<p> What does the current focus on identity as a medium of social exchange bring into the practice of improvised music? What happens to listening, spontaneity, empathy, freedom and generosity in this social climate? Is there somehow emerging within the music-improvisatory discourse a kind of de facto constraint, perhaps superimposed on the musical language from the larger cultural field? The frameworks of music sociology, object relations theory, political philosophy, pedagogy, music history and art criticism offer a backdrop against which the complex challenges of interpersonal communication can be seen in their relevance to the here and now of music improvisation.</p>