ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that jazz may have invented something unique due to its intrinsic qualities: like classical music through its material, its format, its performance. Virtuosity is part of indigenous musicians' vocabulary, it signifies the height of a musician's skills or the seductive prowess of an illusionist. Virtuosity has been considered rather negatively as a performance aimed at a public that outwardly demonstrates exceptional agility in terms of instrumental or vocal technique, especially as related to speed of execution. Otherwise, pushing things to their limits is a pressing need in musical practice, which implies that virtuosity is a more complex issue. Furthermore, the speed that defines virtuosic quality is bound to be looked down on as soon as one becomes afraid of affording it too much importance. The Romantic aesthetic expression of the subject, however, amplifies the discomfort aroused by virtuosity, whose illusionist facet articulates poorly in a quest for truth in works that are demanding.
