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VOL. 9, NO. 2 
FALL 2020 

 

 SPECIAL ISSUE: ARTS ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION 

Anyone Can Improvise 
The ABCs of Arts Entrepreneurship—A Case Study 

Monika Herzig 
Indiana University 

ABSTRACT: The concept of improvisation and the “Jazz Model” for Entrepreneurship 
as a gathering of creative minds with the goal of creating a new outcome is frequently 
used in the entrepreneurship literature. Especially the unique setting of a jazz jam 
session exemplifies a successful model of group creativity (Herzig & Baker, 2014) with 
options for training towards organizational innovation. This case study traces the 
entrepreneurial efforts of Jamey Aebersold, David Baker, and Jerry Coker, the ABCs 
of jazz education, who developed the foundation for teaching materials and curricula 
worldwide. Furthermore, this case study documents the entrepreneurial mindset of 
these three innovators as a result of their improvisational training and regular 
participation in jazz jam session situations and thus implies strategies for teaching 
creative thinking techniques in entrepreneurship education. KEYWORDS: 
entrepreneurship education, jazz education, improvisation, jazz model, effectual 
entrepreneurship. DOI: 10.34053/artivate.9.2.112 

Introduction 
The jazz metaphor as a tool to develop improvisational capacities and an entrepreneurial mind-
set is a frequent topic in the entrepreneurship literature (Barrett, ; Hatch, ; Lewin, 
; Weick, ; Diasio, ; Eisenhardt, ; Kamoche & Kunha ; Walzer & Salcher 
; Zack, ). Team creativity and performance are generally attributed to improvisational 
capacities and willingness to take risks (Moorman & Miner, ; Hargadon & Bechky, ; 
Perry-Smith & Shalley, ) but there is no clarity on how to develop such improvisational 
skills. In fact, Zack () argues that the degrees of constraint inside jazz performances and 



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styles dictate different models and approaches that offer various transfer options to group mod-
els and should be explored more in depth. Serrat () argues that creativity defined as “the 
mental and social process—fueled by conscious or unconscious insight of people—of generating 
ideas, concepts and associations” is essential to organizational performance and innovation as 
the “successful exploitation of new ideas.” The Encyclopedia Britannica lists the definition of 
improvisation in music as “the extemporaneous composition or free performance of a musical 
passage, usually in a manner conforming to certain stylistic norms but unfettered by the pre-
scriptive features of a specific musical text.” While this process of creating in the moment is 
central to the process of a jazz musician, there are additional artistic and contextual factors that 
contribute to a successful product specifically observed in the jazz jam session process (Herzig 
& Baker. ). 

Similarly, recent empirical organization science literature offers factors and models that 
facilitate innovation (Tsoukas, ), but with inconsistent results. In fact, a recent meta-anal-
ysis of seventy-three studies on how entrepreneurship education influences post-education en-
trepreneurship intentions found only a slightly positive effect (Bae et al., ). While of course 
outcomes of entrepreneurship education might manifest themselves through other factors, such 
as knowledge or skill, there might be a missing link in fostering the entrepreneurial mindset 
needed in order to engage in innovative ventures. It seems that the focused training of creativity 
and improvisation and the collaborative nature of the art form jazz provide a consistent meta-
phor for the creative process in teams leading to organizational innovation. Holbrook () 
and Zack () highlight such transfer options to marketing and management teams in their 
treatise of the jazz model. 

Duxbury () identifies improvisation in organizations as a coping alternative in situa-
tions of extreme change and turbulence. He confirms that lessons about acquiring improvisa-
tional skills may be drawn from art forms that regularly engage in such behavior, i.e. jazz and 
improvisational theater, and that capacity for improvisation can be trained. Limb and Braun 
() provide evidence that during improvisation the brain deliberately activates the prefrontal 
cortex, thus facilitating creative flow. Similarly, Vera and Crossan () emphasize that effec-
tive improvisation and group creativity in organizations take readiness and training. These find-
ings debunk the misconception that the willingness to improvise is a character trait and support 
improvisational training in entrepreneurship education. Lessons from teamwork in the arts and 
sports about fostering effective team characteristics as well as creating supportive contextual 
factors may provide cues for effective teaching strategies. 

