Jazzkonferenzen
Jazz Conferences

 


This page contains information on scholarly conferences on jazz related subjects. Please note that one of the longest running regular jazz conferences is held in Darmstadt. It is the "Darmstadt Jazzforum", held every other year (2007, 2009, 2011 ...) since 1989.

If you have any additions to this listing, please let us know:
Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, Bessunger Strasse 88d, D-64285 Darmstadt, Germany, e-mail: jazz@jazzinstitut.de

 

IJS Roundtable (2004-2010)

Regular series of lectures and discussions organized by the Institute of Jazz Studies

All programs are free and open to the public, and take place Wednesday evenings from 7 to 9 pm in the Dana Room, 4th floor, Dana Library, Rutgers University, 185 University Ave., Newark, NJ. Refreshments will be served. For further information please call (973) 353-5595.

Website: http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/IJS/
[We keep the old subjects in the list as readers might be interested in who researches what.]

Program:

  • 4. April 2012: Radam Schwartz: Organ Jazz
  • 7. March 2012: Eunmi Shim: Lennie Tristano
  • 15. February 2012: Leonard Brown: John Coltrane and Black Spirituality
  • 18. January 2012: Aaron J. Johnson. Jazz and Radio in the United States
  • 7. December 2011: Tad Hershorn: The Archival Norman Granz
  • 16. November 2011: Dorthaan Kirk: My Life with Rahsaan Kirk and with WBGO-FM
  • 19. October 2011: Ed Green: Duke Ellington's Afro-Eurasian Eclipse
  • 21. September 2011: Dr. Michael Kahr: The Life and Music of pianist and composer Clare Fischer
  • 13. April 2011: Charlie Lester: Jazz Migration
  • 23. March 2011: Josh Duffee: Chauncey Morehouse
  • 16. February 2011: Susheel Kurien: Jazz in India - Uncovering the Story
  • 19. January 2011: Gretchen Michelson: Harry Connick Jr.: When Entertainment Meets Art
  • 8. December 2010: Vincent Gardner: topic to be announced
  • 17. November 2010: Jamale Davis, Jared Negley, Joe Peterson: Bottoms Up: The Bass in Jazz (with performance)
  • 6. October 2010: Alf Arvidson: Raising Status: How Jazz Was Accepted as High Art and Swedish Cultural Politics, 1950-1975
  • 29. September 2010: Ed Berger: Benny Carter's Collection--New Discoveries/Old Favorites
  • 21. April 2010: Alex Rodriguez: White and Blue: The Jazz Legacy of Jack Teagarden
  • 24. March 2010: guest: Larry Ridley discusses his life as a musician and educator
  • 10. February 2010: Jeff Sultanof: Putting the Parts Together - The Birth of the Cool: From Storage to Bookstore
  • 20. January 2010: Sean Lorre: Guitarist Marc Ribot
  • 09. December 2009: Paul Brady: Django and Dizzy
  • 11. November 2009: Chris White: A Life in Jazz
  • 14. October 2009: Allen Lowe: When Did the Blues Leave? Looking at Down From Up
  • 23. September 2009: Pianist Marty Napoleon and Trumpeter Randy Sandke: Interview and Performance
  • 6. May 2009: Grant Gardner: Jimmy Giuffre: Gentle Radical
  • 8. April 2009: Dennis Brown: Gene Krupa
  • 11. March 2009: Terry Josephson: "Cafe Society: The wrong place for the Right People,"
  • 11. February 2009: David Mattock: Dr. Lonnie Smith
  • 21. January 2009: Paul Machlin: Swing, Scarlatti, and Standards:  Teddy Wilson's "China Boy"
  • 3. December 2008: Hyland Harris: Drummer Joe Harris
  • 12. November 2008: April Grier: Women in the Jazz Industry
  • 15. October 2008: Randy Sandke hosts pianist Marty Napoleon (discussion and performance)
  • 24. September 2008: Ratzo B. Harris: Current Research on Native American Music in Jazz
  • 16. April 2008: Ricky Riccardi: Louis Armstrong-Rare Video Footage
  • 12. March 2008: Matthew Leskovic: Jazz and the Counterculture: The Career of Charles Lloyd
  • 20. February 2008: David Tenenholtz: Jazz in Swedish: The Career and Legacy of Jan Johansson
  • 23. January 2008: Todd Weeks: Hot Lips Page Centennial Retrospective
  • 12. December 2007: Ed Berger: Benny Carter Centennial Retrospective
