Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe, 1845IntroductionThis article is set within two main sets of substantive literatures, namely that of the literature on New Orleans jazz revivalism in the UK, from academic popular music and jazz studies perspectives, and that on the elderly and music, from the standpoint of ethnography and participant observation (Atkinson and Hammersley 1994). More generally, it may be seen as a contribution to the role of popular music in the everyday life of elderly people (Unruh 1983; Bennett 2001; Smith 2009); and to a social worlds approach to sociology, cultural studies, and popular music and jazz studies (Becker 2008; Finnegan 2007; Martin 2005, 2006; Unruh 1979, 1983).The relevant literature on New Orleans jazz revivalism in the UK has grown remarkably in the last few years. From a very small base up to 2007 (Goodey 1968; Frith 1988; McKay 2003, 2004, 2005; Moore 2007), we can now add Shipton (2012), those of the Equinox popular music history series edited by Alyn Shipton (Heining 2012; Gelly 2014; Chris Barber with Alyn Shipton 2014), as well as my own studies (Ekins 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). The narrative turn in contemporary social sciences and cultural studies has ensured that life history, ethnographic and participant observation studies have become a major feature of studies of music and the elderly. Work on ageing, nostalgia and popular music (Bennett 2001) has become more nuanced as the ethnographic turn has predominated, and it is noticeable that in special journal issues such as 'As Time Goes By: Music, Dancing and Ageing' (Fairley and Forman 2012), it is the ethnographic component that predominates.However, it must be said that the ethnographic component in the academic literature on New Orleans revivalist jazz is often very thin. Moreover, in both of the relevant literatures being considered-on New Orleans jazz revivalism and on ageing and music-theory and methodology are undeveloped at best and non-existent at worst. It is these gaps in the literature that I address in this article.The theoretical contribution of this study is an exploration of selected interrelations between ethnography (Stock 2004; Hammersley and Atkinson 2007), autoethnography (Ellis and Bochner 2000; Anderson 2006) and social world analysis (Strauss 1978, 1982, 1984, 1993; Clarke 2005; Martin 2006) as set within a social interactionist (symbolic interactionist) approach (Becker 2008; Blumer 1969; Prus 1996, 1997) to popular music studies (Cohen 1993; Stock 2004; Hesmondaigh and Negus 2002) and jazz studies (Martin 2005). The more recent substantive focus of the study is ethnographic/participant observation work I carried out at a public jazz 'event' (Stock 2004), namely the weekly residency of the Merseysippi Jazz Band (MJB) held at the Liverpool Cricket Club, Aigburth, Liverpool, UK, on Monday evenings, between 8.30pm and 11.00p
{"title":"Becoming a Follower of the Merseysippi Jazz Band: An Approach from Ethnography, Autoethnography and Social World Analysis - A Study in Resocialization","authors":"R. Ekins","doi":"10.1558/jazz.v9i1.21250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v9i1.21250","url":null,"abstract":"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe, 1845IntroductionThis article is set within two main sets of substantive literatures, namely that of the literature on New Orleans jazz revivalism in the UK, from academic popular music and jazz studies perspectives, and that on the elderly and music, from the standpoint of ethnography and participant observation (Atkinson and Hammersley 1994). More generally, it may be seen as a contribution to the role of popular music in the everyday life of elderly people (Unruh 1983; Bennett 2001; Smith 2009); and to a social worlds approach to sociology, cultural studies, and popular music and jazz studies (Becker 2008; Finnegan 2007; Martin 2005, 2006; Unruh 1979, 1983).The relevant literature on New Orleans jazz revivalism in the UK has grown remarkably in the last few years. From a very small base up to 2007 (Goodey 1968; Frith 1988; McKay 2003, 2004, 2005; Moore 2007), we can now add Shipton (2012), those of the Equinox popular music history series edited by Alyn Shipton (Heining 2012; Gelly 2014; Chris Barber with Alyn Shipton 2014), as well as my own studies (Ekins 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013). The narrative turn in contemporary social sciences and cultural studies has ensured that life history, ethnographic and participant observation studies have become a major feature of studies of music and the elderly. Work on ageing, nostalgia and popular music (Bennett 2001) has become more nuanced as the ethnographic turn has predominated, and it is noticeable that in special journal issues such as 'As Time Goes By: Music, Dancing and Ageing' (Fairley and Forman 2012), it is the ethnographic component that predominates.However, it must be said that the ethnographic component in the academic