Herzig and Baker () developed a seven-factor model based on the analysis of inter-
views, surveys, and literature about jazz jam sessions. These factors include: Individual compe-
tency and knowledge of the field, practicing improvisation, establishing mentoring systems and 
role models, democracy and collaboration, leaders and sidemen, community support, and con-
tinuous evaluation systems. Options for transfer to organizations and teams were developed by 
Belitski and Herzig () and conceptualized for managing creativity (Herzig, ). Even 
though the jazz model is discussed frequently in the entrepreneurship literature, barriers for 
successful implementation in entrepreneurship pedagogy remain due to the differences in 



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training and intrinsic drive of jazz musicians. Of course, dedicated entrepreneurs are also fueled 
by an intrinsic drive to invent and succeed but also by a larger need for extrinsic financial and 
organizational success that is rarely attainable in the art form jazz. Vera, Nemanich, Velez-Cas-
trillon, & Werner () were able to demonstrate the relationship of contextual factors with 
effective improvisation capability in research and development teams. These relationships are 
similar to the contextual factors of a jazz jam session, hence the model developed by Herzig and 
Baker () might provide the needed cues. 

This case study exemplifies the theoretical construct and practical applications of the jam 
session model for group creativity across disciplines through the example of the entrepreneurial 
impact of the ABCs of Jazz Education: Jamey Aebersold, David Baker, and Jerry Coker. The 
concept of offering formalized academic study of jazz and jazz improvisation is often associated 
with the work and publications of the ABCs of jazz starting in  with Jerry Coker’s Impro-
vising Jazz, David Baker’s Jazz Improvisation: A Comprehensive Method for All Players (), 
and Jamey Aebersold’s entrepreneurial venture of play-along recordings () resulting in a 
publishing empire and further curriculum and teaching materials developed by David Baker 
and Jerry Coker (Witmer & Robbins, ). As a result, University programs have grown expo-
nentially, with  US programs and  international schools offering degrees in Jazz Studies 
according to the  Student Music Guide in DownBeat Magazine (October , pp. –). 
A lesser-known fact is that these three individuals are all Indiana natives and shared time to-
gether as students and faculty at Indiana University, where they observed the problematic lack 
of educational materials and courses for the art form jazz and responded with various solutions 
facilitated by their extensive training in improvisational thinking. 

I argue that the entrepreneurial mindset and team creativity needed for the ABCs of Jazz 
to invent and refine the materials and methods for a new market were the direct result of their 
intensive improvisational training and engagement in jazz jam sessions. The fact that their in-
novation happens to be jazz education is not an essential ingredient of the argument, similar 
cases can be made for Noel Lee (Monster Products) or Carl Stormer (Jazzcode Data Manage-
ment) who are both trained jazz musicians. But the observation that the three individuals dis-
cussed here apply every factor of the jazz jam session model as they engage in the process of 
organizational improvisation—the spontaneous convergence of action and design (Moorman 
& Miner, )—offers a series of implications for arts entrepreneurship curricula and beyond. 
These implications that could be the earlier-identified missing link between entrepreneurship 
training and developing the entrepreneurial mindset. Hence the final discussion offers thoughts 
and suggestions for transferable lessons from the case of the ABCs. 

The ABCs of Jazz Education 

. Jamey Aebersold (Born July , ) 

Anyone Can Improvise is the title of Jamey Aebersold’s popular Masterclass DVD as well as his 
comprehensive pamphlet chronicling common chord–scale relationships, forms, and more 



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basic jazz theory concepts. The phrase has also become his mantra over his years publishing 
pedagogical resources for jazz education, offering his popular summer workshops since  
around the globe, and teaching at the University of Louisville as well as countless clinics and 
master classes worldwide. Aebersold is probably best known for his series of play-along record-
ings featuring a rhythm section of highly accomplished musicians performing jazz repertoire 
pieces without the melody. Aspiring jazz performers worldwide have used the recordings to 
practice melodies and improvisational techniques since the publication of Volume  in . 
He was inducted as an NEA Jazz Master in . 

Aebersold’s journey searching for the ingredients of the jazz language and becoming a jazz 
musician in the s and s shaped his inclusive philosophy. When he applied to be a student 
at the Manhattan School of Music in , the response letter several months later was one 

sentence long: “We do not offer the saxophone” (Aebersold, ). His dreams were crushed. 
On recommendation of his brother, he attended Indiana University only to find out that neither 
saxophone nor jazz studies were available degree options. Through his own initiative and with 
the help of fellow jazz education legend David Baker, with whom he took private lessons at the 
time, Aebersold gathered the needed knowledge and resources to crack the jazz code. 

