This article argues that an approach to jazz improvisation pedagogy based on negative dialectics may provide a viable solution to the threat of codification of the jazz language as a result of the academisation of improvisation studies at the post-secondary level. Some tentative means of incorporating such an approach into the design of university improvisation courses are also suggested. Building on an Adornian framework, the author argues that key to developing a (negative) dialectical approach to improvisation pedagogy is the understanding that the practice of jazz improvisation, at its best, reflects a critical stance that is in opposition to, yet, informed by the more commodified "piece" of jazz music. In essence, the problem of balancing discipline and freedom in improvisation pedagogy is best approached if improvisation is understood as a continual act of criticism in reaction to its own inevitable commodification. (Contains 1 note.)