May News from the JEN Research Interest Group

Welcome to the May edition of the JEN Research Interest Group newsletter. Below please find a variety of news items, announcements, callouts, new publications, and job opportunities. Of special interest is the 3rd annual Documenting Jazz conference June 23-26 presented by the University of Edinburgh. It is presented virtually and free this year, a wonderful opportunity to participate in one of the largest gatherings of jazz scholars and educators from around the world. I will present my recent research on improvisatory responses to the COVID crisis, participate in a panel discussion on Jazz and Gender with the co-editors of our upcoming Routledge Companion Book as well as a lecture/recital by Oliver Nelson Jr on his father’s music. Also note the newest edition of Critical Studies in Improvisation with a host of thought-provoking articles and essays. Here is my research article What the World Needs Now is Jazz, discussing the results of a survey and interviews towards options of shaping our new reality as cultural workers. Would love to hear your feedback and thoughts.

We are not in the review phase of the third issue of JAZZ (Jazz Education in Research and Practice) - find submission info on the journal portal. The journal features a wide variety of contributions from full research articles, to quick tips, reflective essays, and book reviews. All submissions go through a double-blind peer review process shaping the submissions towards scholarly excellence and general interest. We are always in need for more reviewers, please contact me if you’re interested in joining the editorial board.

The second issue of JAZZ (Jazz Education in Research and Practice) has arrived! It features 200 pages of research articles, case studies, tips, essays, and reviews, all peer-reviewed and edited throughout this past year. JEN membership includes full access on the JEN website, find it here. Please encourage your libraries to order a subscription to this invaluable resource for teachers and students alike from this link. And of course, consider a hard copy for your personal library.

I’m still hoping to get more feedback on possible strategies and initiatives for the JEN Research Interest Group. Here is a quick survey - click here and share your input and how you might want to be involved/ support the JEN Research Committee or the Journal Editorial Board, and any suggestions for future directions of our committee. Thank you so much for your input. You can also email me at mherzig@indiana.edu.

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.

Registration for the 13th annual JEN Conference, January 5-8, 2022 in Dallas, TX is now open - see you there, in person!

Sincerely,

Monika Herzig

JEN Research Interest Group Committee Chair

Editor, JAZZ (Jazz Education in Research and Practice)

Curtis Fuller, a trombonist and composer whose expansive sound and powerful sense of swing made him a driving force in postwar jazz, died on May 8 at a nursing home in Detroit. He was 88. His daughter Mary Fuller confirmed the death but did not specify the cause.

Mr. Fuller arrived in New York in the spring of 1957 and almost immediately became the leading trombonist of the hard-bop movement, which emphasized jazz’s roots in blues and gospel while delivering crisp and hummable melodies. By the end of the year, he had recorded no fewer than eight albums as a leader or co-leader for the independent labels Blue Note, Prestige and Savoy.

That same year he also appeared on the saxophonist John Coltrane’s “Blue Train,” among the most storied albums in jazz, on which Mr. Fuller unfurls a number of timeless solos. On the title track, now a jazz standard, his trombone plays a central role in carrying the bold, declarative melody. Mr. Fuller’s five-chorus solo on “Blue Train” begins by playing off the last few notes of the trumpeter Lee Morgan’s improvisation, as if curiously picking up an object a friend had just put down. He then moves through a spontaneous repertoire of syncopated phrases and deftly wrought curlicues.
In his book “Jazz From Detroit” (2019), the critic Mark Stryker wrote, “The excitement, authority and construction of Fuller’s solo explain why he became a major influence.”

Mr. Fuller was responsible for naming “Moment’s Notice,” another now-classic Coltrane composition on “Blue Train.” “I made a comment,” he said in a 2007 interview for the National Endowment for the Arts, recalling the scene at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey. “‘John, you put this music on us on a moment’s notice. We got three hours to rehearse this music and we’re gonna record?’ And that became the title of the song.”