literature on New Orleans revivalist jazz is often very thin. Moreover, in both of the relevant literatures being considered-on New Orleans jazz revivalism and on ageing and music-theory and methodology are undeveloped at best and non-existent at worst. It is these gaps in the literature that I address in this article.The theoretical contribution of this study is an exploration of selected interrelations between ethnography (Stock 2004; Hammersley and Atkinson 2007), autoethnography (Ellis and Bochner 2000; Anderson 2006) and social world analysis (Strauss 1978, 1982, 1984, 1993; Clarke 2005; Martin 2006) as set within a social interactionist (symbolic interactionist) approach (Becker 2008; Blumer 1969; Prus 1996, 1997) to popular music studies (Cohen 1993; Stock 2004; Hesmondaigh and Negus 2002) and jazz studies (Martin 2005). The more recent substantive focus of the study is ethnographic/participant observation work I carried out at a public jazz 'event' (Stock 2004), namely the weekly residency of the Merseysippi Jazz Band (MJB) held at the Liverpool Cricket Club, Aigburth, Liverpool, UK, on Monday evenings, between 8.30pm and 11.00p","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67543001","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}
Pub Date : 2015-08-12DOI: 10.1558/JAZZ.V10I1-2.28748
A. Fléchet
Brazil was a very early convert to jazz, which was marked by numerous appropriations and musical fusions. The first echoes of jazz were heard in Rio in 1917, a few months after the official birth of samba. Yet still little is known about the early history of jazz in Brazil. This article adopts a cultural and social history approach to music to identify the actors and sociological vectors that enabled the first appropriation of jazz by Brazilian musicians and audiences; to analyse the evolution of jazz repertoires; and to understand its impact (real, albeit highly controversial) on the Brazilian musical scene from the 1920s to the 1950s.
{"title":"Jazz in Brazil: An Early History (1920s-1950s)","authors":"A. Fléchet","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V10I1-2.28748","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V10I1-2.28748","url":null,"abstract":"Brazil was a very early convert to jazz, which was marked by numerous appropriations and musical fusions. The first echoes of jazz were heard in Rio in 1917, a few months after the official birth of samba. Yet still little is known about the early history of jazz in Brazil. This article adopts a cultural and social history approach to music to identify the actors and sociological vectors that enabled the first appropriation of jazz by Brazilian musicians and audiences; to analyse the evolution of jazz repertoires; and to understand its impact (real, albeit highly controversial) on the Brazilian musical scene from the 1920s to the 1950s.","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67539163","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}
The term ‘storytelling’ has a long history of prominence in descriptive and prescriptive talk about jazz improvisation. The main aim of this article is to point out that the ways in which jazz musicians themselves employ the ‘storytelling’ metaphor with reference to jazz improvisation display several important perspectives on perennial and fundamental prob- lems in the field of musical narrativity and offer very efficient ways of dealing with these issues. The empirical interview study summarized in this article constitutes an attempt to decipher the full potential of this intermedial conceptual loan, jazz improvisation as story- telling, based on how it is used by a number of highly accomplished Swedish jazz musi- cians. From a theoretical point of view, there are severe difficulties involved in viewing any music as narrative. The aim of the empirical study is to provide means for understand- ing jazz musicians’ conceptualizations of their art form; to investigate how they deal with such difficulties. The interviewees favour a metaphorical rather than literal interpretation of the concept of storytelling: for instance, as communication, expression, mission or vision. Their understanding of storytelling tends to focus on the how—rather than the what—of narrative. In their view, the narrative potential of jazz is connected in significant ways to the music’s ontological status as situated activity, including perspectives that concern the con- struction of musical meaning through narrativization of intra-musical patterns, as well as the significance of cultural competence. In sum, jazz practitioners’ understanding of jazz ‘storytelling’ emerges as an important way of dealing with issues of meaning in mus (Less)
