Welcome to the October 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 and applications for the Sisters in Jazz program are still open, 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.
The monthly series of webinars will continue on October 6 with Theresa Chen - Elaborating the Twelve-Bar Blues Form in Stride Piano Improvisation, and on the first Friday of every month featuring one of the authors published in JAZZ (Jazz Education in Research and Practice). 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.
Elaborating the 12-Bar Blues Form in Stride Piano Improvisation
with Theresa Chen
Friday, September 8 • 3pm ET
Zoom (Members) & Facebook Live (Non-members)
Join Dr. Theresa Chen, assistant professor of jazz studies (jazz piano) at Texas A&M University Kingsville for this special webinar! Stride is an early solo jazz piano style that was popular during the 1930s. It was influenced by ragtime music pioneered by Scott Joplin. This performance practice creates performing challenges by combining jazz improvisation and virtuosic piano techniques. This presentation provides approaches to learning to improvise stride blues in various aspects, from elaborating the four-bar tonic key to the entire blues form. The examples of different stride blues changes and harmonic embellishment offer a better understanding on the history of 12-bar blues and more possibilities for young players to experiment with
their creativity in improvisations.
Plus a Q & A with the live audience.
A presentation from the Jazz Education Research and Practice Journal, a publication of the Jazz Education Network.
A slight sense of disbelief attended the announcement that Ezra Collective’s Where I’m Meant to Be had been awarded the 2023 Mercury prize. You could hear it in the audience’s reaction – the cheer was underpinned by a sort of delighted gasp – and you could certainly see it in the band’s: they literally collapsed in a heap on the floor by their table. Their acceptance speech began with a thank you to God: “If a jazz band winning the Mercury prize doesn’t make you believe in God, nothing will.”
This September, audiences will at last possess a more dynamic, more elegant — and just plain improved — sense of how New York City’s jazz and classical scenes converged in the 1940s.
Was eight decades a galling length of time to have waited? Naturally. But better late than never.
The belated occasion is because of a pair of new recordings. Each one has located and dusted off a holy grail artifact, dating from an era when Black composers with sway in jazz circles dared to pursue hybrid musical styles, all while meeting various forms of resistance or disrespect. Their classical works were discussed as they premiered, yet were rarely programmed twice. Nor were they properly documented on recordings.
That last bit of the story is what’s changing, starting this week. One CD, out Friday from the Naxos label, brings the world premiere recording of “De Organizer”: a one-act opera on labor politics jointly conceived by the composer-pianist James P. Johnson and the Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes.
One week after that, the chamber orchestra version of Mary Lou Williams’s “Zodiac Suite” will enjoy its first-ever studio recording on the Mack Avenue label.
When news releases for both albums hit my inbox nearly simultaneously, toward the end of the summer, my mouth hung open. Both Johnson and Williams were era-defining composers and improvising pianists: Johnson was an exemplar of Harlem stride and the author of the “Charleston”; Williams matured as a composer and player in the crucible of Kansas City’s boogie-woogie style, before arranging for Ellington and tutoring lions of bebop in New York. Why shouldn’t we have access to their ambitious classical works?
In late August, Beyoncé shared a story on Instagram: She asked those attending upcoming Renaissance World Tour dates to come dressed in silver. It was her birthday wish. “We’ll surround ourselves in a shimmering human disco ball each night,” she wrote. “Everybody mirroring each other’s joy.” It was a rare request from a woman who, in the last 10 years, has pulled back almost entirely from media interactions, preferring to speak only through her art.
Three nights later, in Las Vegas, the town glimmered with anticipation. Everyone understood the assignment: Gleaming chrome thigh-high boots, glittering purses, shiny Telfar bags and rhinestone cowboy hats caught and bounced back the light from the stark desert sun, sending Morse signals to the rest of us who were in town for the same reason. There were strings of discarded rhinestones piled on slot machines, sequined bras abandoned in bathrooms and errant pieces left in the back seat of nearly every cab, Lyft and Uber I got into. In a city where there are dozens of large-scale events occurring simultaneously, the Beyoncé effect rolled through like an earthquake. Or maybe an eclipse.