. David Baker (December , –March , ) 

Most listeners associate David Baker’s name with his trombone artistry in prominent groups of 
the Bebop era and beyond, with musicians such as George Russell, Quincy Jones, and Slide 
Hampton, as well as with his leadership in jazz education. In the  Reader’s Poll of DownBeat 
Magazine, Baker was voted Best New Star and in the year , he received the prestigious NEA 
Jazz Masters Award, as well as the Kennedy Center’s Living Jazz Legend title in . In , 
he founded the jazz studies program at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he 
taught multiple generations of prominent musicians and educators. With more than sixty books 
and four hundred articles, he defined a canon of jazz education worldwide. Lesser known is his 
extensive repertoire as a composer, which includes more than two thousand works from solo to 
chamber music, symphonies, concertos, vocal compositions, ballet and film music, and of 
course many compositions and arrangements for big band and jazz combo, many recorded and 
performed by world-renowned artists. 

. Jerry Coker (Born November , ) 

Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Jerry Coker was an impressionable teenager when the Be-
bop era came along and the level of virtuosity and note choices by players like Bird and Diz 
pushed the boundaries of ear-playing into a new realm of improvisational theory and practice. 
Inspired by listening to his father’s gigs, sessions, and rehearsals, Jerry decided on a career in 
music and entered Indiana University in . He later taught at Sam Houston State University, 
Indiana University, the University of Miami, Pembroke State University, Duke University, and 
the University of Tennessee. Jerry Coker’s influential book Improvising Jazz first published in 



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 was the result of his master’s thesis research. David Liebman testifies: “Jerry Coker is the 
Godfather of jazz education, if only for his groundbreaking and best-selling book Improvising 
Jazz which established many of the terms we use every day to describe the workings of jazz like 
–V-I; CESH, etc.” Coker’s output of educational books throughout his teaching career grew 
to seventeen published books and more coauthor credits. After leaving Indiana University for 
the Frost School of Music in , Coker, together with his teaching assistant Dan Haerle, re-
fined a curriculum that included a four-semester sequence of improvisation courses as well as 
ensemble playing in various styles and settings, jazz composition/arranging, jazz theory/ear-
training and history, and jazz keyboard fundamentals that became the blueprint for college jazz 
programs worldwide. 

Method 
The seven factors of the jazz jam session model (Herzig & Baker, ) are exemplified by the 
entrepreneurial endeavors of jazz educators Jamey Aebersold, David Baker, and Jerry Coker 
extracted from personal interviews and literature reviews, as well as personal and public docu-
ments and records. The discussion of the findings analyzes the relationship of their training in 
an improvisational art form and their high level of entrepreneurship and suggests transfer meth-
odologies to the classroom. 

The Jazz Jam Session Model and the Arts Entrepreneurship of the ABCs of 
Jazz Education 
Herzig and Baker () developed the jazz jam session model within a project that documented 
the creative process of the jazz jam session from a historical, social, and musical perspective. As 
a result of observations, surveys, and interviews, seven factors were identified that drive group 
creativity and entrepreneurship as documented in Belitski and Herzig (). Following are the 
seven factors with examples from the work of the ABCs of Jazz Education. 

. Individual Competence and Knowledge of the Field 

In order to learn their craft, jazz musicians spend hours practicing their instruments, transcrib-
ing solos, and learning the jazz language (Berliner, ). Competency plays an enormous role 
in any improvisational activity (Vera & Crossan, ) and of course shapes the quality of re-
sults. 

The superior level of competence and knowledge of these three individuals in their chosen 
field is well documented. All three have master’s degrees in music education and taught jazz 
improvisation all their lives. Two of them were awarded the highest honor in the field of jazz, 
the NEA Jazz Masters Award (David Baker, ; Jamey Aebersold, ). Their performance 
credentials are extensive, from initial touring engagements with the Woody Hermann Orchestra 



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68 

(Jerry Coker)1 to some of the most groundbreaking recordings with the George Russell Sextet 

(David Baker).2 The discipline of mastering an instrument and their determination to do so is 
exemplified in this comment from David Baker (Smithsonian, ): “I started thinking I have 
to have another instrument, so I decided I was going to play piano. I started practicing piano 
eight hours a day.” 