{"title":"The jazz storyteller: Improvisers’ perspectives on music and narrative","authors":"Sven Bjerstedt","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.21502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.21502","url":null,"abstract":"The term ‘storytelling’ has a long history of prominence in descriptive and prescriptive talk about jazz improvisation. The main aim of this article is to point out that the ways in which jazz musicians themselves employ the ‘storytelling’ metaphor with reference to jazz improvisation display several important perspectives on perennial and fundamental prob- lems in the field of musical narrativity and offer very efficient ways of dealing with these issues. The empirical interview study summarized in this article constitutes an attempt to decipher the full potential of this intermedial conceptual loan, jazz improvisation as story- telling, based on how it is used by a number of highly accomplished Swedish jazz musi- cians. From a theoretical point of view, there are severe difficulties involved in viewing any music as narrative. The aim of the empirical study is to provide means for understand- ing jazz musicians’ conceptualizations of their art form; to investigate how they deal with such difficulties. The interviewees favour a metaphorical rather than literal interpretation of the concept of storytelling: for instance, as communication, expression, mission or vision. Their understanding of storytelling tends to focus on the how—rather than the what—of narrative. In their view, the narrative potential of jazz is connected in significant ways to the music’s ontological status as situated activity, including perspectives that concern the con- struction of musical meaning through narrativization of intra-musical patterns, as well as the significance of cultural competence. In sum, jazz practitioners’ understanding of jazz ‘storytelling’ emerges as an important way of dealing with issues of meaning in mus (Less)","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67543096","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}
Pub Date : 2015-04-20DOI: 10.1558/JAZZ.V8I1-2.27135
Bruce Johnson
IntroductionAs one of the first musics mediated by modern technologies, jazz was circulated globally with a rapidity unprecedented for any other new music. As early as 1922, US journalist Burnet Hershey reported that in his recent journey around the world he found jazz everywhere (Walser 1999: 26). The speed of its international circulation tells us as much about modernity itself as about the music that became its anthem. Curious, then, that it has taken so long for the history of diasporic jazz to be taken seriously. The jazz narrative has been overwhelmingly US-centric for most of the music's history, with jazz outside the US generally neglected as some kind of inauthentic reflection of the 'real thing'. This is a deeply conservative approach to the study of a modern cultural form, telling us, for example, very little about the dynamics of globalization/glocalization in relation to a genre that may be regarded as having created the modern musical template. Indeed, that jazz came to be regarded as the quintessential new music of the twentieth century was itself a phenomenon of its diasporic process. On the basis of their own reports (see for example Shapiro and Hentoff 1955, especially 3-74) musicians in what is regarded as the birthplace of the music, New Orleans, thought of themselves as bearers of a local semi-folk tradition, not as harbingers of internationalist modernity. It was the new audiences in diasporic sites that made the music the anthem of all that was modern, emancipative and thus threatening to tradition.The further from the source, the more comprehensively was that association defined, and this is partly because of the primary diasporic media. Jazz was a music disseminated, especially beyond the US, largely by recordings, radio and film. It was thus delivered via the medium not of provincial folk traditions but by technologies that coded it as of an increasingly internationalized New World that represented the future. It was in the diasporic process that jazz became, internationally, the soundtrack to modernity (see further Johnson 2000: 7-27; Johnson forthcoming). Jazz was not invented then exported, arriving in some contaminated and enervated form, but was continuously invented in the diasporic process, which thus contributes to, rather than compromises, the jazz tradition (see further Johnson 2002a: passim). Even where diasporic jazz has attracted attention, what are in many ways the most instructive forms have been overlooked and even scorned for their embarrassing gaucherie-that is, the earliest attempts to make local sense of the music, before its international, placeless codification from the 1960s through such infrastructures as the LP, its cover notes, jazz education programmes and fake books. To me there are more telling lessons in a non-US recording from the 1920s of Edwardian dance-band or vaudeville trained musicians still trying to find their feet, than a diasporic 1960s performance by musicians whose greatest prid