  • 14. November 2007: Dean Alger: Lonnie Johnson
  • 17. October 2007: William Bauer: Armstrong's Cornet and Vocal Solos on Hotter Than That
  • 19. September 2007: Noal Cohen/Steve Albin: Progress and Problems in Modern-Day Jazz Discography
  • 6. June 2007: Ed Green: Duke Ellington: Master of Motivic Composition--a Technical and Philosophic Appreciation
  • 2. May 2007: Andrew Homzy: Francy Boland: The Duke from Namur
  • 18. April 2007: [to be announced]
  • 21. March 2007: Anne Dvinge: Between History and Hearsay: Imagining the Jazz Community at the Turn of the 21st Century
  • 14. February 2007: A Visit with Trumpeter Joe Wilder in Celebration of His 85th Birthday
  • 31. January 2007: Ricky Riccardi: Louis Armstrong's Later Years, pt. 2
  • 14. December 2006: Jennifer Griffith: Signifying on His Jellyroll Soul: Collective Practices and Early Jazz in Charles Mingus's Jazz Workshop
  • 16. November 2006: Ed Berger: Studio Editing: Moral and Discographical Dilemmas
  • 12. Oktober 2006: Randy Sandke: Metatonal Music: a New Style of Jazz
  • 20. September 2006: Cassandra Wilson: The Role of Black Feminism in Her Ideology and Music
  • 15. June 2006: Alex Lemski: Creative Music Works and the Denver Jazz Scene
  • 11. May 2006: John Wriggle: Chappie Willett
  • 20. April 2006: Ryan Maloney: The Many Worlds of Teo Macero
  • 6. April 2006: Kate Kaiser: Jutta Hipp
  • 16. March 2006: Ben Bierman: The Music of George Handy
  • 16. February 2006: Ricky Riccardi: Louis Armstrong's Later Years Revisited
  • 19. January 2006: Don Maggin: Dizzy Gillespie
  • 15. December 2005: Ron Welburn: Native Americans in Jazz
  • 17. November 2005: William Bauer: Comparing Notes: Many Singers/One Standard
  • 13. October 2005: Sherrie Tucker: "Gender, Race, and Brass: Jazzwomen Trumpeting Modernity"
  • 15. September 2005: Larry Appelbaum: Monk/Trane Discoveries
  • 14. July 2005: Monk Rowe: Joe Williams: The Lost Session
  • 16. June 2005: Bob Porter: Questions and Answers--Saxophone solos on R&B Records
  • 10. May 2005: Ed Joffe: The History of Woodwind Doubling in Jazz (with live demonstration/performance)
  • 5. April 2005: Scott Currie: The Vision Festival: A Tenth Year Celebration (with guests)
  • 10. March 2005: William Bauer: Why Not Take All of Him? Louis Armstrong's Vocal Work and its Significance in His Output
  • 17. February 2005: Francesco Martinelli: Trends in European Jazz, 1970-2000
  • 20. January 2005: Todd Weeks: Hot Lips Page
  • 16. December 2004: Dan Morgenstern & Richard M. Sudhalter: Remembering Ristic: A Tribute to Master Restorationist and Musician John R.T. Davies
  • 18. November 2004: Maxine Gordon: In-Dex: Dexter Gordon and the Business of Bebop
  • 14. October 2004: Remembering Bix: The Legacy of Ralph Berton, hosted by Robert Gabrielsky
  • 23. September 2004: John Howland: Bird with Strings
  • 10. June 2004: Terry Monaghan: Lenin and the Lindy Hop
  • 20. May 2004: Richard Sudhalter: Ralph Peer: Many Worlds in One
  • 22. April 2004: Sam Stephenson: Jazz Loft Tapes of Eugene Smith
  • 11. March 2004: Annie Kuebler: The Legacy of John Benson Brooks
  • 12. February 2004: Robin Kelley: Thelonious Monk
  • 22. January 2004: David Hajdu: Billy Eckstine

Gender and Notions of Authenticity in Jazz
10th Nordic Jazz Conference

Arranged by Svenskt visarkiv, Stockholm
August 30-31, 2012

Jazz is the musical form that, perhaps, has best accompanied the emergence of modern society over the last one hundred years.  Jazz is in many ways “urban music,” a synonym for modernity and urban culture’s quest for total liberation.  As a genre, jazz is an aggregate of styles and traditions from near and far that has been well concocted into a music that can be expressed in many different ways. It has brought women and men together in pleasurable urban settings such as dance halls and ballrooms, where social controls that long characterized the countryside, were nearly nonexistent.

