Lonnie Liston Smith is an American pianist and keyboard player from Richmond, Virginia, born in 1940. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and an honorary doctorate from Morgan State University and has performed with Betty Carter, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis. His original music with the Cosmic Echoes has influenced the genres of smooth jazz, jazz funk, acid jazz, and hip hop. Scott Gray Douglass is a bassist and teacher also from Richmond, born in 1984. He is writing a book based on the oral histories of Richmond’s jazz musician educators. The two spoke by telephone in September of 2021. The following conversation is edited for clarity. Footnotes are provided by the co-author for context.
{"title":"Lonnie Liston Smith","authors":"Scott Douglass, Lonnie Smith","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i2.217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i2.217","url":null,"abstract":"Lonnie Liston Smith is an American pianist and keyboard player from Richmond, Virginia, born in 1940. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and an honorary doctorate from Morgan State University and has performed with Betty Carter, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis. His original music with the Cosmic Echoes has influenced the genres of smooth jazz, jazz funk, acid jazz, and hip hop. Scott Gray Douglass is a bassist and teacher also from Richmond, born in 1984. He is writing a book based on the oral histories of Richmond’s jazz musician educators. The two spoke by telephone in September of 2021. The following conversation is edited for clarity. Footnotes are provided by the co-author for context.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135679352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This "From the Archives" essay offers a critical contextualisation of the IJS's Victoria Spivey Collection, together with a supplementary bibliography of the singer's jazz criticism in the magazine Record Research and other jazz journals.
{"title":"The Victoria Spivey Collection","authors":"Lawrence Davies","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i2.261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i2.261","url":null,"abstract":"This \"From the Archives\" essay offers a critical contextualisation of the IJS's Victoria Spivey Collection, together with a supplementary bibliography of the singer's jazz criticism in the magazine Record Research and other jazz journals.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135680066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent research has shown that the shape, timbre, and intensity of a sound influence the perception of its timing at the micro level of rhythm. In this case study of contemporary Norwegian jazz, we investigate to what extent jazz musicians intentionally use sonic features to shape the micro level of rhythm in their performances. First, we provide an overview of existing research into microrhythm in jazz and auditory perception studies. Then we present results from interviews with five expert jazz musicians about how playing techniques and sound qualities of specific instruments are utilized to influence the perception of timing. We also analyze two selected performances by the musicians to explore the effects of interaction between sonic features and timing in a musical context. The article concludes by discussing the results in the context of findings from empirical research into microlevel auditory perception regarding the perceptual center of sounds (P-center) and auditory stream segregation. The study demonstrates the need to move related research beyond the temporal domain, and to cultivate a more holistic approach to what constitutes groove in jazz and related genres. Keywords: timing, microrhythm, intensity, timbre, sound shape, P-center, stream segregation
{"title":"“Hard” or “Soft”","authors":"Eirik Jacobsen, Anne Danielsen","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i2.258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i2.258","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research has shown that the shape, timbre, and intensity of a sound influence the perception of its timing at the micro level of rhythm. In this case study of contemporary Norwegian jazz, we investigate to what extent jazz musicians intentionally use sonic features to shape the micro level of rhythm in their performances. First, we provide an overview of existing research into microrhythm in jazz and auditory perception studies. Then we present results from interviews with five expert jazz musicians about how playing techniques and sound qualities of specific instruments are utilized to influence the perception of timing. We also analyze two selected performances by the musicians to explore the effects of interaction between sonic features and timing in a musical context. The article concludes by discussing the results in the context of findings from empirical research into microlevel auditory perception regarding the perceptual center of sounds (P-center) and auditory stream segregation. The study demonstrates the need to move related research beyond the temporal domain, and to cultivate a more holistic approach to what constitutes groove in jazz and related genres. Keywords: timing, microrhythm, intensity, timbre, sound shape, P-center, stream segregation","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135684199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mary Halvorson has established herself as one of the leading figures of free improvised music since the turn of the millennium, winning DownBeat Magazine’s Best Guitarist category in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and receiving a “Genius” Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2019. Despite these accolades—and the many reviews of her albums and performances, interviews, and opinion pieces in the jazz press—there has been a marked dearth of scholarly literature dedicated to analyzing her music and her guitar playing to date. This article is intended to open the door to a more critical discourse about Halvorson’s artistry, achievements, and her position in the intersecting jazz, avant-garde, and free improvising communities. Throughout, I draw extensively on interviews I conducted with Halvorson and one of her early mentors, guitarist/educator Joe Morris as well as my own transcriptions of her work to detail how Halvorson approaches composing and interpreting music in a meticulous manner while still preserving space for the adventurous and sometimes chaotic aesthetic of free improvised music.