{"title":"Editorial: Jazz in Australasia","authors":"Bruce Johnson","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V8I1-2.27135","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V8I1-2.27135","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionAs one of the first musics mediated by modern technologies, jazz was circulated globally with a rapidity unprecedented for any other new music. As early as 1922, US journalist Burnet Hershey reported that in his recent journey around the world he found jazz everywhere (Walser 1999: 26). The speed of its international circulation tells us as much about modernity itself as about the music that became its anthem. Curious, then, that it has taken so long for the history of diasporic jazz to be taken seriously. The jazz narrative has been overwhelmingly US-centric for most of the music's history, with jazz outside the US generally neglected as some kind of inauthentic reflection of the 'real thing'. This is a deeply conservative approach to the study of a modern cultural form, telling us, for example, very little about the dynamics of globalization/glocalization in relation to a genre that may be regarded as having created the modern musical template. Indeed, that jazz came to be regarded as the quintessential new music of the twentieth century was itself a phenomenon of its diasporic process. On the basis of their own reports (see for example Shapiro and Hentoff 1955, especially 3-74) musicians in what is regarded as the birthplace of the music, New Orleans, thought of themselves as bearers of a local semi-folk tradition, not as harbingers of internationalist modernity. It was the new audiences in diasporic sites that made the music the anthem of all that was modern, emancipative and thus threatening to tradition.The further from the source, the more comprehensively was that association defined, and this is partly because of the primary diasporic media. Jazz was a music disseminated, especially beyond the US, largely by recordings, radio and film. It was thus delivered via the medium not of provincial folk traditions but by technologies that coded it as of an increasingly internationalized New World that represented the future. It was in the diasporic process that jazz became, internationally, the soundtrack to modernity (see further Johnson 2000: 7-27; Johnson forthcoming). Jazz was not invented then exported, arriving in some contaminated and enervated form, but was continuously invented in the diasporic process, which thus contributes to, rather than compromises, the jazz tradition (see further Johnson 2002a: passim). Even where diasporic jazz has attracted attention, what are in many ways the most instructive forms have been overlooked and even scorned for their embarrassing gaucherie-that is, the earliest attempts to make local sense of the music, before its international, placeless codification from the 1960s through such infrastructures as the LP, its cover notes, jazz education programmes and fake books. To me there are more telling lessons in a non-US recording from the 1920s of Edwardian dance-band or vaudeville trained musicians still trying to find their feet, than a diasporic 1960s performance by musicians whose greatest prid","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67543182","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}
Pub Date : 2015-04-20DOI: 10.1558/jazz.v8i1-2.26878
Brent Keogh
IntroductionMusic festivals have been broadly defined as 'a series of performances, of a generally celebratory nature, given by large numbers of individuals and groups over a limited period of time' (Kernfield 1988: 360). Music festivals have become a significant subject of analysis in the study of popular music, particularly since the 1990s (Gibson 2007: 65). The attraction of studying festivals most probably arises from the increased number of festivals from this period, but also from the ways in which festivals transform spaces, contribute to local economies and have become focal points in the musical and cultural fabric of communities across the globe (Curtis 2010: 102; Gibson and Connell 2012: 4). Music festivals have also proven to be interesting case studies of 'neo-tribalism', which employ Maffesoli's (1995) theoretical framework to describe and study festivals as informal networks that provide spaces for solidarity and belonging, proximity, hedonism and a politics of survival (Riley et al. 2010: 348; see also Bennett 1999). Festivals also provide new forms (albeit rather fleeting) of sociality through shared consumption patterns, commodities and branding (Cummings 2007: 2).Reflecting global trends, music festivals in Australia have become increasingly important sites of cultural expression, characterized by the complex interrelation of sounds, space, economies, power structures, producers, consumers and cultural intermediaries. The significance of music festivals in Australia is evidenced by Graeme Smith's (2005: 67) argument that music festivals have become 'the most important public activity' in Australian folk music from the 1990s onwards. More specifically in regards to jazz festivals, Australia