Jerry Coker’s first method book Improvising Jazz () was the result of meticulous re-
search and knowledge. In a  interview with the author he explained the process of acquiring 
the needed knowledge when he initially started teaching: 

I have to say I was a little nervous and terrified because I thought that I did not want to be 
responsible for someone else’s learning especially if I am going to have to invent all the stuff they 
are going to work on. So after I got over that, I took about a week to prepare, and during that 
time I sat down and wrote down everything that I thought I had ever learned in my own quest 
for playing. I ended up with a very long list. Then I went back over the list and started crossing 
things off, eliminating things that I had learned, but not found meaningful or useful. Then I put 
them into a logical order, a sequence. I made an outline and wrote out a few starter type patterns 
and things. So the lessons worked out well. In fact, they got me my first teaching gig at Sam 
Houston State University in Huntsville because the head of the department there played a gig 
with two of these guys and saw how much they had improved in a very short time. He decided 
that the improvement was on the basis of what I had taught them. 

. Practicing Improvisation as the Ability to Overcome Self-Consciousness 

As Vera and Crossan () state, “improvisation is not inherently good or bad; however, im-
provisation has a positive effect on team innovation when combined with team and contextual 
moderating factors.” The improvisational process requires the participants to take risks as they 
enter new situations, interact with new people, and train their brains to respond to the moment. 
Brain studies by Limb and Braun () document the extensive deactivation of the prefrontal 
cortex during the improvisational process, thus the willingness to engage in the moment with-
out pre-evaluation. Peplowski (, p. ) adds “We are always deliberately painting our-
selves into corners just in order to get out of them. Sometimes you consciously pick a bad note 
and try to find a way to get out of it. The essence of jazz music is to try to put three to eight 
people together while they’re all trying to do this at the same time.” 

During their training as jazz musicians, Aebersold, Baker, and Coker engaged daily in the 
act of improvisation, such training their brains to take risks as documented by Limb and Braun 
(). Similarly, Aebersold’s venture of recording his first play-alongs was a major 

 
1 Jerry Coker joined the Woody Herman Orchestra in 1953 followed by stints with Mel Lewis, Stan Kenton and 
a period of freelancing on the West Coast. 
2 David Baker was voted Best New Artist in DownBeat Magazine 1962 and recorded as a member of the George 
Russell Sextet on Ezz-thetics, At the Five Spot, Outer Thoughts, The Stratus Seekers, Stratusphunk and ten re-
cordings under his own name, as well as many more. 



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69 

entrepreneurial risk in . He invested in recording sessions and a series of LPs and drove 
from music store to music store to set up a few copies on consignment as publishers didn’t think 
there was interest in the concept. Adapting to the need of controlling production costs but still 
providing superior musicianship, Aebersold created a space in his basement with the needed 
recording technology and asked his musician friends to jam and record. The LP covers were 
hand-drawn pictures by his sister. It took nearly ten years, nine volumes, and creating editions 
with music by popular contemporaries before the business finally became profitable. However, 
once it reached the tipping point it became the foundation of a multimillion dollar publishing 
empire (with  volumes to date) and a prime example of the effectuation approach for entre-
preneurship (Read et al., ). 

When David Baker was charged with creating a jazz studies program at Indiana University 
in , he realized that there was a lack of teaching materials and a resistance to integrating 
jazz courses in the conservatory music curriculum. Because of his improvisational training he 
took the risk, created his own materials, and built a curriculum through trial and error: 

I remember a man who unfortunately is dead now, because he was a good man, but he was pretty 
staunch in his belief that, “as long as I’m here, jazz band will never be a major ensemble.” Two 
weeks later, on a Thursday morning, it passed as a major ensemble (Smithsonian, ). 

. Establishing a Mentoring System and Role Models 

During the first fifty years of jazz history, very few institutionalized learning was available. Ex-
perienced players shared their information through mentorship on and off the bandstand 
through a modeling approach. Evidence for effective learning through mentorship is docu-
mented in a study by Dean Keith Simonton () with positive correlations between a success-
ful artist career and large numbers and diverse models of mentors. 