{"title":"Analysis of Mary Halvorson's Improvisational and Compositional Style","authors":"Paul Mock","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.193","url":null,"abstract":"Mary Halvorson has established herself as one of the leading figures of free improvised music since the turn of the millennium, winning DownBeat Magazine’s Best Guitarist category in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and receiving a “Genius” Grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2019. Despite these accolades—and the many reviews of her albums and performances, interviews, and opinion pieces in the jazz press—there has been a marked dearth of scholarly literature dedicated to analyzing her music and her guitar playing to date. This article is intended to open the door to a more critical discourse about Halvorson’s artistry, achievements, and her position in the intersecting jazz, avant-garde, and free improvising communities. Throughout, I draw extensively on interviews I conducted with Halvorson and one of her early mentors, guitarist/educator Joe Morris as well as my own transcriptions of her work to detail how Halvorson approaches composing and interpreting music in a meticulous manner while still preserving space for the adventurous and sometimes chaotic aesthetic of free improvised music.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135641656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
At seventy-three years old, jazz trumpeter/composer/bandleader John D’earth remains a vortex of swirling energy: gigging constantly, ceaselessly composing, and tirelessly teaching. An iconic musician with a world-class reputation, D’earth is a gifted post-bop trumpeter with a fat sound, a dense knowledge of harmony, and a virtuosic sense of rhythm. D’earth is the type of player that would demand attention in any major metropolitan jazz scene, but within the small confines of the Charlottesville, Virginia jazz community, D’earth is a pillar of influence. Simply put, D’earth is the heart and soul of the central Virginia jazz milieu. Beyond his skills as a performer, D’earth is a revered teacher and mentor. As the Director of Jazz Performance at the University of Virginia, D’earth has certainly helped hundreds of promising young musicians navigate the vicissitudes of institutional learning. But it is D’earth’s work as a teacher outside the academy that will ultimately cement his legacy. D’earth has been leading a Thursday night weekly gig at Miller’s, a beloved tavern in downtown Charlottesville, for over thirty years. Miller’s on Thursdays is a laboratory—a musical workshop—where D’earth holds forth with both his students and his colleagues. On the Miller’s bandstand, D’earth puts professionals next to amateurs, beginners alongside experts. Everyone solos, all players add to the collective musical interplay, and each musician has a voice within the group. This project engages D’earth in a series of interviews exploring his holistic approach to jazz pedagogy. Beyond interrogating D’earth’s specific teaching system(s), I inquire into his views about both the pitfalls and advantages of jazz in the academy, how improvisation can build social, political, and economic alliances, and the ways in which music can act as both a form of resistance and a strategy for survival in neoliberal times. At the forefront of my agenda is a discussion on how the jazz ecology of Charlottesville was affected by the events of August 12, 2017, when a misguided “Unite the Right” rally ended in the tragic death of Heather Heyer, bringing political upheaval and racial turmoil to the city of Charlottesville. Finally, I dissect the Miller’s phenomenon with D’earth, attempting to explain how this particular location has operated as both a performance environment and important pedagogical space for such a remarkably long time and yielded such a wealth of creativity and access to musical insight.
{"title":"Thursday at Miller's","authors":"Brian Jones","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.218","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.218","url":null,"abstract":"At seventy-three years old, jazz trumpeter/composer/bandleader John D’earth remains a vortex of swirling energy: gigging constantly, ceaselessly composing, and tirelessly teaching. An iconic musician with a world-class reputation, D’earth is a gifted post-bop trumpeter with a fat sound, a dense knowledge of harmony, and a virtuosic sense of rhythm. D’earth is the type of player that would demand attention in any major metropolitan jazz scene, but within the small confines of the Charlottesville, Virginia jazz community, D’earth is a pillar of influence. Simply put, D’earth is the heart and soul of the central Virginia jazz milieu. \u0000Beyond his skills as a performer, D’earth is a revered teacher and mentor. As the Director of Jazz Performance at the University of Virginia, D’earth has certainly helped hundreds of promising young musicians navigate the vicissitudes of institutional learning. But it is D’earth’s work as a teacher outside the academy that will ultimately cement his legacy. D’earth has been leading a Thursday night weekly gig at Miller’s, a beloved tavern in downtown Charlottesville, for over thirty years. Miller’s on Thursdays is a laboratory—a musical workshop—where D’earth holds forth with both his students and his colleagues. On the Miller’s bandstand, D’earth puts professionals next to amateurs, beginners alongside experts. Everyone solos, all players add to the collective musical interplay, and each musician has a voice within the group. \u0000This project engages D’earth in a series of interviews exploring his holistic approach to jazz pedagogy. Beyond interrogating D’earth’s specific teaching system(s), I inquire into his views about both the pitfalls and advantages of jazz in the academy, how improvisation can build social, political, and economic alliances, and the ways in which music can act as both a form of resistance and a strategy for survival in neoliberal times. At the forefront of my agenda is a discussion on how the jazz ecology of Charlottesville was affected by the events of August 12, 2017, when a misguided “Unite the Right” rally ended in the tragic death of Heather Heyer, bringing political upheaval and racial turmoil to the city of Charlottesville. Finally, I dissect the Miller’s phenomenon with D’earth, attempting to explain how this particular location has operated as both a performance environment and important pedagogical space for such a remarkably long time and yielded such a wealth of creativity and access to musical insight.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124630569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Saxophonists have a complicated relationship with Kenny G. His presence as the public face of the instrument is often contested by members of the saxophone community for a variety of reasons ranging from doubts about his authenticity and integrity to a perception of his lack of taste and skill, which has resulted in a form of aesthetic abjection of him and his music. Through a brief exploration of historical contexts, narratives from community members, and a survey of some of his career choices, this essay aims to illustrate that the saxophonists’ rejection of Kenny G serves to diminish the public’s understanding of the instrument’s significance.
