Creativity Quote by Evan Parker

Evan Parker’s line lands like a shrug that doubles as a manifesto. “The whole philosophy” gives the phrase a mock-grand scale, then “ad hoc combinations” punctures it with the language of improvisers and pragmatists: not institutions, not perfect systems, just whoever’s in the room, whatever works, right now. The sentence is almost comically balanced - “strengths and its weaknesses” - but that symmetry is the point. Parker isn’t selling spontaneity as a romance; he’s naming it as a method with real trade-offs.

In the context of his career - a figure central to European free improvisation, where ensembles assemble and dissolve, rules are provisional, and listening is the real infrastructure - “ad hoc” is less casual than it sounds. It’s a demand: show up without a script, build a temporary language, accept that the results will be uneven. The strength is obvious: surprise, risk, the kind of collective invention that can’t be planned into existence. The weakness is equally baked in: chemistry doesn’t always spark, hierarchies can reappear silently, and “flexibility” can become an excuse for instability or a lack of accountability.

The subtext reads like seasoned realism. Parker’s not warning against improvisation; he’s warning against mythologizing it. Great ad hoc music isn’t great because it’s free of structure. It’s great because structure gets negotiated in public, at speed, under pressure - and sometimes, thrillingly, it fails.