Mr. Fuller carried his knack for a concisely stated melody, and for elegantly tracing the harmonic seams of a tune, into his work as a composer. Among his many original tunes are “À La Mode,” “Arabia” and “Buhaina’s Delight,” all of which are now considered standards.

The Four33 podcast, hosted and produced by Carey West and Stephen Donnelly on ArtsEverywhere.ca in partnership with IICSI, examines the role of improvisation as it appears in our daily lives.

As we grapple with the global pandemic, shifting economies, and civil rights failures, improvisation has become a crucial survival skill for a global community in flux. Drawing its name from a composition by John Cage titled “4'33"”, this podcast series examines the presence of creativity across social and political arenas.

Every two weeks, the hosts wade into the deep and often messy waters of improvisatory practices with the keen attention and playful sensibility that make art and life possible. Alongside robust discussion on important themes and issues, the podcast includes regular creative interludes, irregular installments of sound experimentation, on-the-street interviews, and suggestions on how and where to experience the podcast—taking theory and fun to the sensual, analogue world.

CFP deadline: June 1, 2021
Symposium: October 7–9, 2021

The inaugural edition of the symposium Dialogues: Analysis and Performance will be held October 7–9, 2021, at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. We invite proposals on any topic related to the analysis and performance of music, especially encouraging those engaging with repertoire or performance practices from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Applicants may choose—but are not obliged—to base their proposal around any of the following questions:

How can the concerns, choices, and pursuits of music performance inform the practice of music analysis?
How can the concerns, choices, and pursuits of music analysis inform the practice of music performance?
What sites of intersection provide promise for collaborative research between music theorists, musicologists, and performers?
How can research in contemporary music appeal to a broader segment of the artistic and academic communities?
How do trends and conversations in contemporary culture influence the intersection of analysis and performance?
What challenges or appeals does contemporary music in particular present to the integration of analysis and performance?

Proposals can be submitted for paper presentations (20 minutes) or lecture recitals (30 minutes). All presentations will be appended by a 10-minute question period. We expect the symposium to proceed as a hybrid in-person/virtual event, and presenters will be given the option of choosing which format they prefer.

Questions regarding the submission process should be directed to analysisandperformance2021@gmail.com.

The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2021.

In presentations, lectures and conversations, artists from an international field will provide insight into their artistic research processes in film and audiovisual media. Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Lola Arias, Filipa César, Claire Denis, Kristoffer Gansing, Annika Boholm, Kersti Grunditz Brennan, Christian Iseli, Thomas Heise, Rachael Jones, Jyoti Mistry, Olivier Marboeuf, Laura von Niederhäusern, Arturo Delgado Pereira, Ella Raidel et al. will be speakers in the conference. Artistic researchers from Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF will also present works to be discussed. You are kindly invited to contribute your thoughts, experience and knowledge in plenary discussions.

In addition, you will have access to the Conference Stand – our physical centre for the digital conference built by the research group Site-Specific Film in the large studio at Film University. This walk-through installation is presenting – on-site and online – 20 spontaneous filmic works created for this setting. This space also offers a digital opportunity for you to exchange ideas and do some online networking.

Register at the link below. We are looking forward to seeing you at the conference!

Your compositions reviewed by

ARMEN DONELIAN & MARC MOMMAAS, Co-Directors

Last Wednesday of the Month, 5pm (E.S.T.)

Special Guests

May 26: Richard Boukas

The Online Spring Composers Series will include up to eight composers from around the globe via Zoom with two of today’s leading composers, pianist Armen Donelian and saxophonist Marc Mommaas, who will review their compositions.
We welcome all composers to join us in this exciting exchange of ideas!

Register early! Complete and Submit the convenient HJW Online Registration at the link above.
For 1st instrument, indicate “Composer.” Indicate any additional instrumental proficiency in 2nd instrument.
The musical and print quality of your Composition samples is critical in the competitive decision-making process.
All Compositions MUST be emailed to info@hudsonjazzworks.org in computer-notated (Sibelius, Finale, etc.) PDF or XML files. Links to PDF or XML also will be accepted. Hand-written scores will NOT be accepted or reviewed. Audio samples are not required, but links (Dropbox, WeTransfer, website, etc.) may be submitted. Large email audio files will NOT be accepted or reviewed.
Accepted composers will be notified no later than the 20th of the month.
Zoom invitation will be included with notification.

