Welcome to the August edition of the JEN Research Interest Group newsletter. Below please find a variety of news items, announcements, callouts, new publications, and job opportunities. Scheduling for the January 2024 conference in New Orleans will be announced soon, make sure to mark the calendars and reserve your hotel rooms - this one will be very special!. Research presentations and poster sessions will be Thursday of the conference and we’re planning on a JENRing meeting on Friday 11am to introduce the mentoring initiative and provide info on how to prepare articles for the journal. Volume 5 of JAZZ will be ready for distribution by the conference.
Here is an important journal update from the current editor Martin Norgaard:
Jazz Education in Research and Practice (JAZZ)
Moving to Rolling Submissions
We are excited to announce that our JEN research journal, Jazz Education in Research and Practice (JAZZ), will be transitioning to rolling submissions starting September 1, 2023. This change means you can submit articles any time. Submissions will be sent to reviewers within a week or so upon receipt and we hope to have the initial decision within 1-2 months (depending on the availability of reviewers with knowledge of the related area of research). This timeline is typical of academic journals. Depending on the number of revisions required and whether re-review is necessary, accepted article notifications will be sent out around 3-6 months after initial submission. Importantly, accepted articles can then be listed as “in press” on the author’s
CV and will typically count toward tenure and promotion at most universities. This change will result in the following other advantages: (1) authors will have more time to revise manuscripts based on reviewer’s comments, (2) more time available should a second round of edits be necessary, (3) reviewers and editors have more time to write in-depth comments, and (4) procedures for publication in JAZZ will be aligned with other similar academic journals. This new timeline is only possible now that a steady flow of manuscripts are being submitted to JAZZ and general standards for papers in each article category (Articles, Research studies, Case studies, Reflective essays, Literature reviews, Quick hits, and Book reviews) has been established within volumes 1-5. We should note that submission within a certain time frame will not guarantee publication in a particular volume. As each issue has a maximum page count, the number of accepted articles within particular
categories need to align with the general format of each volume. We still anticipate that volumes are published yearly with the new volume being available at the JEN conference in January.
As we’re gearing up for a new school year, many are also moving into new positions and to new locations. A fresh start is exciting and inspiring, but also an intense time of building new networks, new projects, and new surroundings. Best of luck to everyone preparing for a new school year. I’m excited to announce that I have now permanently accepted the position of Professor of Artistic Research and Dean of Music Education at the Jam Music Lab University in Vienna after a year of transitioning across continents. Please note my new email: monika.herzig@jammusiclab.com, as my Indiana contact will soon expire. However, our house and the family are still in Indiana, so I will be sharing my time between continents for the next few years. The Jam Music Lab University in the heart of Vienna is a new and worldwide unique university for music forms of the 20th century and especially of the present, moving from the interface between U- and E-music into the most diverse styles of popular music forms. In addition to the Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Music, Music Education, and Media Music a new 6-Semester degree in Arts Administration in the English language has just been accredited and is open for enrollment. Please share with any interested students and feel free to reach out for more info. We will also be launching the Journal for Artistic Research in Jazz over the next year, more info on that soon.
The monthly series of webinars will continue on September 8, with a JEN special event, our 15th Annual Conference Preview Webinar. Click here to register to attend this special presentation.
The goal of the presentations is to share the findings as well as ideas for practical implementations in the classroom and curricula. Please look for links and invitations to the webinars on the JEN website and Facebook page. They’ll be live streamed on Facebook, but those who register for the zoom webinar will be able to ask questions and interact with the panelists. All previous presentations
can be accessed here.
Please feel free to share this news compilation and invite colleagues to join the mailing list and/orFacebook page. Remember to check the updated job listingshere. If you have new books/ articles/ dissertations published, send me the info to be included in the newsletter. Also send over ideas on how JENRing can help you in your jazz research and networking. Items of interest related to
jazz research may also be shared on the Facebook page.
When Herbie Hancock moves his hands across a piano, the notes come and go the way sunlight sparkles on the ocean. Does that make his music pleasant or sublime? It feels like it can go either way in any given moment, and in Hancock’s mind, the moment is the fundamental thing we should all be trying to understand in the first place.
There’s a story he likes to tell about a night in Sweden with the Miles Davis Quintet — a transformative little incident that occurred more than 50 years ago, but in Hancock’s telling, might as well have happened last Wednesday. A history-making band is up on some Stockholm bandstand, entering that improvisational zone of holy activity where pushing, searching, building and solving all seem to be overlapping in the shape of reverie. Then, just as Davis is about to lift off into his solo, Hancock’s fingertips plant a sour chord. The pianist winces at his mistake. But Davis doesn’t blink. Instead, the bandleader adjusts his melody line to accommodate the flub, and in so doing, proves that wrongness is something that might only exist inside
our heads.