is historically significant as it is possibly one of the first places to hold jazz festivals in the world (Johnson 2003: 276). Jazz festivals are particularly significant to studies of music festivals in Australia, not only because of the significance of jazz generally in the shaping of national identity (Johnson 2010: 54), but also because jazz festivals represent the second largest number of music festivals in the country (17.4% of all music festivals in 2006-2007) behind country music (Gibson 2007: 70).Jazz festivals became widespread throughout Australia from the 1960s, and a boom in jazz festivals in the 1990s corresponds to broader trends in Australian festivals (Gibson 2007: 65; Johnson 2003: 276). A number of reasons have been given to explain the rise in these festivals. Gibson (2007: 71) argues that one of the reasons for the rise in the popularity of jazz festivals in Australia is the creation of a network of 'inland heritage tourism', and the ways in which festivals particularly contribute to the local economies of rural towns in Australia. Curtis (2010: 106) has made a similar argument in her study of Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues (hereafter Wangaratta), where the residents of Wangaratta were pleased about the cultural an
{"title":"'A tale of five festivals' : exploring the cultural intermediary function of Australian jazz festivals","authors":"Brent Keogh","doi":"10.1558/jazz.v8i1-2.26878","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v8i1-2.26878","url":null,"abstract":"IntroductionMusic festivals have been broadly defined as 'a series of performances, of a generally celebratory nature, given by large numbers of individuals and groups over a limited period of time' (Kernfield 1988: 360). Music festivals have become a significant subject of analysis in the study of popular music, particularly since the 1990s (Gibson 2007: 65). The attraction of studying festivals most probably arises from the increased number of festivals from this period, but also from the ways in which festivals transform spaces, contribute to local economies and have become focal points in the musical and cultural fabric of communities across the globe (Curtis 2010: 102; Gibson and Connell 2012: 4). Music festivals have also proven to be interesting case studies of 'neo-tribalism', which employ Maffesoli's (1995) theoretical framework to describe and study festivals as informal networks that provide spaces for solidarity and belonging, proximity, hedonism and a politics of survival (Riley et al. 2010: 348; see also Bennett 1999). Festivals also provide new forms (albeit rather fleeting) of sociality through shared consumption patterns, commodities and branding (Cummings 2007: 2).Reflecting global trends, music festivals in Australia have become increasingly important sites of cultural expression, characterized by the complex interrelation of sounds, space, economies, power structures, producers, consumers and cultural intermediaries. The significance of music festivals in Australia is evidenced by Graeme Smith's (2005: 67) argument that music festivals have become 'the most important public activity' in Australian folk music from the 1990s onwards. More specifically in regards to jazz festivals, Australia is historically significant as it is possibly one of the first places to hold jazz festivals in the world (Johnson 2003: 276). Jazz festivals are particularly significant to studies of music festivals in Australia, not only because of the significance of jazz generally in the shaping of national identity (Johnson 2010: 54), but also because jazz festivals represent the second largest number of music festivals in the country (17.4% of all music festivals in 2006-2007) behind country music (Gibson 2007: 70).Jazz festivals became widespread throughout Australia from the 1960s, and a boom in jazz festivals in the 1990s corresponds to broader trends in Australian festivals (Gibson 2007: 65; Johnson 2003: 276). A number of reasons have been given to explain the rise in these festivals. Gibson (2007: 71) argues that one of the reasons for the rise in the popularity of jazz festivals in Australia is the creation of a network of 'inland heritage tourism', and the ways in which festivals particularly contribute to the local economies of rural towns in Australia. Curtis (2010: 106) has made a similar argument in her study of Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues (hereafter Wangaratta), where the residents of Wangaratta were pleased about the cultural an","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67542985","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}
Book reviews of: Peter Pullman, Wail: The Life of Bud Powell . New York: Peter Pullman, LCC, 2012. 488 pp. ISBN 978-0-9851418-1-3 (pbk). $19.99. Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr, The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. 240 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-24391-0 (hbk). £24.95/$34.95.