X-disciplinary Congress on Artistic Research and Related Matters at Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania), October 14-17th, 2021
Deadline for proposals 20th of June

Artists and researchers of any kind are welcome to apply with contributions that discuss urgent matters on the question of artistic research, the nature of its relationship with academia, and to artistic practice, the culture sector, and the art worlds. You can choose yourself what to insert instead of “X” in the x-disciplinary: non-, trans-, post-, un-, inter-, etc.
As a springboard for this congress, we follow the proposal by Charles Esche in ‘Include Me Out: Helping Artists to Undo the Art World’ where he writes of ‘certain educational fundamentals’ including ‘anti-specialization, anti-isolation/anti-autonomy, and anti-hierarchy’.

In light of this, we wish to ask:

Is artistic research like and aligned to the contemporary academy, and if so, how?
Is artistic research a post-disciplinary, un-disciplinary, meta-disciplinary and/or indisciplinary field of inquiry that because of this has the capacity to transform the institution?
How does and should artistic research collaborate with fields (and research paradigms) outside of academia, and on what terms?

Apply at the link below.

The University of Valladolid In Spain and the Katarina Gurska Institute for Artistic Research are together to disseminate knowledge related to innovative scientific and artistic research.

With the social use of technology, interconnectivity and instantaneity, we face the challenge of providing musicians with the necessary concepts and mindsets to adapt the development of their professional skills to the current paradigm and to understand and creatively deal with the changes within their respective fields.

Educational institutions have to search for new concepts of knowledge production and redefine their structures to become hybrid models of think tanks and shelters, laboratories and publishers, funders and archivists at the same time and under one roof. Interdisciplinarity is the keyword of the hour but what are the personal and social prerequisites for successful integration of the parties involved in contemporary music teaching, practice, and musical innovation including all its traditions, cultural backgrounds, instrumentalities, and mentalities? Will these fascinating technologies inspire uniformity or diversity?

A great opportunity for artists, professionals, teachers, and students of all levels to share their research results related to any of the 4 research lines of the congress:

Artistic Interaction and Technology
Innovation in Music Education
Arts, Science and Technology
Music and Society in the 21st century

Papers can be submitted until June 5.

Delegates will receive a 20h Certificate of attendance from the University of Valladolid.
Accepted papers will be gathered in an ISBN minute book.
An undetermined number of papers accepted to the congress will be proposed by the scientific committee to be part of the monograph "Education and artistic research", which will be published in 2022 by LEEME's Electronic Journal. The communications must be extended in length and comply with the journal's rules. The Electronic Journal for Music Education magazine is indexed in SCOPUS (SJR,Q3).

The Musicological Society of Australia’s annual conference will be hosted by the University of New South Wales. The conference will be online, from 9–11 December.

The conference organizing committee invites proposals for papers, presentations, panels and themed sessions on any topic of music research.

Formal conference papers: 20 minutes + 10 minutes for questions and discussion
Lecture recitals/demonstrations: 20 minutes + 10 minutes for questions and discussion
Panels and themed sessions: 90 minutes

Deadline for Proposals has been extended until: 5pm, 31 May 2021
Proposal Outcome: 2 July 2021

We are pleased to announce that Professor Lydia Goehr will give a keynote address.
The conference will also include an ECR Keynote, which will be announced soon. All presenters must be current financial members of the MSA at the time of accepting the invitation to present.
The conference is being convened by Michael Hooper, alongside Christopher Coady, Julia Donnelly, Rafael Echevarria, David Larkin, Alan Maddox, Ryan Martin, John Napier, and Kathryn Roberts Parker.

