---
title: "Jazz Generated by a Neural Network Is Absolutely Terrifying"
description: "A pair of musicians-turned-programmers used a John Coltrane record to train a neural network, and the result is provocative."
date: "2019-07-19"
modified: "2019-07-19"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/jazz-generated-neural-network-terrifying"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "dadabots"
  - "jazz"
  - "neural network"
  - "the digest"
---

# Jazz Generated by a Neural Network Is Absolutely Terrifying

![A pair of musicians-turned-programmers used a John Coltrane record to train a neural network, and the result is provocative.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/jazz-generated-by-a-neural-network-is-absolutely-terrifying.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Social Butterfly via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Free Jazz

A pair of musicians-turned-programmers used a John Coltrane record to train a neural network.

The result is a provocative glimpse of what it sounds like when an algorithm deconstructs a piece of human art **—** and reassembles it into something a human would never create.

## Really Experimental

The music the algorithm produces, which is [streamed live](<https://youtu.be/k8f6HyKPt4k>) 24 hours a day, is uncanny.

For a few minutes, it'll produce plausible-sounding free jazz. Then the drums will segue into an inhuman trill, or the horns will disintegrate into a cacophonous wash of sound.

Let's just say that it's not your dad's jazz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8f6HyKPt4k

## Dadabots

Dadabots, which is a collaboration between coders CJ Carr and Zack Zukowski, has done other experiments with AI-generated music.

In 2017, they generated an [entire black metal album](<https://theoutline.com/post/2556/this-frostbitten-black-metal-album-was-created-by-an-artificial-intelligence?zd=1&zi=axctyg5e>) using AI. Earlier this year, they [created an algorithm](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/brutal-death-metal-neural-network>) that streams AI-generated death metal. They've also experimented in genres ranging from ['60s pop](<https://dadabots.bandcamp.com/album/deep-the-beatles>) to [punk rock](<https://theoutline.com/post/3567/this-skate-punk-album-was-created-by-artificial-inteliigence?zd=1&zi=u6o3xwfx>).

Here's what we can say for sure: it's unlike anything you've ever heard before.

**LISTEN MORE:** [OUTERHELIOS - Free Jazz - 24/7 Neural Network Livestream - NASA - Coltrane](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8f6HyKPt4k>) \[YouTube\]

**More on Dadabots:** [*Listen to Brutal Death Metal Made by a Neural Network*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/brutal-death-metal-neural-network>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)