November News from the Jazz Education Network Research Interest Group

Only a few more weeks until the 2021 JEN Conference, streaming to the whole world. Registration is open at https://jazzednet.org/. This will be a unique gathering during four days of clinics, research, discussions, and performances by contemporary jazz leaders, specifically produced for the conference. Even the late night hangs will be available - virtually! Participation is possible from anywhere including networking with colleagues, presenters,and exhibitors. The research presentations will stream on Wednesday, January 6, including 20 poster presentations and panel discussions, with board members of the International Network for Artistic Research and Jazz (INAR) and a discussion on current research practices under the leadership of former editor of the Journal for Research in Music Education Harry Price. JEN membership will also include full access to the second issue of Jazz Education in Research and Practice (JAZZ) published in time for the conference. Here is the complete program, sign up for the conference, see you there, virtually!

This holiday season is different in so many ways as we struggle with the ongoing effects of the pandemic and political division. It’s difficult to stay positive and optimistic with social and economic obstacles. Some lemonade that I discovered among the lemons is the opportunity to connect and collaborate with friends and colleagues that are geographically removed. One of my classes will engage in an international research project on jazz festival audiences with a partner course in Austria throughout the Spring and my Fall classes enjoyed amazing guest presentations from international experts. Reach out and stay connected, find the lemonade - wishing everyone a healthy and meaningful holiday season!

Please feel free to share this news compilation and invite colleagues to join the mailing list and/or Facebook page. Remember to check the updated job listings here. 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.

Sincerely,

Monika Herzig

JEN Research Interest Group Committee Chair

Editor, JAZZ (Jazz Education in Research and Practice)

Camero's professional career encompassed the entire history of the development of Latin jazz in the US and Cuba. He was one of the first Cuban percussionists to arrive and perform in New York with US-based dance orchestras and jazz musicians in the late 1940s. His long and prolific career included collaborations with jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor, vocalist Tony Bennett , the Latin orchestras of Tito Puente and Machito, and also included a hit record during the disco era of the 1970s.

His pioneering accomplishments include being one of the first to play multiple conga drums during performances, tuning them specific notes so he could play melodies.

His career has been helped by an unwavering faith in his creative vision and bonds with influential figures that became pivotal to his development. He started out seven decades ago, playing the ukulele in his native Pittsburgh, home to a rich cornucopia of elite Black talent: Art Blakey, Lena Horne, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers. In a recent phone interview, he recalled how Eddie Jefferson, the pioneer of vocalese who wrote jazz standards like “Moody’s Mood for Love,” recognized his own potential for vocals while performing on a street corner, and prompted Mr. Benson, then 7 or 8, to sing “I’ve Got the Blues.”

With “Weekend in London,” Mr. Benson’s first live album in 30 years, due Friday, he not only honors his unique musical path, but also credits those along the way that have shaped him and his career — which includes audiences. “They’re right down your throat,” he said of playing the intimate club Ronnie Scott’s, where the set was recorded, “but I can look into their faces and see the happiness or the response by what they’re hearing on the bandstand.”

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Outside jazz circles, Charlie Parker might not be a household name like Miles Davis or Louis Armstrong, but the saxophonist, who died of cirrhosis aged 34 after struggling with addictions to heroin and alcohol, was one of music’s true innovators. By inventing the dizzyingly fast style known as bebop, Parker turned jazz from dance music into something intensely intellectual and spiritual. As the London jazz festival celebrates his centenary with a tribute, today’s jazz stars talk about the shattering impact of the man nicknamed Bird.

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Deadline: December 15, 2020

The fifth international conference on performance philosophy is hosted by University of the Arts Helsinki, and it is arranged in collaboration with the Performance Philosophy network in June 9-12, 2021.

The thematic focus the conference is matched by its strategic aim: to develop non-hierarchical interaction and self-organisation between participants and to increase inclusiveness. This is why, in addition to individual and panel presentations, the conference is introducing a new organisational model, in which the habitual ‘keynote speakers’ will be replaced by collective agencies, key groups.

Performance Philosophy Problems (PPP 2021) welcomes two types of proposals: (1) individual and panel proposals or (2) key group proposals.

Read the full Call for Participation and Vision Statement on conference webpage: Performance Philosophy Problems
The deadline for all proposals is December 15, 2020.

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My name is Melody Leon, and I am a second-year graduate student at California Baptist University, studying saxophone performance. I am gathering research and statistics about the trials and tribulations women face in the jazz community for my master's thesis. I've created a survey specifically for women to share their experiences. The research presented in my thesis will describe past, and current culture, struggle, and recognition women face in the jazz industry. It is important to note that my purpose is not to undermine those already aware or degrade the support they provide to women instrumentalists. It is hoped that this thesis will be a platform to bring awareness to the discrimination women experience as they are involved with jazz, regardless of the source.

Take the survey

The Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion (JMSR) solicits 1000-word proposals for a special issue on the role of imagination in organizational life. Authors are encouraged to explore the relationship between imagination and humanity in an organizational context, and across a variety of roles, including “workers, managers, leaders, community members, social change agents, organizational tricksters, or wounded healers.” Authors are encouraged to think of ways that imagination can help organizations overcome limitations and comprehend the contexts in which they operate and exist.