Good story, right? It tells us something useful about acceptance, and resourcefulness, and imagination, and how tapping into all three of those things at once can help us answer the relentless demands of an eternal now. For years, Hancock has repeated the anecdote as a lens through which to understand the improvisational energies that animate his whole deal — he opened (and closed) his 2014 memoir, “Possibilities,” with it. But there’s another passage in the book that might get even closer to the breadth of his essence. “Improvising is like opening a wonderful
box where everything you take out is always new,” Hancock writes. “You’ll never get bored, because what that box contains is different every single time.”
Quick, what do Andy Warhol, Peter Max and Romare Bearden all have in common? Our headline gives away the answer, of course, because, yes, all of them did the artwork for jazz album covers. Remarkably, Warhol’s jazz cover was for an Artie Shaw album, but maybe it’s not so odd given that they were both pop idols in their time. Warhol went on to do the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, but we won’t go there.
The tradition of interesting and creative jazz album covers goes all the way back to the early days of vinyl with artists, illustrators and designers like Jim Flora and Alex Steinweiss contributing unique artwork to adorn 78s and LPs in the ‘40s. Over the years, many jazz labels and its designers cultivated a particular look for their albums, whether it be Reid Miles’ cool graphics and typography for Blue Note in the ‘50s, photographer Lee Friedlander’s distinctive portraits for Atlantic in the ‘60s, the color images of Pete Turner for CTI in the ‘70s or the stark design aesthetic of Barbara Wojirsch for ECM for much of the last five decades.
The CD era that began in the late ‘80s dramatically shrunk the canvas for cover artwork but nonetheless designers persevered to create distinctive graphics for the 5” X 5” format, though the tactile aesthetic of the gatefold cover had disappeared. Now with streaming and downloads all but eliminating the need for cover graphics, we can look back and relish not only what we had, but also what we, as modern era vinyl hunters, still may find at yard sales, thrift shops and used record stores.
In picking the selections for this edition of Our Top Ten, besides only looking at albums that were originally released on vinyl, we also endeavored to choose albums that were special inside the sleeves, so that the result is an iconic image representing a timeless and important sound. These aren’t just great looking jazz albums. They’re all great jazz albums.
Nina Simone fans have a reason for feeling good: A previously unreleased recording of the legendary artist’s set at the Newport Jazz Festival in July 1966 is being released.
Verve Records and UMe on Friday are issuing “You’ve Got to Learn,” a six-song set that includes a different take on Simone’s celebrated protest song “Mississippi Goddam.”
The songs also include “You’ve Got to Learn, ”‘I Loves You, Porgy,” “Blues For Mama,” “Be My Husband” and ”Music for Lovers.” Simone, who also plays piano, is joined by guitar, bass and drums.
There are sound issues throughout — as they are sorted out before the final song, the encore “Music for Lovers,” she screams “Shut Up! “Shut Up!” to a heckler — but Simone’s power and mastery are clearly potent.
“Her performance is not fiery so much as passionate, not critical so much as coaxing,” writes Simone scholar Shana L. Redmond in the liner notes. “These are love songs and each captured something of the careful combination of intimacy and immediacy on stage for which Simone was known.”
“Mississippi Goddam,” was written by Simone in response to the 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four little girls and the assassination of Medgar Evers in Mississippi that same year. The version Simone sung that day swings differently than earlier versions, less hectoring and includes the line “Watts has made me lose my rest,” a reference to the riots in Los Angeles on Aug. 11, 1965.
This year marks Simone’s 90th birthday. The so-called “High Priestess of Soul” and a civil rights icon recorded nearly 40 albums between 1958 and 1973, with such cherished songs as “I Put a Spell on You,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” and “Feeling Good.” She died in 2003.
Tony Bennett, a singer whose melodic clarity, jazz-influenced phrasing, audience-embracing persona and warm, deceptively simple interpretations of musical standards helped spread the American songbook around the world and won him generations of fans, died on Friday at his home of many decades in Manhattan. He was 96.
His publicist, Sylvia Weiner, announced his death.
Mr. Bennett learned he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, his wife, Susan Benedetto, told AARP The Magazine in February 2021. But he continued to perform and record despite his illness; his last public performance was in August 2021, when he appeared with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in a show titled “One Last Time.”
Mr. Bennett’s career of more than 70 years was remarkable not only for its longevity, but also for its consistency. In hundreds of concerts and club dates and more than 150 recordings, he devoted himself to preserving the classic American popular song, as written by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others.
The 6-semester bachelor's program "Arts Management" at JMLU is a new, innovative program based in Vienna that focuses on Arts Management in its many forms of application in the fields of Music, Performing Arts and Fine Arts.