Submissions:
Proposals for individual presentations should include a title, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. Please also include the name of the presenter, a short biography of no more than 100 words, four keywords, and an institutional affiliation if applicable.Proposals for panels and themed sessions should include the above information for each of the presenters, as well as a title and an abstract for the panel or themed session as a whole. Please also include a plan for how the 90 minutes will be used.

Please email your proposals, with the subject heading ‘Conference Proposal,’ to: msa-conf2021@unsw.edu.au

The 2021 AJIRN conference theme Accessing Jazz and Improvised Music invites participants to consider the networks, infrastructure, physical and ideological barriers, creative problems, privileges, and prejudices musicians and audiences routinely negotiate as they make their way to and through jazz and other improvised music. Inspired in part by the new platforms audiences and musicians have used to connect during the COVID-19 pandemic, this conference seeks to interrogate a spectrum of both physical and metaphorical barriers that have created space between artists, audiences, and researchers, and the bridges that have been built to span these gaps. We encourage participants to consider accessibility in broad terms and from various angles when grappling with the fundamental question of how jazz and other improvised music scenes might better cultivate cultures of inclusivity and respect.

We welcome proposals for individual papers, panel discussions, and lecture-demonstrations that address this theme. Other topics may also be suitable for inclusion in the conference program. Proposals that fit with the sub-themes presented below are encouraged.

The University of Edinburgh is pleased to announce the third instalment of Documenting Jazz to be held at the Reid School of Music, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh 23rd-26th June, 2021.

Documenting Jazz seeks to draw together colleagues with an interest in jazz studies from a diverse array of backgrounds and welcomes contributions from scholars of all career stages, independent and non-academically affiliated scholars and researchers, critics, archivists, and practitioners to foster an atmosphere of rich interdisciplinary discussion and debate.

Registration is now open via EventBrite and details can be found at the link above. Documenting Jazz 2021 will be held online, and is free and open to all who would like to register.

A spectacular musical and scientific journey from the Bronx to the cosmic horizon that reveals the astonishing links between jazz, science, Einstein, and Coltrane

More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane put physics and geometry at the core of his music.

Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander follows suit, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe. Following the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics-a list including Pythagoras, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and Rakim -- The Jazz of Physics reveals that the ancient poetic idea of the Music of the Spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics.

The Jazz of Physics will fascinate and inspire anyone interested in the mysteries of our universe, music, and life itself.

Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history - Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club, cool jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, and Lester Young, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie's advocacy of modern jazz in the 1940s, Miles Davis's 1955 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Ornette Coleman's experiments with atonality, Pat Metheny's visionary extension of jazz-rock fusion, the contemporary sounds of Wynton Marsalis, and the post-modernists of the current day. Gioia provides the listener with lively portraits of these and many other great musicians, intertwined with vibrant commentary on the music they created. He also evokes the many worlds of jazz, taking the listener to the swamp lands of the Mississippi Delta, the bawdy houses of New Orleans, the rent parties of Harlem, the speakeasies of Chicago during the Jazz Age, the after-hours spots of corrupt Kansas City, the Cotton Club, the Savoy, and the other locales where the history of jazz was made. And as he traces the spread of this protean form, Gioia provides much insight into the social context in which the music was born.

As jazz enters its second century it is reasserting itself as dynamic and relevant. Boston Globe jazz writer and Emerson College professor Bill Beuttler reveals new ways in which jazz is engaging with society through the vivid biographies and music of Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, The Bad Plus, Miguel Zenón, Anat Cohen, Robert Glasper, and Esperanza Spalding. These musicians are freely incorporating other genres of music into jazz—from classical (both western and Indian) to popular (hip-hop, R&B, rock, bluegrass, klezmer, Brazilian choro)—and other art forms as well (literature, film, photography, and other visual arts). This new generation of jazz is increasingly more international and is becoming more open to women as instrumentalists and bandleaders. Contemporary jazz is reasserting itself as a force for social change, prompted by developments such as the Black Lives Matter, #MeToo movements, and the election of Donald Trump.