{"title":"Wail: The Life of Bud Powell , and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop","authors":"Pierre-Emmanuel Seguin","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.28288","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.28288","url":null,"abstract":"Book reviews of:\u0000\u0000Peter Pullman, Wail: The Life of Bud Powell . New York: Peter Pullman, LCC, 2012. 488 pp. ISBN 978-0-9851418-1-3 (pbk). $19.99.\u0000\u0000Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr, The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop . Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. 240 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-24391-0 (hbk). £24.95/$34.95.","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67543771","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":"Ellen Johnson, Jazz Child: A Portrait of Sheila Jordan . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. xvii + 234 pp. ISBN 978-0-8108-8837-1 (e-book). $54.99","authors":"James Aldridge","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.28042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.28042","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67543384","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":"Bruce Epperson, More Important than the Music: A History of Jazz Discography . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. xvi + 284 pp. ISBN 978-0-226- 06753-7 (hbk). $45.00","authors":"Maristella Feustle","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.25529","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V9I1.25529","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67543242","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}
Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense. Michael Rivoira, Lars Larson and Peter J. Vogt, directors. John W. Comerford and Theo N. Ianuly, producers. Lars Larson, director of photography. Paradigm Studio. 2009. DVD B002RNO1BW.The documentary Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense makes a case for jazz as a living culture and growing art form in North America and Europe. Jazz artists, including Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane, Bill Frisell, Donald Harrison, Wynton Marsalis and Esperanza Spalding, provide the film's primary voices; these musicians, along with others, address how they reconcile the demands of tradition with the realities of changing audiences and markets. This is no small task because, as the documentary demonstrates, jazz is comprised of a fractured and contested set of overlapping and often conflicting values and practices. Because of this approach, Icons provides an alternative narrative to Ken Burns's Jazz (2000), which has drawn criticism for portraying jazz as a uniform expression of American democratic ideals rather than a multiplicity of stories struggling to be told.1This 93-minute documentary is presented in a traditional style with talking heads interspersed with performances and other B-roll material. This format allows the viewer to connect the featured musicians' personalities to their live performances while not getting mired in extended concert footage or thirdparty pontifications. We see the jazz musician as a working artist, struggling with their craft while negotiating shifting economic and social worlds. We are also taken into the contemporary contexts of jazz, from grimy college bars, to concert halls; from outdoor festivals to street corners and intimate clubs. Few viewers will miss the stark contrast of saxophonist Skerik's (Eric Walton) punk-laced mosh-inducing performance in a cramped and sweaty bar with clarinetist Anat Cohen's delicately crafted interpretations of American songbook standards for reserved Manhattan listeners.The central theme of the documentary emerges from a survey of musicians' attitudes towards the idea of change, a long-contested concept in jazz. The viewer quickly realizes that while the various musicians interviewed in Icons draw from a common tradition of music-making, they interpret that tradition in widely varied ways. The documentary opens with trumpeter Nicholas Payton's enigmatic statement, 'The truth never remains the same and to me a lie is anything that has nothing to do with now'. While setting a revisionist tone, this statement does little to clarify what the boundaries of change are or should be in jazz. For guitarist Bill Frisell, the boundaries of change are theoretically limitless:I just don't like it when the name of something has the effect of exclud - ing. If you say it's one thing then it can't be something else. That doesn't work for me because the words are always smaller than whatever it is you're trying to describe. For me jazz is infinite.