Innovative Arts Management
The program is designed for individuals interested in creative, innovative and sustainable cultural and arts management. Graduates are able to master complex challenges of the global cultural business, including economical, legal and cultural-scientific aspects, and to sustainably develop the market through profound interdisciplinary knowledge. This interdisciplinary orientation of the program enables students to deepen their knowledge of various aspects of cultural management and to combine them with other fields of
study.
Practical Training
The program provides substantial expertise in the relevant sectors of cultural management and cultural topics. With a focus on close practical links through compulsory internships, excursions as well as a central study subject with practical relevance, students are involved in practice-oriented fields of operations from the very beginning. Through international guest lecturers and cooperations, the program is connected to leading cultural institutions worldwide and promotes one of the most important goals of the JMLU:
employability.
Research & Artistic Research
Students develop artistic-scientific qualifications that enable them to reflect on the latest developments in the theoretical study of art and to act on them accordingly. Thus, in addition to artistic research, the focus is also on the development and exploration of innovative cultural management concepts.
Course Structure and Modules
The program has a standard duration of 6 semesters. Courses and examinations totaling 180 ECTS points must be completed, which are divided into the following compulsory modules:
Module 1: Arts Management Practises Module 2: Cultural Fundamentals and Aesthetics Module 3: Business and Law Module 4: Applied Arts Management Module 5: Communication Module 6: Field Excursions Module 7: Development and Research Module 8: Softskills and Diversity Module 9: Examinations
The Musicological Society of Australia is committed to advancing academic and public understanding and appreciation of music, an activity and resource that is fundamental to the wellbeing of individuals and communities and reaches into all areas of life. Accordingly, for the 2023 National Conference musicians of all kinds are invited to reflect on their musical practice, and researchers from all fields of study invited to share their research into any aspect of music.
We encourage contributions from musicologists, composers, performers, music theorists, music broadcasters, music critics and anyone else with an informed interest in the creation, practice, theory, reception, and appreciation of music. We also encourage presentation of music-related research in other fields including education, sociology, literature, history, art, film, games, psychology, medicine, Indigenous studies, anthropology, and religion.
Proposals of up to 250 words for 20 minute presentations, or pre-formed panels of 90 minutes (including discussion), should be submitted by 30 June 2023 to msaconference2023adelaide@gmail.com
All presenters must be current financial members of the MSA at the time of registering for the conference.
The MSA will provide travel grants to assist student delegates to attend, and will welcome applications once the program committee has sent out approvals. Travel assistance and at least one full bursary will also be available for Indigenous presenters.
Multiple cash prizes will be awarded for the best paper presentations by postgraduate delegates; a separate cash prize will be awarded for best presentation at the Indigenous symposium.
PEERS is a pre-PhD programme of the Department for the Performing Arts and Film at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Its aim is to support emerging artistic researchers who are interested in pursuing a doctorate in the arts, foremost yet not exclusively in the performing arts and film.
For a period of one year, starting in March 2024, participants will be offered the opportunity to benefit from an intensive mentoring and training programme. They will benefit from peer-to-peer learning in the Junior Research Group and will receive tailored support aimed at advancing their research. PEERS fellows will be assisted in developing their research plan, as well as in searching and applying for artistic PhD programmes at ZHdK and beyond. They will become part of the vibrant research environment at ZHdK (benefiting from lab-practices, colloquia, symposia, research academies), and will gain access to the University’s outstanding infrastructure and relevant professional networks.
Programme activities:
— Mentoring: PEERS participants will be mentored by two to three experts from a pool of mentors, either at ZHdK or at international partner universities. Every participant will receive 44 mentoring hours during the year. Since we are constantly expanding our network, it is also possible to propose a mentor beyond our pool.
— Workshops & training: The programme starts with a kick-off retreat, followed by four intensive workshops and classes dedicated to ways of knowing in artistic research, writing a research proposal, application strategies for PhD programmes, and presentation skills, as well as a summer residency (25 days in total).
— Junior Research Group (JRG): The JRG for PhD and PEERS candidates at the department offers innovative collaboration formats and ongoing peer-to-peer-learning, creating an inspiring transdisciplinary research environment.
— International exchange: The PEERS programme collaborates with 3rd Cycle programmes at Amsterdam University of the Arts and UdK Berlin, as well as with partner institutions of the PhD Programme.
— Individual development: Every participant will be awarded an individual budget up to CHF 3’000 (to cover travel expenses for conferences/festivals, career development, material costs etc). In addition, the travel costs to Switzerland and accommodiation for the relevant workshops and events within the PEERS programme will be subsidized. The programme also provides access to ZHdK’s infrastructure (desks, studios, labs, IT and technical equipment, libraries, internal further education, support by the ZHdK Grants Office and the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film, IPF).