Silver is the most powerful conductor on the planet; it moves electricity faster and more efficiently than any other material. On that night, tens of thousands of people draped in that lustrous color formed a circuit of pure energy. The stadium glowed. The human disco ball of Beyoncé’s dreams was also a renewable energy source. Charging up people. Charging up ideas. Charging up momentum. The stadium twinkled, each flash of silver a reminder of the constellation of moments that we move through, that sustain us. That even if they are few and far between, they are enough.
Renaissance, which kicked off in Stockholm in May, was Beyoncé’s first tour in nearly seven years, with 56 shows worldwide, tied to her 2022 album of the same name. In recent years, her musical projects have become more declarative of her personal values. “Homecoming” celebrated historically Black universities; “Lemonade” charted the arc of her husband’s infidelity into their redemption. (She is married to the rapper Shawn Carter, a.k.a. Jay-Z.) And now “Renaissance”: an ode to Black queer and trans history, told through a dreamscape of house music that could easily double as a soundtrack for a druggy Brooklyn sex party. Live, the production of “Renaissance” was maximalist, even operatic. Pyrotechnics punctuated beat drops, and
there were at least six outfit changes per show (with new looks each show), nearly two dozen dancers, a full band, acrobatics and a finale in which Beyoncé rides a crystal horse, deity-like, through a blizzard of silver confetti.
The sixth International Jazz Composers’ Symposium, co-sponsored by Vanderbilt University and the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC), will be held at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music in Nashville, TN from May 16-18, 2024. The Symposium is designed as a forum to bring jazz composers of all ages and nationalities together for an informal exchange of ideas, information, and inspiration. This year’s Symposium will include noted master artists in a series of concerts, lectures, master classes, panel discussions, research presentations, and industry sessions.
CALL FOR SCORES
Composers of all ages and nationalities are invited to submit scores and recordings for inclusion in one of several featured new music / master class sessions as well as consideration for ISJAC’s “SONIC” Awards. Works selected will be aired for listening by the open Symposium audience (along with projected score whenever possible) with each composer offering brief insights into his/her compositional concepts.
Applicants may submit only one work and must elect to submit in one of three categories:
First Takes
New Music Master Class Workshops
Student/Young Artist Master Class Workshops
First Takes (formerly New Music Presentations) is open to all; but has been renamed and redesigned to provide a setting for more accomplished composers to share their latest projects directly with the audience – including works that have yet to be released or are still in the production stage. Presenters are encouraged to share scores, recordings, or videos of their work while offering insights into their creative process & new conceptions. Feedback may be requested from those in the audience, but there will be no clinicians. While these works must have been composed within the last 3 years, they MAY have already been commercially released or published. Applicants to this category are NOT eligible for SONIC Award consideration.
New Music Master Class Workshops offer composer/arrangers the opportunity to share their new works with Symposium attendees while receiving constructive feedback from one or more of our featured master artists. To be eligible, all works must have been composed or originally arranged within the last three years and must NOT have been commercially published or released. Applicants to the New Music Workshops ARE automatically entered into consideration for the SONIC Awards and, therefore, must further select the category that best defines their submitted work.
Large ensemble,
Small ensemble (9 instruments/parts or less),
Arrangement (Large or small ensemble)
Student/Young Artist Master Class Workshops offer those applicants 26 years old or younger OR actively enrolled in a university program the opportunity to share their works with Symposium attendees while receiving constructive feedback from an accomplished team of jazz composers/educators. Students may submit works for either big band or combo with all submissions entered into consideration for student SONIC Award.
All composers/arrangers are asked to submit:
a completed application form (found on the ISJAC website),
a PDF of the score(s),
a MP3 recording (we STRONGLY recommend composers submit the very best recording possible)
a bio (no more than 100 words)
IMPORTANT!! Note: Scores and recordings should exclude any information that might identify the composer but must include title of work, instrumentation, and duration.
