I have a soundfile somewhere around here of a recording of early-quartet black gospel, where the guys start out on an a capella piece, and then stop cuz they can hear that it's not going as they'd planned to do it. They start over, and from there on it sounds completely spontaneous. But GOOD. They knew what they were doing, whether they appeared to have used technical know-how or just inner senses of what fit. I'ts the old ear vs. dots thing-- best is often when they work in synergy.

~Susan