How to apply:
We are looking for up to five mid-career artists with profound artistic practice in theatre, dance, performance or film. Candidates must hold an MA or an equivalent degree. They will be expected to develop research and have a viable research plan.
In order to apply, please submit:
— CV (max. 4 A4 pages, min. font size 10).
— an artistic portfolio containing up to 3 samples of artistic practice (link to a website or vimeo, etc.) providing evidence of at least 5 years of professional artistic practice.
— Motivation letter (max. 2 A4 pages, min. font size 10).
— A short video statement (VIMEO, 1 minute) or sound fragment (1 minute) that responds to the following question: Why do you want to pursue a PhD?
— If it is not possible for you to create a video for reasons of accessibility, please integrate the question into your motivation letter.
— A short project description or research interest which could be further developed into a PhD project (max. 2 A4 pages, min. font size 10)
. — Copy of MA degree certificate (or equivalent).
Each year, we present a commissioning competition for individuals who compose symphonic jazz.
Our Music Advisory Board determines the winner, who is then commissioned to write a new orchestral score. This newly commissioned work is premiered by the 68-piece Symphonic Jazz Orchestra in concert and is entered into the organization’s catalog of symphonic jazz commissions.
GUIDELINES
PRIZE: $5,000 commissioning prize to compose a new work for the 68-member Symphonic Jazz Orchestra (“SJO”). Length is to be determined, no longer than 10 minutes and typically 8-10 minutes.
PURPOSE: To commission new orchestral work for the SJO, blending the worlds of jazz & classical music – and beyond.
The newly commissioned work will be premiered by the SJO in Los Angeles in 2024 or 2025, and entered into the SJO’s catalog of symphonic jazz commissions. The winner is not required to travel to Los Angeles, and a travel stipend is not available.
Created in 2002, the 68-member SJO is dedicated to blending the worlds of jazz and classical music through its commissioning, performing and educational programs. Led by Music Director, Mitch Glickman, the ensemble has performed throughout Southern California with such leading guest artists as Keyon Harrold, Dave Grusin, Christian McBride, Raul Midon, Lee Ritenour, Ernie Watts, The Yellowjackets, Miguel Zenon, and our former Co-Music Director George Duke.
The composer agrees to assign the rental administration of commissioned work (the “Composition”) to Symphonic Jazz Orchestra Music (the “Administrator”), the publishing designee of the SJO. Administrator will print all orchestra parts and scores. The composer will retain the copyright of the commissioned work, and publishing and sales rights are shared with the SJO.
Representative score of ONE original instrumental work written since 2013. Ideally, this work is scored for full orchestra, chamber orchestra, or large ensemble that integrates elements of jazz or other related genres. Please include your name and the name of the piece. Please attach into the entry form in PDF format.
The Music Advisory Board will listen to up to 5 minutes of the composition. If you would like the MAB to listen to a portion not starting from the beginning, please specify so.
Recording of the work or an electronic realization (optional). Please attach an MP3 audio file.
Composer biography as well as a list of compositions.
Email info@sjomusic.org with any questions!
JUDGES: Members of the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra’s Music Advisory Board
ADMINISTRATION RIGHTS: Administrator shall have the exclusive rights to include the Composition into its catalog of commissioned works and to rent print versions of the Composition to other ensembles.
The eighth Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Encounters, will take place at the Institute for Jazz Research (University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria) from 3 to 6 April 2024. This conference is organised in conjunction with the fourteenth International Jazz Research Conference.
Keynote: Maite Hontelé (trumpet player, the Netherlands)
Closing address: Stephanie Vos (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)
We invite submissions for Jazz Encounters, a four-day multidisciplinary conference bringing together researchers, writers, musicians, critics, and others interested in jazz studies. The event will feature academic papers and panels.
Jazz is a music born of encounter. Jazz encounters are dynamic; they create synergies and frictions and have the power to reconfigure social and political spheres. To understand these encounters is to understand ongoing processes of identity-making and the history and meaning of jazz in the world. Jazz encounters have arisen from and are influenced by myriad factors, including histories and legacies of enslavement, cultural and creative exchanges, ideological contestation, technological change, new modes of communication, economic development, trade, war, occupation, and political consolidation. These processes of encounter and migration – of people, ideas, goods, and objects – shape understandings of the music and its impact on society, from the
influence on the lives of individuals to the ideology of societal institutions.
We welcome papers addressing the conference theme from multiple perspectives, including cultural studies, musicology, cultural theory, music analysis, jazz history, media studies, and practice-based research. We particularly welcome contributors who identify as women or gender diverse and from other under-represented groups and communities within jazz studies and academia more generally. Within the general theme of Jazz Encounters, we have identified several sub-themes. Where relevant, please clearly specify which sub-theme you are referring to in your proposal.