In the case of the ABCs, we have an interesting cycle wherein they mentored each other. 
Initially, Jerry Coker recommended that Dean William Bain at Indiana University hire David 
Baker when he accepted a position in Miami. Coker had mentored David as a young performer 
and provided opportunities to play and teach. Jamey Aebersold was a student of David Baker 
and discovered the foundation for his Anyone Can Improvise philosophy and materials during 
his first lesson with Baker. All three implemented the principles of mentorship in their entre-
preneurial work in creating summer workshops and pedagogical materials. Jamey Aebersold 
recalls his revelation about the principles of jazz improvisation during this first lesson: 

I took lessons from David. I can’t remember how long. And I remember the first one. He was 
on the piano and he asked me what to play. I’m pretty sure it was “I’ll Remember April.” We 
played the whole tune and then he stops and I improvise. I don’t know if he let me play or he 
stopped me but he pointed out that the second scale was G dorian minor. And I can remember 
I was thinking—I didn’t know anything about dorian but I remember thinking standing there 
in his living room up there on Burdsal Parkway “I thought this was going to be fun.” So then he 
played the scale and I played the scale. As soon as I played the scale I could tell that one note 



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difference between pure minor and dorian minor. It was just perfect. And then my next thought 
was, “Why hadn’t someone told me this before now?” ‘cause that’s what they were playing on 
the records. I could tell that sound. And that was the beginning, and we kind of just went on 
from there. And he’d give me assignments and stuff. And I can remember the day also—I don’t 
know if I was married or if I was dating my wife—but I can remember driving back to Bloom-
ington and telling her “When I get back, I’ll go over to the music building and I’m going to take 
‘Stella by Starlight’ and I’m going to learn every scale and every arpeggio because I’m tired of 
playing through that tune and being lost here and being lost there and not knowing the scale 
that goes over that G, you know, whatever.” I said, “I’m going to start doing this.” So that’s 
when I started to think differently (Aebersold, ). 

. Democracy and Collaboration 

The process of performing jazz music together requires a true democratic give and take of lead-
ership and group support. While one performer improvises a solo the rest of the group members 
provide the best support for an ideal group sound and exchange leadership roles equally 
throughout the process. Similarly, this factor of democracy and collaboration is evident in 
groups when group members alternate between listening and taking the lead during discussions 
(Hatch & Weick, ). 

In , Aebersold was asked to help teach at the Big Band summer camps at Indiana Uni-
versity. After a few years, he realized that there was little opportunity for the participants to 
hone their improvisational skills in the confined environment and started integrating combo 
opportunities. Eventually he took the risk and started leading his own summer combo camps in 
. The Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop has grown into the longest-running sum-
mer camp to date and become the blueprint for similar jazz combo camps around the world. 
David Baker and Jerry Coker co-led these workshops from the beginning. The factor of democ-
racy and collaboration in this entrepreneurial venture is most evident in the way they used the 
time together at the camps to exchange their current book projects and new educational mate-
rials. Through the process of providing feedback and taking turns sharing their ideas and strat-
egies with each other, this group of educators developed the curricula and materials fundamen-
tal for the learning of jazz music around the world: 

Because that meant that when we came in the summer, we knew that time was precious and that 
there were going to be two weeks, three weeks, maybe four in the old days, when we would be 
together. And so we tended to exchange what we’ve been doing and new books we were working 
on or looking at compositions, whatever it might be (Jerry Coker, personal communication, 
). 

. Leaders and Sidemen 

In order to take care of all managerial aspects of organizing a jam session or performance, usu-
ally an experienced performer takes on a leadership role, functioning as liaison between the 



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venue management, the house band, the jam session participants, and the audience. The other 
musicians should not interfere with the managerial tasks once a leader is identified and rather 
provide their musical skills to be the ideal sidemen. The skills required in this role are high 
musicianship, versatility, and strong personal skills. Barrett refers to this factor as provocative 
competence (Barrett, , p. ). 

When David Baker accepted his position at Indiana University, he transferred his leader-
ship skills from managing groups and jam sessions to the task of creating a new program. Based 
on his role as a band leader in Indianapolis, including his experience finding jobs for the group, 
hiring the personnel, writing the music, and marketing the performance, rather than waiting 
for the invitation to join an existing group and contribute as a musical sideman, he knew what 
it took to be a leader in his field. He had developed a strong vision for a possible program that 
was published in  in an article entitled Jazz: The Academy’s Neglected Stepchild. Baker was 
extremely detailed in documenting the ideal jazz program, as exemplified in this excerpt: 

The student must be made aware of the importance of pacing himself, of working toward spe-
cific climaxes in a solo. He must be taught the concepts of tension and relaxation, of understate-
ment and subtlety, of mixing the novel and the old to heighten musical interest. He must be 
constantly reminded of the value of economizing, getting the most from the material available 
to him. A student needs to know from what sources he may get material on which to improvise. 
He should know that often the tune itself (melody, rhythm, etc.) can be his best source of solo 
material. 