{"title":"Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)","authors":"Adrianne Honnold","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.249","url":null,"abstract":"Saxophonists have a complicated relationship with Kenny G. His presence as the public face of the instrument is often contested by members of the saxophone community for a variety of reasons ranging from doubts about his authenticity and integrity to a perception of his lack of taste and skill, which has resulted in a form of aesthetic abjection of him and his music. Through a brief exploration of historical contexts, narratives from community members, and a survey of some of his career choices, this essay aims to illustrate that the saxophonists’ rejection of Kenny G serves to diminish the public’s understanding of the instrument’s significance.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135641654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From fusion jazz, to quiet storm, to neo-soul and lo-fi hip hop, jazz has often been used as a marker of authenticity in contemporary Black popular genres. Given his disproportionate popularity, the class-ing, racialization, and gendering of Kenny G in popular culture has become, in effect, the lens through which we evaluate all forms of crossover jazz. Ultimately, critiques that focus on Kenny G as a means to dismiss such musics are rooted in racialized discourses of authenticity that ignore the long tradition of crossover projects that characterize Black popular musics broadly.
{"title":"Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)","authors":"Charles D. Carson","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.246","url":null,"abstract":"From fusion jazz, to quiet storm, to neo-soul and lo-fi hip hop, jazz has often been used as a marker of authenticity in contemporary Black popular genres. Given his disproportionate popularity, the class-ing, racialization, and gendering of Kenny G in popular culture has become, in effect, the lens through which we evaluate all forms of crossover jazz. Ultimately, critiques that focus on Kenny G as a means to dismiss such musics are rooted in racialized discourses of authenticity that ignore the long tradition of crossover projects that characterize Black popular musics broadly.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130521799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Throughout his career, Kenny G has been heralded by some audiences as a jazz icon, even as he portrays ambivalence toward well-recognized jazz histories and is often critiqued by self-described members of jazz communities. By diving deeply into the cringe-worthy moments in which Kenny G’s refusal of jazz knowledge are most evident, Klotz examines Kenny G’s performance of white ignorance as a form of white privilege. The essay closes with a meditation on what exclusion of Kenny G might tell jazz scholars about gender exclusivity and the jazz genre.
{"title":"Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)","authors":"Kelsey Klotz","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.248","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.248","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout his career, Kenny G has been heralded by some audiences as a jazz icon, even as he portrays ambivalence toward well-recognized jazz histories and is often critiqued by self-described members of jazz communities. By diving deeply into the cringe-worthy moments in which Kenny G’s refusal of jazz knowledge are most evident, Klotz examines Kenny G’s performance of white ignorance as a form of white privilege. The essay closes with a meditation on what exclusion of Kenny G might tell jazz scholars about gender exclusivity and the jazz genre.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135641655","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Media Review","authors":"Jeffrey Sultanof","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.254","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126104823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kenny G is the bestselling instrumentalist and bestselling saxophonist of all time. He is, in short, the most commercially successful artist in the history of jazz—a position that he holds despite the vehement objections of many within the jazz community. In this introductory essay, I provide an overview of the common criticisms levelled against Kenny G; I then deconstruct them and some of their underlying implications. As I argue, the popular backlash against him has much to teach us about the prevailing values of contemporary jazz discourse.
{"title":"Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy)","authors":"None Brian F. Wright","doi":"10.14713/jjs.v14i1.247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14713/jjs.v14i1.247","url":null,"abstract":"Kenny G is the bestselling instrumentalist and bestselling saxophonist of all time. He is, in short, the most commercially successful artist in the history of jazz—a position that he holds despite the vehement objections of many within the jazz community. In this introductory essay, I provide an overview of the common criticisms levelled against Kenny G; I then deconstruct them and some of their underlying implications. As I argue, the popular backlash against him has much to teach us about the prevailing values of contemporary jazz discourse.","PeriodicalId":331183,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Jazz Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135641657","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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