Gendered Encounters
Gender has shaped every aspect of jazz, from social interactions between practitioners to how different gendered experiences affect and reproduce understandings of and participation in jazz cultures. This strand aims to challenge established gender narratives in jazz by deconstructing exclusionary, binary, cis-normative, and male-dominated models of practice and interaction. We invite papers investigating social inclusion, diversity, and gender roles in various aesthetic, performative, social and political contexts, including the role of gatekeepers and the relevance of intersectional power relations across multiple career stages. We furthermore welcome investigations that propose new paradigms for evaluating musical experiences. This strand was
developed in collaboration with the Centre for Gender Studies and Diversity, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
Jazz in Times of Crisis
Jazz has often been created and experienced amid a sense of crisis, be it personal, organisational, economic, social, or political. Whilst crises can cause anxiety and distress, they can also serve as catalysts for change, resulting in creative actions, innovations, and reflections on existing practices. Equally, jazz has often been described as a music in crisis, generating hyperbolic writings that highlight an existential threat to the art form or the precarity of the music as a cultural practice. Within this strand, topics could include reflections on jazz in crisis, its relationship to war, the climate emergency, post-pandemic responses, economic crises, forced migration, and political extremism.
Well-being
The relationship between jazz practices and their impact (both negative and positive) on well-being is rarely discussed, and yet, such explorations are needed now more than ever. Particularly since claims of jazz’s societal value and transformative potential are often made without evidence, and the mental and physical health of those involved in jazz is rarely considered. We are interested in evidence-based interventions that help gain a deeper understanding of jazz and well-being to better support the music in the future and to make improvements that are sustainable for different groups. Subjects for consideration may include jazz and mental health, disability, ageing, social inequalities, environmental challenges, working conditions, economic
welfare, and work-life balance.
Digital Encounters
Digital technologies give rise to powerful new forms of communication and new ways of acquiring knowledge and distributing information. They transform cultural values and identities by enabling novel types of connectedness and amplifying social divisions and differences. Jazz has embraced and arguably sometimes resisted the transformative potential of the digital. This strand aims to help us consider how digital technologies have brought about social and cultural changes in jazz and how those changes have been influenced by society and culture. We are particularly interested in discussions of VR, XR, and AI and their impact on jazz cultures and practices, alongside broader discussions of the digital revolution in music, from recording technologies to
live performance to social media.
People and Places
There are strong links between music, senses of place, and people’s social and cultural identities, including race, ethnicity, class, and gender. From the evocative symbolism of Ellington’s ‘Harlem’ to the images of the post-industrial landscapes invoked by DJ Spooky, jazz has played an important role in the narrativisation of place. It has been central to how individuals and groups have defined their relationship to local, everyday contexts, as well as disrupting or even erasing those connections and challenging assumptions about homelands and origins. In this strand, we invite papers that map the relationship between music, place, and people, whether past, present, or future. We welcome discussions of scenes, communities, and networks from
the perspective of placemaking, and belonging, memorialisation, and the imaginary.
Further information
Please submit your proposal (max. 250 words), including a short biography (max. 50 words) and institutional affiliation, as a Word document to Christa Bruckner-Haring (Conference director): rhythmchanges@kug.ac.at.
The deadline for proposals is 15 September 2023; we will communicate outcomes to authors by mid-October 2023. The conference committee comprises Christa Bruckner-Haring, Christa Brüstle, André Doehring, Nicholas Gebhardt, George McKay, Sarah Raine, Loes Rusch, Walter van de Leur, and Tony Whyton.
Jazz Encounters is hosted by the Institute for Jazz Research and the Center for Gender Studies and Diversity at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in cooperation with the International Society for Jazz Research. It continues to build on the legacy of the research project Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities (2010–2013), funded as part of the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Joint Research Programme. In the spirit of Rhythm Changes, the project team continues to develop networking opportunities and champion
collaborative research in transnational jazz studies.
On 10 and 11 November in Graz, Austria, the conference 'Aesthetics in Jazz in the 21st Century' takes place in the Palais Meran of the University of Music and Performing Arts.
Seven speakers and a keynote speaker, present their views on how in this century, opinions, visions, judgements, and aesthetic choices are made by musicians, audiences, and the decision makers in jazz.
You are invited to attend the conference. Please fill out the 'participation form' on the website of the conference. In this form, you can propose to present a paper as well:
Detailed information on the six strands, the six main topics of the conference can be found in the 'call for papers':
The conference is a result of the collaboration between the Institute of Aesthetics in Music, the Institute for Jazz Research, and the IASJ. Andreas Dorschel, André Doehring, Kurt Ellenberger, Ed Paryka and Wouter Turkenburg are the organizers. You can read more about their collaboration on the homepage of the website of the conference.