As a result of his strong leadership and vision, he was able to overcome resistance and bar-
riers as discussed earlier in this paper. In fact, his courses became extremely popular—beyond 
expectations. In his Smithsonian oral history interview () he recalls: “One year I taught a 
course over in the business building because there were so many students, probably  students 
in the class, as well as the fact that it was then sent out over TV to other branches of our campus.” 

. Community Support 

The effectiveness and outcome of a jam session is influenced by various community support 
factors beyond the internal circle of musical interaction. The sound of a room, the audience 
reaction, the service, the promotions, financial resources, cultural perceptions, geographic loca-
tion, availability of educational resources all play a role in the level and outcome of a jam session 
gathering. 

David Baker grew up in the segregated black community clustered around Indiana Avenue 
in Indianapolis during the s and s. Despite limited resources, the community was ex-
traordinarily supportive and full of opportunities to engage in artistic learning. Indiana Avenue 
was lined with more than forty clubs hosting nightly jam sessions and the teachers at Crispus 
Attucks High School believed in and supported the creativity and potential of their students. A 
host of legendary jazz musicians including Wes Montgomery, Slide Hampton, Freddie Hub-
bard, J.J. Johnson, David Baker, Larry Ridley and many more were the result of this community 



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72 

investment (Herzig, ). 
Jerry Coker’s comments in a  interview for the Jazz Educators Journal exemplify this 

symbiosis of intrinsic drive and community apparent in their entrepreneurship approach: 

I think we would have taught jazz improvisation and jazz whether or not a university had ever 
invited us to do so. I offered classes in  and  when I was in San Francisco. I taught  
students a week plus I gathered them all together one night a week for special improvisation 
classes, listening classes, bringing in a guest professional artist on how to play their instrument 
and that sort of thing. The university has really only given us space and time. That is really all 
that we have ever asked from them. We tend to bring in all of our own materials, we have to 
design the curriculum that is used, we do all of the teaching. But, we needed that space. 

. Continuous Evaluation Systems 

Research on brainstorming techniques by Feinberg and Nemeth () documents a relation-
ship between active debate and critical feedback on ideas and meaningful results. Similar feed-
back shapes the jam sessions with facial expressions, body language, comments, cues, and com-
mon vocabulary, as well as response to audience feedback. 

When Jerry Coker was charged with developing the jazz studies curriculum at the Univer-
sity of Miami in , he worked from a blank slate. Initially he was willing to take the risk based 
on his training in improvisation, but he also knew from his jazz training that finding the ideal 
curriculum would include a period of trial and error. Hence, he solicited continuous evaluations 
from students, colleagues, and experts and incorporated their feedback towards the ideal result: 

And we waited for five years asking the students every year what went wrong. Was there any-
thing that was needed? Anything missing? And for almost five years, there were things. And we 
had to change them. And then we’d talk with the faculty and the grad assistant and ask them the 
same questions. And at the end of five years, I posed that question at the meeting—what needs 
to be changed? What’s wrong? Nothing. No one had anything. And then I asked the faculty the 
same question. The same thing happened, nothing. In other words, we knew we had it then. 
(Jerry Coker, personal communication, ) 

Discussion 
Organizations in the arts and beyond recognize creativity and team collaboration as a crucial 
element for economic success (Amabile, , ; Florida, ; Ford, ; Kim & 
Mauborgne, ; Nonaka, ). With inconsistent findings in research on team creativity, it 
has been suggested to look at models outside of organizational behavior. The Jazz Jam Session 
Model (Herzig & Baker, ) provides such a model, emphasizing especially the role of culti-
vating improvisational abilities and extracting seven factors that facilitate group creativity. This 
case study exemplifies each model factor by tracing the team entrepreneurship by three arts 
entrepreneurs who had extensive training in jam session environments and successfully 



ARTIVATE 9.2 

73 

demonstrated the transfer of this skill set into their innovative work. Several suggestions for 
teaching and cultivating group creativity and entrepreneurship can be extracted from this case 
study. These include acquiring the highest level of competency in the chosen field, ideally daily 
engagement in improvisational activities, providing a strong mentorship system, cultivating 
truly democratic group interactions with continuous evaluation systems in place, a supportive 
community and environment, as well as guidance in choosing roles and careers. 