《我们中的偶像:现在时的爵士乐》。导演迈克尔·里沃拉，拉尔斯·拉尔森和彼得·j·沃格特。John W. Comerford和Theo N. Ianuly，制片人。Lars Larson，摄影总监。范式工作室，2009。DVD B002RNO1BW。纪录片《我们中间的偶像:现在时的爵士乐》证明了爵士乐在北美和欧洲是一种活生生的文化和不断发展的艺术形式。包括尼古拉斯·佩顿、特伦斯·布兰查德、拉维·科尔特兰、比尔·弗里塞尔、唐纳德·哈里森、温顿·马萨利斯和埃斯佩朗莎·斯伯丁在内的爵士艺术家为这部电影提供了主要声音;这些音乐家，连同其他人，解决他们如何调和传统的要求与不断变化的受众和市场的现实。这不是一项简单的任务，因为正如这部纪录片所展示的那样，爵士乐是由一系列相互重叠、经常相互冲突的价值观和实践组成的，这些价值观和实践是支离破碎、有争议的。由于这种方法，《偶像》为肯·伯恩斯(Ken Burns)的《爵士乐》(2000)提供了另一种叙事方式，后者因将爵士乐描绘成美国民主理想的统一表达而不是努力讲述的多种故事而受到批评。1 .这部93分钟的纪录片以传统的风格呈现，在节目中穿插着表演和其他B-roll材料。这种形式允许观众将特色音乐家的个性与他们的现场表演联系起来，而不会陷入延长的音乐会镜头或第三方的断言中。在我们看来，爵士音乐家是一位在职艺术家，在与不断变化的经济和社会世界进行谈判的同时，还在为自己的技艺而奋斗。我们也被带入爵士乐的当代语境，从肮脏的大学酒吧到音乐厅;从户外节日到街角和亲密俱乐部。很少有观众会错过萨克斯管演奏家斯克里克(埃里克·沃尔顿饰)在拥挤而闷热的酒吧里的朋克风格的舞曲表演，以及单簧管演奏家阿纳特·科恩为保守的曼哈顿听众精心演绎的美国歌曲标准的鲜明对比。这部纪录片的中心主题来自于对音乐家们对爵士乐中一个长期存在争议的概念——改变的态度的调查。观众很快就会意识到，虽然《偶像》中采访的各种音乐家都来自一个共同的音乐制作传统，但他们对这个传统的诠释却各不相同。这部纪录片以号手尼古拉斯·佩顿神秘的声明开场:“真相永远不会一成不变，对我来说，谎言就是与现在无关的任何事情。”虽然设定了修正主义的基调，但这句话并没有澄清爵士乐中变化的界限是什么或应该是什么。对于吉他手Bill Frisell来说，变化的边界在理论上是无限的:我只是不喜欢某物的名字有排斥的效果。如果你说这是一件事，那就不可能是别的事。这对我不起作用，因为这些词总是比你想要描述的东西小。对我来说，爵士乐是无限的。在弗里塞尔的世界里，爵士乐是一种快乐地解构世界和测试文化界限的手段。他对鲍勃·迪伦(Bob Dylan)的《战争大师》(Masters of War)的沉思诠释就是一个很好的例子。小号手温顿·马萨利斯和学者保罗·德·巴罗斯用对爵士乐历史的本质主义解读来反驳弗里塞尔乌托邦式的爵士乐艺术景观。马萨利斯说:“在爵士乐方面，有趣的是，我们是世界上唯一一个创造了一种艺术形式，然后试图找出如何让它没有定义的人。”这种说法的基础是爵士乐的身份取决于一个定义，而不是许多重叠和有争议的定义。马萨利斯关注的是音乐家的审美选择，而德·巴罗斯指出，当代音乐家缺乏社会参与是爵士乐目前被听众和市场剥夺权利的根源。正如他所说，“如果你问李·摩根和桑尼·罗林斯他们的音乐在说什么，他们会说，‘我是一个白人社会中的黑人，我有话要说，我需要被听到。．．．
{"title":"Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense . Michael Rivoira, Lars Larson and Peter J. Vogt, directors. John W. Comerford and Theo N. Ianuly, producers. Lars Larson, director of photography. Paradigm Studio. 2009. DVD B002RNO1BW","authors":"Colter Harper","doi":"10.1558/jazz.v7i2.16482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jazz.v7i2.16482","url":null,"abstract":"Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense. Michael Rivoira, Lars Larson and Peter J. Vogt, directors. John W. Comerford and Theo N. Ianuly, producers. Lars Larson, director of photography. Paradigm Studio. 2009. DVD B002RNO1BW.The documentary Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense makes a case for jazz as a living culture and growing art form in North America and Europe. Jazz artists, including Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, Ravi Coltrane, Bill Frisell, Donald Harrison, Wynton Marsalis and Esperanza Spalding, provide the film's primary voices; these musicians, along with others, address how they reconcile the demands of tradition with the realities of changing audiences and markets. This is no small task because, as the documentary demonstrates, jazz is comprised of a fractured and contested set of overlapping and often conflicting values and practices. Because of this approach, Icons provides an alternative narrative to Ken Burns's Jazz (2000), which has drawn criticism for portraying jazz as a uniform expression of American democratic ideals rather than a multiplicity of stories struggling to be told.1This 93-minute documentary is presented in a traditional style with talking heads interspersed with performances and other B-roll material. This format allows the viewer to connect the featured musicians' personalities to their live performances while not getting mired in extended concert footage or thirdparty pontifications. We see the jazz musician as a working artist, struggling with their craft while negotiating shifting economic and social worlds. We are also taken into the contemporary contexts of jazz, from grimy college bars, to concert halls; from outdoor festivals to street corners and intimate clubs. Few viewers will miss the stark contrast of saxophonist Skerik's (Eric Walton) punk-laced mosh-inducing performance in a cramped and sweaty bar with clarinetist Anat Cohen's delicately crafted interpretations of American songbook standards for reserved Manhattan listeners.The central theme of the documentary emerges from a survey of musicians' attitudes towards the idea of change, a long-contested concept in jazz. The viewer quickly realizes that while the various