A conference with an extraordinary name, and with an extraordinary content, asks for an extraordinary keynote speaker. 'Follow your bliss to the crossroads' is the title of the speech to be held by Jack Hues.
Jack Hues is the lead singer, guitarist, and composer of the iconic band Wang Chung, whose string of hits including Dance Hall Days and Everybody Have Fun Tonight made them one of the most successful bands of the 1980s.
Hues studied music at Goldsmiths College and at the Royal College of Music in London. His writing throughout his career demonstrates wide-ranging interests in jazz and classical music, literature, and philosophy.
Strand 1: Aesthetics and Politics In this politically charged post-BLM world, we seek papers and presentations that discuss the aesthetics of jazz in its current form since the beginning of the 21C, as well as its role as a political and an artistic force.
Is jazz a specific genre? Or is jazz an “approach to music” which is supported by the myriad stylistic variations and cultural influences? In the past, the “jazz is dead” theory has popped up many times, always signifying that a new period in jazz has started. Where is jazz standing today in the 21C?
Strand 2: The Self-Esteem and Identity of the Jazz Musician How do jazz musicians balance their careers? How much is sacrificed to play the music the jazz musician really likes? After their university studies, jazz students, perhaps more than students in other genres, are active in the music business as a primary source of income. However, a certain percentage gives up jazz and sometimes music altogether. Others devote more time than desired to a “day job” which finances their ability to play jazz, often sporadically. How do jazz musicians consider and evaluate the decisions they have to make?
Strand 3: The New Historiography of Jazz The succession of styles and aesthetics in jazz, one after another in every decade, as described in many history books, can no longer be maintained. From the 1980s on, a polyphony of “narratives” started to appear. In one narrative, the African American roots of dominate. Other narratives underline the global nature of jazz. In certain narratives, cultural claiming takes place, in others cultural appropriation. How does one detect and avoid biases in writing and thinking about jazz in the 21C?
Strand 4: The Power of Jazz in the Cultural Landscape Jazz has climbed the ladder from simple music used for entertainment in obscure venues to highly esteemed art music. In the 21C, the massive jazz summer festivals have taken over the leading festivals of classical music in their success and popularity. Jazz was and is, therefore, influencing other forms of art. What is this innate aesthetic power of jazz to undergo metamorphoses all the time and to be a dialectic with other art forms? How are these attributes of jazz currently working and what aesthetic and creative outcomes might be expected?
Strand 5: Media Aesthetics in 21C Jazz Every style of jazz in the past was mediated in a specific mix of media. The jazz artist in the 21C has an abundance of media to choose from: vinyl, CDs, streaming platforms, newsletters, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, a website, a blog and more. How should musicians utilize these communication options effectively? How should musicians market themselves in such a way that fits appropriately and efficaciously with the content of the jazz played? Is there a way of using the various media intelligently that will reinforce each other?
Strand 6: Open Strand Any type of research that is more or less linked with the keywords of the conference: aesthetics, philosophy, applied jazz research, artistic research, practice-based research, jazz education, jazz performance.
CALL FOR PAPERS
To submit a paper, please fill out the participation form, tick '0 Yes, I would like to submit a paper'. Write your paper (300 words) and short bio (100 words), copy them, and paste them in the designated window.
Next year’s iteration of Belfast’s Sonorities Festival is currently holding six open calls. You are invited to submit proposals for early music, handmade music (this one really emphasizes improv), listening rooms, exhibitions and installations, sound walks, and talks as part of a symposium on human-computer improvisation.
Sonorities has been operating as a biennial festival of sound and music in Belfast since 1981, and plays host to musicians, composers, sound artists, and listeners from around the world, and sounds like a great time.
Each of these calls has a thematic component—the early music call, for example, is focused on 10 to 30-minute sets of pre-1800 music that represent “risk” in some way (details available in the call). There’s a range of interesting-sounding prompts across the different calls, so take a look and see how your stuff might fit in! Submission guidelines vary, so make sure you pay close attention to the particulars of each call.
As part of the Grainger Museum at the University of Melbourne’s new research programme, this symposium explores the theme of music history, composition, and performance in the context of innovation, exploration and engagement with of new media and new technologies. It takes a broad definition of both music and new media, allowing historical consideration of those genres and technologies dominant during the lifetime of Percy Grainger (1882–1961)—the composer, inventor, and musical innovator who founded the museum—and current digital media responses to music research and material in music museums and archives. Grainger was keenly aware of and interested in the possibilities of new media, particularly those that made music accessible to a wide and
varied audience. Through the first half of the twentieth-century, Grainger made use of recording and reproducing technologies to disseminate his own music and the music of others, made field recordings of folk song on phonograph, broadcast music and lectures, was fascinated by Hollywood and film music, and engaged with electronic music, developing his experimental free music machines.
