Editor’s Note

There are probably as many ways to think about jazz as there are, well, people who are thinking about jazz. Musicologists, theorists, cultural historians, sociologists, and individuals in many other disciplines bring their expertise to bear on the music, providing a rich chorus of scholarly and critical voices. The articles in this issue of Jazz Perspectives reflect such approaches, coming at the music from widely divergent perspectives. In the first article, Dean Reynolds examines some particular developments in the contemporary jazz scene, particularly with respect to the use of electronic effects more commonly associated with popular genres such as rap and electronic dance music. Reynolds suggests that such developments, spearheaded by artists such as Remy Le Bouef, Robert Glasper, and Aiden Carroll, to name a few, reflect what he terms a “recording-oriented” aesthetic (as distinct from an emphasis on live performance). Reynolds places these artists at the forefront of a movement which calls into question basic ideas about the role of production in jazz. Following this, Tobin Chodos contributes a deeply historicized look at the different ways to conceptualize the “blues scale” in jazz writing. Beginning in the 1930s, Chodos spotlights the ways in which scholars, performers, and composers have grappled with a theoretical concept that is at once ubiquitous in jazz improvisation, but which seemingly defies easy description. It was, as Chodos argues, the emergence of major jazz pedagogues such as Jamey Aebersold in the 1960s that would prove to the catalyst for a commonly accepted blues scalar concept in jazz theory and pedagogy. Our third and final article in this issue comes to us from Vietnam. Stan B. H. TanTangbau brings us the story of Quyêǹ Văn Minh, saxophonist and pioneering figure in Vietnamese jazz. Tan-Tangbau centers Minh’s voice in this narrative, but also provides important cultural and historical perspectives. The resulting narrative is a fascinating portrait of one artist’s quest to bring jazz into the public eye within the context of a nation that was emerging first from colonial domination, and then a devastating war. Minh’s story ought to be considered as a seminal case study in the intersections between jazz and particular local and national histories, and Tan-Tangbau’s work represents an important contribution to the increasingly globally-focused field of jazz studies. This issue also features a review essay by Rashida Braggs, on Carol Bash’s documentary devoted to pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams. And as always, we welcome your own contributions to these conversations, and to the growing, complex conversation that is contemporary jazz studies.