads, iPods, music sharing websites and the good old CD, we have more easy access to the songs and symphonies we love than ever before. In this visit to All Things Considered, host Jacki Lyden and I explore an East meets West mashup in a concerto for Persian ney (bamboo flute) and orchestra, a young composer who treats electronic and acoustic instruments as equals, an opera star who goes back to church and a violinist who plays Vivaldi with delicious abandon.