Date: 8 December 2023
Delivery method: Hybrid: in person at the Grainger Museum and online
The symposium themes include, but are not limited to, Grainger and his contemporaries’ engagement with new media and technology ranging from
Broadcasting
Recorded sound
Piano rolls and pianola technology
Interventions in folk song recording
Experimental and electronic instruments
Film and film music
We will also consider proposals relating to present-day engagement with new technologies in the context of music archives, including the Grainger Museum and Collection, and other archives that preserve music, sound, and cultural history of the twentieth century.
Presentation formats include formal conference papers and lecture recitals/demonstrations of 20 minutes + 10 minutes for questions and discussion.Contributions from under-represented communities, research students, and independent scholars and artists are particularly welcomed.
Proposals should include the following: paper title, abstract of no more than 250 words, name of the presenter, a short biography (up to 100 words), and institutional affiliation if applicable.
Proposals should be submitted by 15 September 2023 to grainger@unimelb.edu.au. Please use ‘Symposium Proposal’ as the subject line of your email.
The School of Music at the Australian National University hosts a three-day conference exploring new and future directions in jazz research, collaboration, education, and performance praxis. With the theme Jazz Futures, we highlight three key themes relevant for examining present and potential transformations within jazz worlds in the twenty first century:
1. Intercultural Jazz: Jazz Fissures and Fusions;
2. Reimaging the Jazz Artist;
3. Jazz in the Digital Age.
Dates: March 13-15, 2024
Location: ANU School of Music
ANU College of Arts & Sciences / The Australian National University
Building 100, William Herbert Place / Canberra ACT 2601, Australia
Keynote: Dr. Yoko Suzuki, Associate Professor of Jazz Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Featured Concert Performers/Workshops: Caitlin Magee’s Zy the Way: Chinese and Australian group reworking ancient Chinese poetry into jazz performance contexts
Jess Green’s Psychomotor (jazz/pop fusion group based in Canberra and Sydney)
Conference Themes
1. Intercultural Jazz: Jazz Fissures and Fusions
The first prioritizes alternative and under-examined ways of recognising how jazz has remained vital through its connection to musical styles considered periphery or adjacent to its now standardised twentieth century repertoire and performance praxis. Here, we open up possibilities within jazz for expanded intercultural collaborations and embrace various styles of music from popular musics to traditional, folk, and classical musics from around the world which engage in some way in the jazz aesthetic. Here we welcome presentations on intercultural jazz explorations from the Global South or from groups under-recognized in the Global North.
2. Reimaging the Jazz Artist
A second prominent theme of the conference highlights alternative ways of imagining the jazz artist beyond twentieth century conceptions, such as through reflections of how one’s perceived identity impacts reception and career trajectories in the jazz world. In this sense, we seek to interrogate in what ways particular performers, by virtue of their race, cultural background, (dis)ability, gender, or sexual orientation, have been variously excluded or ‘othered’ in relation to performance expectations of the prototypical jazz artist. Understanding the continued role that intersecting categories play in jazz’s presentation, curation, canonization, and historicization remains paramount. Conversely, acknowledging how particular identities have
always figured as adjacent to jazz with its prototypical or normative ‘jazz masculinity’ remains equally necessary. This theme offers ways of interrogating not only the jazz artist but new ways of imaging this figure, aided by new forms of jazz mentoring, media representations, and educational curricula etc. as avenues for reimaging this role in ways more inclusive and equitable.
3. Jazz in the Digital Age
A final and inter-related theme embraces the incorporation of new media and production, recording, and dissemination practices leading to jazz’s continued vitality and renewal in the digital and post-digital era. Here we examine how such practices have engendered new pathways for jazz creativity for a wider range of performers and through new practices and networks. We also challenge the notion that new media and modern technical platforms always necessarily open up opportunities for more democratic or inclusive jazz participation. Given recent debates, we explore how some media may have created new obstacles for women and girls and for other under-represented cultural groups.
Call for Papers:
We seek conference papers 20 minutes in length as well as workshops, panel discussions, and masterclasses on the conference’s three themes, but we will consider topics related to the broader theme of jazz futures. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to Kristin.McGee@anu.edu.au by September 15, 2024.
Theme: Women, Gender and Sexuality in Jazz and Contemporary/Popular Music Performance
Start date: Feb. 2024
The ANU School of Music announces two PhD positions dedicated to the study of women in jazz, or to gender (including gender expansive) and sexuality dynamics in jazz, whereby jazz may be understood as part of other musical styles including contemporary and popular music. The successful applicant will receive annual stipend (35,000 Australian dollars) for 3.5 years to pursue a well-designed research project which highlights the role of either women and women-identifying agents in jazz and which frames this topic within broader contexts connected to gender and sexuality dynamics within jazz+ performance fields.