Proposals addressing the following topics are particularly welcome:

How imagination is experienced and manifested in organizations and social communities.
How imagination contributes to our understanding of ourselves and of our lives as organizational agents and as social change agents.
How imagination informs reflections on spiritual aspects of management and leadership.
How imaginative stories are expressed and manifested in organizations and/or communities, and what role they play in these contexts.

Acceptable formats for finished manuscripts aren’t limited to academic writing, and include “creative writing, poetry, visual arts, embodied practice, sonic and musical performances, improvisation and more.”

An emphasis on practice as well as concepts is encouraged.

Proposals are due by January 15th, 2021.

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Deadline: February 12, 2021

Perfect Beat journal invites contributions to a special edition of short-form ‘Riff’ articles, typically 2000 words, to document the state of music research in the Asia-Pacific region during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Riff is a blind peer-reviewed article that is flexible in format, allowing for a range of novel and creative approaches to scholarly writing, as well as prompt responses to pertinent issues. Previous Riffs in Perfect Beat have been interviews with musicians or industry figures, critical reflections of an author’s experiences, comparative reviews of musical works, and co/multi-authored exchanges. Our special issue expands this criteria to include other creative approaches, such as photographic essays, personal narratives, position statements, industry summaries, and/or post-pandemic solutions. Proposals for other creative scholarly approaches are welcomed. To fit the scope of the journal, our geographical area of interest is the Asia-Pacific. Topics for this special issue may include:

Virtual Musical Connections:

How does media technology contribute to a continuation of pre-pandemic musical life?
Reviews of streamed online ‘iso concerts’ and other music related content
TikTok, Twitch, Fortnite… music and the platforms of the pandemic
How artists use social media to connect with fans during the pandemic

Live Music:

Review of socially-distanced concerts and similar music events
Government policies surrounding post-lockdown live music venues
The response from funding bodies to reinvigorate or support music and the arts
Impact on scenes at a local or global level

An Academic in a Pandemic:

Teaching music courses in the online environment; sharing novel approaches, challenges and successes
Creative pivots for your music research
Impact on research cultures in your areas – motivations, logistics, funding
Work/life balance, especially for parents

A Postgrad in a Pandemic:

How the pandemic has impacted postgraduate music students
Music Postgrad pivoting for writing/fieldwork/research
How are music postgrads, especially international students, supporting each other during this time?

Mental Health

Support initiatives from the music industry
Health and wellbeing of music students and colleagues

First Person Impact

Interviews with musicians and other industry practitioners about COVID-19 restrictions
Songs/music about and inspired by COVID-19
The “iso album” phenomenon
Case studies on organised responses; ‘I Lost My Gig’ / ‘Save Our Venues’ campaigns
Grass roots initiatives, community responses

Science denial and conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 and music

Other topics related to music and COVID-19 in the Asia-Pacific region

Word Limits: We ask for 2000 words for final articles, including references.
Please contact the editors if you are proposing a longer word length.
Blind Peer Review: All Riffs will be blind peer reviewed.

Timeline

200 word abstract proposal due; email to o.wilson@massey.ac.nz by Monday, December 7th, 5pm AEST
Authors advised of outcome: Wednesday 9th December
Full articles due: Friday 12th February 2021
Review process: February-April 2021
Publication: May 2021

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The Journal for Artistic Research (JAR) is an international, online, open-access and peer-reviewed journal that disseminates artistic research from all disciplines. JAR invites the ever-increasing number of artistic researchers to develop what for the sciences and humanities are standard academic publication procedures. It serves as a meeting point of diverse practices and methodologies in a field that has become a worldwide movement with many local activities.

Issue 21 contains the following contributions:

Jennifer Anyan’s ‘Interrogating the notion of 'frock consciousness' through the practice of dressing and responding to dressed bodies,’ looks at questions of identity and dress. Using Virginia Woolf’s notion of ‘frock consciousness,’ she revisits a selection of her own projects, considering what they contribute as a body of research.

Susannah Hast’s ‘Walking with Soldiers: How I learned to stop worrying and love the cadets,’ examines a moment of marching across the city of Helsinki with first-year cadets of the Finnish National Defence University. In the walk she dismantles boundaries of bodies, critiques, and affects, presenting a researcher’s journey across subjectivities and difference in a female civilian body.

Sander Hölsgens, Saskia de Wildt & Tamara Witschge’s ‘Walking the Newsroom: Towards a Sensory Experience of Journalism’ invites the reader/viewer on a walk through the newsroom of the regional newspaper, Dagblad van het Noorden. Using artistic means, they trace how the journalists perceive, articulate, engage, embrace, challenge, are receptive to, and give form to the ‘atmospheres’ of their workspace.

Christoph Solstreif-Pirker’s ‘Breathing into the Ecological Trauma: The Case of Gruinard Island’ engages with a performative investigation of an exemplary non-site of anthropocenic extinction, a small Scottish island used as an Anthrax test-site in the second World War.

