Representing Musical Knowledge in a Jazz Improvisation System

A computer system for analyzing and generating improvisational jazz solos is currently under development. I maintain that an enumeration and quantification of musical common sense concepts is necessary for the construction of musically intelligent systems. My design of an architecture to organize and manipulate musical knowledge is influenced by the agent-based approach of (Minsky 86), and the spreading activation networks of (Maes 89). A model of improvisation based upon this approach is described, focusing on the development of a knowledge representation and control structure for this domain.