Jazz anticipated what was later regarded as rock ‘n’ roll’s youth culture, and the jazz scene could just as well have been described as “sex, drugs, and jazz”; long before the genre of rock music had its breakthrough.

Jazz has, in its various guises, spoken to most people’s attitudes and needs: which could be aesthetic, intellectual, humorous, carnal, political, rebellious, and sensual in their expression. At the same time, jazz has, throughout the whole of its history, propagated myths that have favored certain subjects and rejected others.  With this conference we want to focus on a couple of “unwritten laws”: jazz’ gender and sexual politics, and the deep rooted perception of authenticity.

Despite its close connection to modernity and liberation, it is easy to perceive that jazz, for most of its history, has mainly been a man’s domain.  This applies to musicians as well as listeners (“cookers”).  Among jazz practitioners, women have primarily been, and continue to be, vocalists – from “beautiful” back-up singers meant to promote the orchestra, to independent solo singers with artistic intentions.  Female jazz instrumentalists first began to take their place to a greater extent during the 1970s.  Even researchers, journalists, and writers within the jazz field have, until recently, been almost exclusively men, which of course impacts how jazz history has been written. Is this situation expressed here the same all over the world within the jazz community?

Theme 1: The gender of jazz

How can a music genre, which offers such a great “potential for freedom” still be so homophobic and contain such strong gender stereotypes?  What roles and positions have been possible for both women and men within the jazz world?  And how broadminded has the jazz culture really been regarding questions of sexuality?

Theme 2: The myth of artistic authenticity

A related theme is the myth of artistic authenticity that lives on within the jazz tradition.  These can include the notion that a musician must have lived “life’s downsides” in order to have something genuine to share through one’s music, or that a musician must find one’s “own tone”, in a broad sense, a tone which is closely associated with a musicians identity.  In the earlier days of jazz, a musician’s playing style was often associated with one’s life style. But how is it today, when most jazz musicians come from a comfortable middle class environment, have an academic education, and have chosen to be musicians on a basis different from “an inner necessity”?  Can one actually hear that in the music? What about race and nationality? Can jazz from the Nordic countries be authentic?

Call for Papers

These are some of the questions we hope to explore during the conference.  We welcome presentations that illuminate and problematize the jazz music scene as well as jazz criticism from a gender perspective and/or that deal with ideas of authenticity. The papers may not exceed 20 minutes in length and the conference language will be English. Email your paper title and an abstract (no longer than 1000 signs) to Roger Bergner (roger.bergner@visarkiv.se) at the latest by February 29, 2012.

Keynote speaker: Simon Frith
Professor Simon Frith is a British sociomusicologist, and former rock critic, who specializes in popular music culture. He is currently Tovey Chair of Music at University of Edinburgh.

e welcome your applications and hope to see you in Stockholm!

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Jazz, pouvoir et subversion en France, Allemagne et Russie
Appel à contribution

Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
Centre de Recherches Pluridisciplinaires Multilingues (CRPM – EA 4418)

Colloque international interdisciplinaire les 11 et 12 juin 2012

Jazz, pouvoir et subversion (France, Allemagne, Russie)

En ce début de XXIe siècle, le jazz est considéré comme une musique raffinée, appréciée avant tout par à une élite sociale. Il n’en a pas toujours été ainsi, même si, dès ses premières notes en Europe aux alentours de la Première Guerre mondiale, il fit danser les riches clients du Savoy et d’autres grands hôtels européens.

A ces débuts en Europe, le jazz était une musique de danse, un genre non noble par excellence. Il était interprété par des musiciens noirs qui, bien que nord-américains, n’en étaient pas moins largement considérés comme primitifs. Il venait des grandes métropoles américaines et semblait refléter mieux que tout le nouveau rythme d’une société ultramoderne, démocratique mais standardisée, voire tayloriste, qui n’était pas nécessairement la bienvenue dans tous les milieux de la vieille Europe. Enfin, le jazz eut un succès immédiat et irrépressible dans tout le monde occidental.

Dans le passage progressif à la culture de masse puis à la société de consommation, aujourd’hui à la globalisation, le jazz a accompagné, parfois suscité, des débats souvent très vifs sur la nature de la culture (de masse ou d’élite), sur l’identité (nationale, européenne, occidentale, blanche ou noire…).