The institute is looking for doctoral researchers who are interested in joining a research cluster in one of the areas described below. This open call is intended for musicians with an outstanding artistic record, with strong research skills, and transdisciplinary interests. Doctoral researchers will become part of the core team of the respective research cluster
As a member of Orpheus Instituut you will:
be offered doctoral supervision from the relevant research cluster leader at Orpheus Instituut;
become an active participant in a research cluster;
benefit from assistance towards the dissemination of your work;
enjoy a stimulating interdisciplinary environment for research, study, and dialogue;
be encouraged to take initiative in (co-)organizing events, such as study days, seminars, lectures, concerts, and workshops;
be offered office space, access to the Orpheus Instituut’s library (including the prestigious Ton Koopman Collection) and other resources (performance spaces, recording facilities, keyboard instruments, electronic studio, etc.).
The applicant
is fluent in English (written and spoken);
has a Master degree, or equivalent experience;
deals with research questions which are answerable through artistic enquiry;
can demonstrate an advanced artistic practice.
Application process
Admission consists of two stages:
an initial conversation with the relevant cluster leader to establish how your research interests may align with those of the cluster and the institute; applicants will then prepare an application to the doctoral programme docARTES;
The Selection Committee welcomes applications that clearly address at least one of the key topics outlined below (research clusters).
Interested artist-researchers should email the respective cluster leader (see list below) with CV and statement of motivation (max. 400 words) in order to initiate a dialogue, as soon as possible and no later than October 15, 2023.
The deadline for the docARTES application is January 15, 2024. The programme itself will begin in September 2024.
The IAML Congress will take place at Stellenbosch University, South Africa from 23 until 28 June 2024.
Paper proposals are invited on subjects related to music in libraries, archives and documentation centres, including (but not limited to): collection management, professional development, music bibliography, cataloguing and classification, music encoding, MIR, digital humanities, AI, copyright, user and public engagement, musicological research, the impact of Covid-19, performance ephemera, and digital resources, as well as presentations of a more general nature addressing issues of professional concern to the music library community. Proposals that seek to encourage discussion and audience interaction are especially welcome.
As this will be the first IAML congress on the African continent, we strongly encourage proposals from individuals working on music in Africa within various disciplines and from a range of perspectives.
Paper presentations usually occupy a 30-minute timeframe and should not exceed 20-25 minutes in duration to allow time for questions and discussion. Panel proposals are also encouraged and should be submitted via this form.
The deadline for the submission of proposals is Saturday 1 December 2023 (midnight UTC).
The Congress is open to anyone with an interest in the field, regardless of IAML membership status. Submissions will be evaluated by the members of the IAML Forum of Sections. Proposals may be submitted in any of IAML's official languages: English, French, or German.
After successful submission a confirmation message should appear on the screen and you should also receive a confirmation email message.
Applicants will be notified of the results of the selection process by by Friday 12 January 2024.
The preliminary programme will be published in Feburary 2024.
The 13th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Music, Sound, Art and Design (EvoMUSART) 2024 is a multidisciplinary conference that brings together researchers who are working on the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques in creative and artistic fields.
There is a growing interest in the application of Artificial Neural Networks, Evolutionary Computation, Swarm Intelligence, Cellular Automata, Alife, and other Artificial Intelligence techniques in fields such as: visual art and music generation, analysis, and interpretation; sound synthesis; architecture; video; poetry; design; and other creative tasks. Therefore, the use of Artificial Intelligence in such creative domains became a significant and exciting area of research. EvoMUSART provides the opportunity to present, discuss and promote innovative contributions and ongoing work in the area.
Following the success of previous events and the importance of the field of Artificial Intelligence applied to music, sound, art and design, EvoMUSART has been an evo* conference with independent proceedings since 2012. The EvoMUSART proceedings have been published in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).
Conference Chairs
Colin Johnson University of Nottingham, United Kingdom Colin.Johnson(at)nottingham.ac.uk
Sérgio Rebelo University of Coimbra, Portugal srebelo(at)dei.uc.pt
Publication Chair
Iria Santos Universidade da Coruña, Spain iria.santos(at)udc.es
Areas of Interest and Contributions
Submissions should concern the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques (e.g. Evolutionary Computation, Artificial Neural Networks, Artificial Life, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Swarm Intelligence) in the generation, analysis and interpretation of art, music, design, architecture and other creative and artistic fields. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Generation
Systems that create drawings, images, animations, sculptures, poetry, text, designs, webpages, buildings, etc.;
Systems that create musical pieces, sounds, instruments, voices, sound effects, sound analysis, etc.;
Systems that create artefacts such as game content, architecture, furniture, based on aesthetic and functional criteria;
Robotic-based Evolutionary Art and Music;
Other related artificial intelligence or generative techniques in the fields of Computer Music, Computer Art, etc.