musicians interviewed in Icons draw from a common tradition of music-making, they interpret that tradition in widely varied ways. The documentary opens with trumpeter Nicholas Payton's enigmatic statement, 'The truth never remains the same and to me a lie is anything that has nothing to do with now'. While setting a revisionist tone, this statement does little to clarify what the boundaries of change are or should be in jazz. For guitarist Bill Frisell, the boundaries of change are theoretically limitless:I just don't like it when the name of something has the effect of exclud - ing. If you say it's one thing then it can't be something else. That doesn't work for me because the words are always smaller than whatever it is you're trying to describe. For me jazz is infinite.","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67542474","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}
In the 1940s, pianist Lennie Tristano was among the first to attempt to teach jazz improvisation as an area of study distinct from instrumental technique. In doing so, he employed a methodology which was considered highly unorthodox at the time and which is still somewhat unique for jazz pedagogy. Chief among these unorthodox pedagogical devices was the use of visualization and other mental techniques for musical practice and composition. These methods enabled students to separate imaginative musical experiences from the habits of muscle memory, while at the same time speeding the acquisition of certain digital techniques and developing the musical imagination. Visualization techniques also served to extend available practice time for students who lacked space suited to audible instrumental practice, and to those who were working day jobs and had limited time available for instrumental practice. Recent studies in brain plasticity bear out Tristano’s intuitive use of mental techniques as a useful addendum to more traditional forms of instrumental and compositional practice. Though certainly not the first to emphasize the importance of mental conditioning and imaginative practice methods, Tristano’s use of them within a methodology for jazz instruction constitutes a unique pedagogical approach worthy of further research and discussion.
{"title":"Jedi mind tricks: Lennie Tristano and techniques for imaginative musical practice","authors":"Marian Jago","doi":"10.1558/JAZZ.V7I2.20971","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JAZZ.V7I2.20971","url":null,"abstract":"In the 1940s, pianist Lennie Tristano was among the first to attempt to teach jazz improvisation as an area of study distinct from instrumental technique. In doing so, he employed a methodology which was considered highly unorthodox at the time and which is still somewhat unique for jazz pedagogy. Chief among these unorthodox pedagogical devices was the use of visualization and other mental techniques for musical practice and composition. These methods enabled students to separate imaginative musical experiences from the habits of muscle memory, while at the same time speeding the acquisition of certain digital techniques and developing the musical imagination. \u0000 Visualization techniques also served to extend available practice time for students who lacked space suited to audible instrumental practice, and to those who were working day jobs and had limited time available for instrumental practice. Recent studies in brain plasticity bear out Tristano’s intuitive use of mental techniques as a useful addendum to more traditional forms of instrumental and compositional practice. Though certainly not the first to emphasize the importance of mental conditioning and imaginative practice methods, Tristano’s use of them within a methodology for jazz instruction constitutes a unique pedagogical approach worthy of further research and discussion.","PeriodicalId":40438,"journal":{"name":"Jazz Research Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67542808","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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