Dominique Somers’ ‘Everything That Shines Sees: Flash Light, Photography and the Acheiropoietic.’ explores photographic images engendered by a flash of light. Starting from the author’s own artistic experiments with fulguric and cosmic rays, it challenges traditional assumptions about the involvement of nonhuman contributors in the formation of contemporary photographic images.

Keywords include: Fashion Practice Research, Drawing, Military Training, Autoethnography, Embodiment, Walking, Ecological Trauma, Architecture, Site Responsive Practices, Deep Map, Sound, Gender, Affect, Environmental Ethics, Atmospheres.

Keith Jarrett is one of the great pianists of our times. Before achieving worldwide fame for his solo improvisations, he had already collaborated with Art Blakey, Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. His ‘Köln Concert’ album (1975) has now sold around four million copies and become the most successful solo recording in jazz history. His interpretations of the music of Bach, Händel, Bartók or Shostakovich, have also received much attention in later years. Jarrett is considered difficult and inaccessible, and has often abandoned the stage during his concerts due to restless audiences or disturbing photographers.

Few writers have come as close to Keith Jarrett as Wolfgang Sandner, who has not only closely followed Jarrett’s remarkable career from the 1960s, but has also had the opportunity to visit him in his home in the United States. For this biography, which is full of detailed musical analysis and cross-references to other artistic genres, Sandner has collected new information about Jarrett’s family background, much of which is thanks to the translator, Keith Jarrett’s youngest brother Chris. The book explores Jarrett’s work with other musicians, in particular the members of his American and European Quartets and his Standards Trio, it charts the development of his solo concerts, and it also investigates his work in the classical sphere, as well as the highly original music he has created in his own home studio. It also covers his associations with his various record labels and producers, notably his unparalleled relationship with ECM and its founder Manfred Eicher. This English edition is a significantly extended and updated version of the German original.

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Phil Woods was an American original. One of the greatest saxophonists of all time, he was the first call for Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Oliver Nelson. His iconic improvisation on Billy Joel’s hit song "Just the Way You Are" is quite likely the most played instrumental solo in the world. His popularity soared while an expat in Europe during the cultural revolution of the late sixties and early seventies. Upon his return to the States, Woods formed a band that would perform together for four decades. Grammy Awards, dozens of DownBeat Readers Poll victories, and designation as a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master would follow. Life in E Flat is the unvarnished self-portrait of an artist who loved and lived a life of bebop.

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If any man could be defined as the epitome of the modern jazz singer, it would surely be Jon Hendricks. His contributions to jazz were colossal: a hipster, a bopster, a comic and raconteur, a word-smith par excellence, and a fearless improviser, he took the arts of scatting and vocalese to new heights. As a founder member of the groundbreaking vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, he changed forever the public perception of what a jazz singer could be.

Jon Hendricks started singing professionally at the age of seven. Within five years he was supporting his entire family — including three sisters, eleven brothers and a niece — with his earnings from radio appearances. He was active in jazz long before the birth of bebop, and didn’t stop until he was in his nineties. Tutored by the pioneering pianist Art Tatum, Hendricks performed with everyone of any consequence in jazz, from Louis Armstrong to Jazzmeia Horn. Before Lambert, Hendricks and Ross astonished the world with their first album Sing A Song Of Basie, he was writing songs for Louis Jordan. Later he influenced and worked with The Manhattan Transfer, Bobby McFerrin and Kurt Elling. When he died in 2017, he left behind a final masterwork — his vocal adaptation of the Miles Davis album Miles Ahead.

This is Bop is the first biography of Jon Hendricks. Based on extensive research in both the USA and the UK, it draws on the author’s interviews with the Hendricks family and the many singers, musicians and industry figures who worked closely with him. As well as telling the story of his remarkable life, it also explores his legacy as a lyricist and a scat singer, his contribution to the art of vocalese, and his extraordinary gifts as a thinker and raconteur.

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Harmony and Normalization: US-Cuban Musical Diplomacy explores the channels of musical exchange between Cuba and the United States during the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama, who eased the musical embargo of the island and restored relations with Cuba. Musical exchanges during this period act as a lens through which to view not only US-Cuban musical relations but also the larger political, economic, and cultural implications of musical dialogue between these two nations. Policy shifts in the wake of Raúl Castro assuming the Cuban presidency and the election of President Obama allowed performers to traverse the Florida Straits more easily than in the recent past and encouraged them to act as musical ambassadors. Their performances served as a testing ground for political change that anticipated normalized relations.

While government actors debated these changes, music forged connections between individuals on both sides of the Florida Straits. In this first book on the subject since Obama’s presidency, musicologist Timothy P. Storhoff describes how, after specific policy changes, musicians were some of the first to take advantage of new opportunities for travel, push the boundaries of new regulations, and expose both the possibilities and limitations of licensing musical exchange. Through the analysis of both official and unofficial musical diplomacy efforts, including the Havana Jazz Festival, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba’s first US tour, the Minnesota Orchestra’s trip to Havana, and the author’s own experiences in Cuba, this ethnography demonstrates how performances reflect aspirations for stronger transnational ties and a common desire to restore the once-thriving US-Cuban musical relationship.

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