Automation
Techniques for automatic fitness assignment;
Systems in which an analysis or interpretation of the artworks is used in conjunction with artificial intelligence techniques to produce novel objects;
Systems that resort to artificial intelligence approaches to perform the analysis of image, music, sound, sculpture, or some other types of artistic object or resource.
Computer Aided Creativity and Computational Creativity
Systems in which artificial intelligence is used to promote the creativity of a human user;
New ways of integrating the user in the evolutionary cycle;
Analysis and evaluation of: the artistic potential of biologically inspired art and music; the artistic processes inherent to these approaches; the resulting artefacts;
Collaborative distributed artificial art environments;
Contextualisation of creative AI in cultural, economic, social, political or ecological discourse.
Surveys of the current state-of-the-art in the area; identification of weaknesses and strengths; comparative analysis and classification;
Validation methodologies;
Studies on the applicability of these techniques to related areas;
New models designed to promote the creative potential of biologically inspired computation.
Submission Details
Accepted papers will be presented orally or as posters at the event and included in the evo* proceedings, published by Springer Nature in a dedicated volume of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. Submissions will be rigorously reviewed for scientific and artistic merit. Submitters are strongly encouraged to provide in all papers a link for download of media demonstrating their results, whether music, images, video, or other media types. The reviewing process will be double-blind, so please omit information about the authors in the submitted paper and anonymise links for double-blind review.
The acceptance rate at EvoMUSART 2023 was 36% for papers accepted for long talks and 13% for short talks.
The Society for American Music invites proposals for (a) individual papers, (b) organized panels of 2–4 papers, (c) lecture-recitals, (d) alternative-format sessions, (e) scholarly posters, and (f) interest groups for its 50th Annual Conference in Detroit, Michigan to be held March 20-24, 2024. All proposals must be submitted via the SAM website by 11:59 pm PDT on June 1, 2023.
We welcome proposals involving all facets of musical life throughout the Americas and about American music and aspects of its cultures anywhere in the world.
To celebrate the musical heritage of the conference site, we solicit proposals that emphasize any aspect of music and musical cultures in Detroit and the surrounding region during any part of its history. Members are encouraged to submit proposals relating to, for example:
social justice, protest music, and the Black Lives Matter movement
indigeneity, racial capitalism, and equity
labor, industry, housing, and mobility
transnational interactions with Canada including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
local religious, artistic, and other institutions and their relationships with diverse communities
the local, regional, and global impact of Black music traditions including the blues, soul, jazz, R&B, gospel, techno, and hip hop
musical practices past and present, within African American, Arab American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities
other performers, musicians, and genres associated with Detroit, from art music, country, punk, noise, and electronic music to Aretha Franklin, J Dilla, Rodriguez, Madonna, and the artists of Motown
Additionally, to celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the Society for American Music, members are encouraged to submit proposals on such topics as the history of the society, the next fifty years of SAM and the future of Music Studies in/of the Americas.
The Conference Team and Board will be monitoring the situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and will notify the membership if this impacts our plans for the Detroit conference.
A. Individual Papers
Each presentation lasts twenty minutes, followed by ten minutes of discussion. Paper sessions will be assembled by the Program Committee after the selection of abstracts and may consist of two to four presentations. NB: The website submission process enables you to select whether you wish to have your submission considered as a paper, as a research poster (see E below), or as a presentation in either format.
B. Panels of Papers
Groups of two to four presenters may propose a panel consisting of two, three, or four presentations of 20 minutes each. Panels will be accepted or rejected in total; the Program Committee will not break up panels to accept individual papers. Please note that panels may include performance elements. Panels that include a performance element must include in the body of the individual performance/panel proposal a link to an online audio or video file that is representative of the proposed content, as well as a list of any special requirements (e.g., piano, music stand). The chair of the group panel is responsible for submitting:
A proposal for the panel as a whole.