Related contexts and themes might include (but are not confined to these):
- Jazz and intersectionality
- Women in intercultural jazz/jazz from the Global South
- The performing body within jazz and contemporary/popular music
- Gender and sexuality in jazz performance contexts
- Under-researched women in jazz (past and present)
- The role of the voice in jazz performance
- Performing strategies of women in jazz
- Women in Australian jazz or jazz/contemporary music contexts
- Gender and sexuality in jazz/contemporary/popular music media
- Institutional approaches towards gender and sexuality in jazz performance
- Gendered jazz roles (producers, composers, improvisers, instrumentalists, dancers, vocalists)
- Jazz pedagogy in relation to gender and sexuality
Evidence of ability to satisfactorily engage with theoretical matters and complete written research material. This could include papers submitted for prior degrees (essay, thesis etc) or published material including journal articles, reviews etc.
· The candidate must have a H1 Honours or equivalent to be considered
Expositions are imaginary objects. Even when they are made physically, for instance, on the computer when preparing a submission to JAR, they only work when the elements making up what is assembled come together in a particular form. On its own, each element may offer numerous points of entry and meanings, but in a specific, expositional constellation it supports an image, understanding or sense, even, that can be quite different to what each element on its own can offer. It seems that, generally, aesthetic objects have this kind of quality.
Issue 29 contains 6 peer-reviewed contributions:
Hilde Hovland Honerud and Jon Hovland Honerud, explore the possibilities of photography as a communicative medium in their exposition ‘Fractured Photography.’ Addressing the questions raised by images of ‘people in distress’ they approach such issues as media imagery and image fatigue, photography of ‘the other’, the privileged position of the photographer, significant encounters, and reciprocity. [https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1816714]
In her exposition ‘Building upon Ruins – Interweaving Metaphors,’ Joanna Magierecka presents interweaving as a compositional technique and dramaturgical strategy used in three installations. The installations, part of a series called Ruins, interweave different and diverging fragments, allowing audience members to create their own performance dramaturgy and create an understanding of others and their experience. In this process Magierecka considers the potential for creating shared, collective stories. [https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1154089]
In ‘On the Indeterminate Training Technologies of a Reconstructed Bauhaus Choreographer. A Research Practice Between Speculative Historiography, Architectural Invention and Performative Co-enactment’, Thomas Pearce proposes a method of artistic research that uses (and disobediently misuses) techniques of reconstruction as a mode of performative, artistic, and architectural invention. Describing a collaboration between performance artists and architectural researchers, the exposition reconstructs the works of fictional Bauhaus choreographer and gymnastics teacher Jakob Klenke (1874–1941).[https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1159573]
Adolfo Ruiz and Tony Rabesca’s ‘Story in motion: creative collaborations on Tłı̨chǫ lands’ describes a creative collaboration in the self-governed Tłı̨chǫ region of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Learning and exchanging knowledge with elders and youth from the region, the collaborators engaged with indigenous research methods and participatory experiences in a process by which regional oral history was visualised and translated into animation. [https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1311963]
Merja Ryöppy’s exposition, ‘Object theatre exercises unfolding human-object relations in participatory design processes,’ presents practical object theatre exercises and investigates how these exercises may enhance work withreadymade objects in participatory design projects. The exposition showcases three object theatre exercises which reveal the potential of physical object interaction, inviting unexpected perspectives on human-object relations, and exposing experienced object qualities. [https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.826938]
In ‘Sounding Belfast During Covid-19: Lockdown 1 and 2’ Georgios Varoutsos presents a sonic-journalistic enquiry into the effects of Government imposed lockdowns on urban space. Using material gathered in March and October 2020 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Varoutsos creates soundscape compositions distributed on online platforms such as soundmaps (soundwalk apps or browser maps). He explores how these works reveal new sonic relationships between natural and urbanised sounds in the built environment, while revising our understanding of the pandemic. [https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.1712696]
Keywords include:
Choreography, digital fabrication, distress, dramaturgy, historiography, indeterminacy, interweaving, oral history,participatory design, photography, readymade objects, soundwalking and urban space.
The third season of the podcast Jazz Backstory launched on Tuesday,
July 18, 2023. Produced and hosted by Monk Rowe, The Director of the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College, Jazz Backstory features the voices of jazz personalities culled from the 450 interviews gathered for the Archive since 1995. Topics covered in the eight episode season include In the Studios, The Arrangers, The Color of Jazz and Jazz International.
Jazz Backstory can be accessed at Apple Podcasts, Sound Cloud, rss.com and at the link above. Full video interviews can be viewed on the Fillius Jazz youtube channel.
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