But beyond direct teaching applications, this study helps us connect the dots between en-
trepreneurial improvisation and the jazz model. Sarasvarthy’s () work on effectual entre-
preneurship uncovered a natural tendency of expert entrepreneurs to use resources at hand in 
order to achieve initially unknown ends. Effectual entrepreneurship is often compared to ex-
plorers setting out on a voyage of discovery, a process that requires participants to be adaptable 
and open to surprises. This exact mindset is needed to engage in a jam session with a common 
goal of creating something new using the process of improvisation and constant adaption. How-
ever, many business schools base their pedagogy on a causal, linear approach that does not sup-
port the process of effectual discovery. 

This case also aligns with evidence that improvisational capacities can be trained. Repeat 
entrepreneurs rated higher on measures of improvisational behavior than novel entrepreneurs 
in a study by Hmieleski and Corbett (). Duxbury () concluded that embracing the 
process is an essential trait of improvising entrepreneurs. Daily engagement in improvisational 
behavior while honing their craft as jazz musicians provided the ABCs with the confidence to 
embrace change and turbulence as they developed new materials and teaching approaches. One 
such example is Jamey Aebersold’s quest to find buyers for his play-alongs, which entailed strug-
gling for several years when approaching distributors, selling out of his trunk, and eventually 
developing the summer camp concept and the publishing company, all the while constantly 
adapting and refining the product and the process. His extensive training in improvisation pro-
vided the confidence and persistence needed to succeed. Thus frequent opportunities to practice 
improvisational behavior in arts entrepreneurship pedagogy can strengthen capacities to adapt 
and overcome obstacles, considering the risky and ambiguous nature of the field. 

Further cues from this case study are the favorable composition of this specific team, who 
had the needed expertise and problem-solving capacities, as well as supportive contextual con-
ditions, including frequent personal proximity, an inclusive social climate due to the Civil 
Rights movement, and institutional interest that provided infrastructure and financial re-
sources. The entrepreneurship literature confirms the influence of contextual factors, identified 
as factors of networking and community support in the jam session model, on the creative out-
put of research and development teams (Herzig & Baker, ; Vera et al., ). Effective en-
trepreneurial training thus depends on contextual resources and opportunities. Examples are 
networking opportunities, financial resources and role models, fostering team spirit, and strong 
community support systems. 

Overall, the literature on measuring improvisational dispositions is still underdeveloped. 
Many questions remain on the similarities of and differences between artistic improvisation and 
entrepreneurial problem solving. Furthermore, improvising can take place in very structured 



ARTIVATE 9.2 

74 

formats, i.e. applying learned patterns versus open engagements with free reactions to the mo-
ment overriding restrictions by form, etiquette, and expectations. How do these different types 
of improvisation manifest in entrepreneurial activity, how can they be fostered and measured, 
and how can they be incorporated in pedagogy? Many questions remain also in relation to the 
direct transfer between artistic improvisation and entrepreneurial training in creativity and 
problem solving. An effectual approach to developing curricula—often compared to cooking a 
meal without a recipe, combining the ingredients available in the refrigerator (Sarasvathy, 
)—may answer some of these questions over time and lead to an innovative outcome, sim-
ilar to a delicious meal created on the fly. Nevertheless, studying cases like the ABCs provides 
important cues and lessons for combining the ingredients in the best way possible. 

The teaching of entrepreneurship and creativity is a rather new field, but it is rapidly grow-
ing due to an increasing valuation of for ideas, problem-solving skills, and innovative ap-
proaches. Especially artists and arts organizations need to adapt quickly to changes in consumer 
technology and behavior. The jazz jam session model has been developed and refined for a cen-
tury and this case study exemplifies a successful entrepreneurial unit that implements the factors 
of the jam session model during group innovation. Similar implementation of these factors in 
classroom settings and entrepreneurship curricula can foster the skills needed for group crea-
tivity and innovation and the jazz jam session model has the potential for guiding effective 
teaching methods in the arts entrepreneurship classroom and beyond. 

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Cover image: Photo provided to the author from the 
personal archive of Jamey Aebersold.

 