Individual proposals for each presenter/performer on the panel. Chairs are advised to gather all necessary contact information from individual presenters before website submission (see "General Guidelines" below).
With Watching with my Ears, the Wuppertal artist Jorgo Schäfer presents the works he made over 20 years during the Vision Festival in New York. The Vision Festival is an annual world festival of free jazz (free improvised music, avant-garde jazz, etc.), in which other arts such as dance, poetry, spoken word and visual arts also play an important role.
“When the Wuppertal bassist Peter Kowald invited me to the Vision Festival in New York in the summer of 2000, I had no idea what cosmos I would enter. That should change in the next 20 years.
I was given the opportunity to place my work table directly in front of the stage in order to translate my impressions directly into free sketches.
The Vision Festival has had a lasting influence on my entire visual artistic work over the course of many years.” (Jorgo Schäfer)
“Jorgo hears and sees with his eyes and ears and takes risks himself when making the sheets. As soon as the last sound has faded away and the light in the hall is turned on again, the picture is finished and nothing more is added or painted over. The element of spontaneity is in the foreground – painting as improvisation.” (Stefan Altevogt)
Jorgo Schäfer's sketches and spontaneous graphics are collected in this volume.
This immersive new autobiography provides insight into the early life and illustrious career of the late great Ramsey Lewis, one of the most popular jazz pianists of all time.
Beginning with his childhood growing up in Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood, Ramsey Lewis recounts his memories of the music in his parents’ church and his early piano lessons. As he learned classical technique, Lewis also absorbed countless jazz records and heard gospel music weekly, finally becoming a performer himself in his teenage years. With his coauthor and collaborator, Aaron Cohen, Lewis describes his early steps in jazz from joining the Clefs in the ’50s, to eventually establishing the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
This memoir provides an evocative tour of Lewis’s life from the club circuit of the early 1960s and recording with Chess Records to working with producer Maurice White and musicians such as Stevie Wonder. In this deep dive into an exceptional life and expansive career, Lewis takes us through his artistic challenges, offers insight and perspective on his own musical growth and the creative process, and describes his eventual foray into symphonic composition and performance.
Gentleman of Jazz: A Life in Music is an inspiration to young musicians eager to follow in his footsteps and a tribute to the legacy of Ramsey Lewis and is sure to appeal to longtime fans as well as those new to the jazz scene.
This is the first biography to chronicle the life and career of one of the most distinguished and beloved musical artists to come out of Wisconsin: Al Jarreau. From his earliest days singing in the 1940s until his death in 2017, Jarreau defied categorization. While his biggest hit, “We’re In This Love Together,” is pure pop, he smashed music industry stereotypes as the first artist to win Grammy Awards in three genres: jazz, pop, and R&B.
Never Givin’ Up traces Jarreau’s singing career from humble beginnings in his hometown of Milwaukee to international fame. The narrative includes his formative student days at Ripon College and the University of Iowa, as well as the years spent honing his craft at nightspots in Milwaukee, San Francisco, and the Twin Cities. After he was signed by Warner Bros. Records in 1975 at the age of 35, Jarreau achieved stardom with his innovative vocal stylings and electric live performances.
This book includes more than 20 sidebars with bonus information about every Jarreau album and behind-thescenes stories about the making of the records. Author Kurt Dietrich conducted interviews with Al Jarreau, as well as dozens of his friends, fellow musicians, professional associates, and family members—most notably Al’s sister, Rose Marie Freeman, who was a major contributor to the project. Featuring 54 images spanning Jarreau’s life, from never-before-seen family snapshots to stills from his legendary stage performances, Never Givin’ Up celebrates a Milwaukee hometown hero and global sensation.
This group brings together news, opportunities, and resources for the jazz research community and functions as a communication tool for the Jazz Education Network Jazz Research Interest Group.
As a JEN member, you get the chance to connect with a global network of jazz advocates just like you.
With our growing list of membership benefits, being a JEN member is more than just an
affiliation. It is about being part of a community of jazz players, teachers, students, enthusiasts, industry and more, all dedicated to keeping the jazz arts thriving for generations to come.
WARNING: If you choose to unsubscribe, you will no longer receive any emails from JEN, including membership benefits & renewal information, and the announcement of events & programs.
