This practice-based research paper is an enquiry into the music-making practice of a composer, performer and leader in a small jazz ensemble, to determine what processes, attitudes, and compositional, rehearsal and performance techniques and strategies create an efficacy in realising the score in performance. The intention was to unpack the suppositions and methods contained in the creative act of small jazz ensemble composition within, during and by way of artistic practice, involving the interrelationships between the composer's intention and the musicians' interpretation of a musical score. New musical material was composed to serve as frameworks and as a vehicle for scrutinizing the primary question: How do the processes involved in the composition, development, absorption, interpretation and transferral of musical material from the score to the performance contribute to the development of the artistic practice of a composer/player/leader in a small jazz ensemble? This doctoral study involved the writing, performing and recording of ten original compositions in a small jazz ensemble context. These compositions, influenced by 1960s post-bop and free jazz improvisers/composers such as Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, and John Coltrane, provided material for frameworks. Data informing the exegesis was collected from a reflective diary, reflexive observations, audio/video recordings of public and studio recordings, scores, responses to an open-ended questionnaire by participating musicians, and analyses from a participant/observer perspective. The results of this study will demonstrate how reflecting inward on method and outward (Bartleet, 2009, p. 4) on the perceptions, experience and knowledge of other practitioners, contributes to the development of practice. The creative process in the writing, rehearsal and performance of compositions is defined, explained and demonstrated in the development of artistic practice.