ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a jazz standard is nothing other than what has been made of it in and through the course of the single improvisation. The default position seems to be to treat jazz standards as a special kind of musical works, more precisely as ontologically “thin” works. The idea can be explicated by saying that jazz improvisations have an autopoietic logic, both of what it means to develop the course of an improvisation and what it means for an improvisation to be successful. If it is the case that every successful jazz improvisation establishes its elements in a retroactive way, there obviously can be no criteria that would allow knowing in advance what it would take for this peculiar improvisation to succeed. It is possible that we can learn something about the existence and the aesthetic significance of works if we take a look at the practice of jazz improvisations of jazz standards.
