Abstract
The role of the musical director in improvised jazz and jazz/fusion may seem an unnecessary one, given the almost-free nature of the music being produced. The sometimes aleatoric process may need no planned or agreed direction at times, but this chapter describes a process that demanded both free musical invention and a means of fitting the music produced into the confines of a film soundtrack. The main focus of this chapter is to investigate how Free Jazz still needed the role of a musical director, or more accurately, a musical "editor", to provide structure to the changing music behind the scenes within the film. This chapter describes the roles undertaken by a group of mainly jazz-orientated musicians, as well as by musicians from other musical backgrounds, who acted as an ensemble to create a soundtrack that worked within the confines of Indonesian puppetry on screen. The experience enabled the musicians to freely explore their instruments' capabilities, often by using new technologies and extended ranges.