Interdit par les dictatures, il fut toléré, car impossible à éradiquer.

Ce colloque a pour but d’explorer ces contradictions, ces peurs et ces espoirs en associant une perspective d’histoire culturelle à l’approche de jazzmen, de musicologues et de spécialistes de la musique jazz qui mettront en regard le discours sur le jazz et la réalité de la musique. Cette double perspective nous permettra de mieux comprendre le pouvoir d’attraction et de répulsion du jazz sur un pouvoir souvent ulcéré par son caractère subversif, mais incapable de résister à son pouvoir de séduction et, plus encore, dans l’incapacité d’endiguer son succès.

L’accent sera mis sur deux époques clés :

  • L’Entre-deux-guerres, en France, en Allemagne et en Union Soviétique : On y vit le jazz surgir et se répandre comme une traînée de poudre, non sans entraîner de nombreux bouleversements dans le monde de la culture et de la musique.
  • Les années 1940 et le début des années 50 où le jazz se fit porteur de résistance et de subversion dans le régime nazi mais aussi dans les pays communistes.

Ces deux Après-guerres sont à la fois des périodes de crise et de grand renouveau culturel. Dans les deux cas, bien que différemment, le jazz fut accueilli comme un souffle de nouveauté diversement apprécié.

Il sera intéressant de s’interroger en outre sur l’image actuelle du jazz dans le monde : dans le monde occidental d’autres supports incarnent désormais la subversion, mais qu’en est-il dans d’autres parties du monde ? Elément fédérateur, ralliement à une culture occidentale ou, au contraire, ouverture à toutes les influences ? Ou, tout simplement, une musique vivante dans un monde en mouvement ?

Appel à communications
Les propositions de communication doivent être adressées pour  le 15 février 2012 (résumé de 20 lignes environ) à l’adresse pcohen-avenel@u-paris10.fr

Publication
Les Communication seront réunies dans un volume collectif dans la collection « TRIP » (Travaux de recherche interdisciplinaires multilingues) chez Peter Lang

Responsable de l’organisation :
Pascale Cohen-Avenel, université Paris Ouest
pcohen-avenel@u-paris10.fr

Responsable : Pascale Cohen-Avenel
Adresse : Pascale Cohen-Avenel, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, 200 avenue de la République, bâtiment V bureau 209 92001 Nanterre cedex

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Call for Papers: Ethics and the Improvising Business

Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation invites submissions for a special issue with the theme "Ethics and the Improvising Business," guest-edited by ICASP Project Director Ajay Heble, Co-Investigator Tina Piper, and Postdoctoral Fellow Mark Laver. We seek contributions from artist/practitioners and from scholars working across the disciplines (music, literature, performance studies, anthropology, organization studies, economics, sociology, gender studies, philosophy, psychology, education, management studies, among others). Potential topics include:

  • What does musical improvisation have to offer as a management model for corporations and not-for-profit organizations?
  • What is the relationship between improvisation and creativity in the global marketplace?
  • How might an improvised ethical framework translate in a for-profit corporate environment?
  • How can improvised praxis and ethics impact Corporate Social Responsibility projects?
  • In what ways are improvisatory ethics manifest in the emergent discourses and practices associated with social innovation?
  • Is it possible for a large corporation to honestly acknowledge and respond to improvising musicians' socioeconomic critiques while continuing to operate within an expansionist, capitalist economic framework?
  • What is at stake when large corporations adopt (or co-opt) musical practices-particularly those associated with subaltern communities?

Musical improvisation represents a profoundly collaborative creative process. The improvised framework demands that musicians collectively, spontaneously negotiate a set of external challenges-possibly including a harmonic progression, a texture, a tempo, a groove, or the expectations of an audience-as well as internal challenges, such as divergent tendencies, tastes, or knowledge bases within the group. A successful negotiation hinges on a dialectic of individual knowledge and collective innovation: musicians depend on the individual years of practice through which they developed their unique technical, listening, and expressive skills, while at the same time responding quickly and spontaneously to the rest of the group (and to other variables in the performance milieu) in a manner that evinces innovation, creativity, and surprise. Therefore, while improvisation depends heavily on a musician's cultivation of individual skills, both the improvised process and the (hopefully successful) outcome of that process are equally shared among members of the group.

In light of the collaborative essence of musical creativity, a growing number of management theorists are looking to group musical improvisation as a model for corporate design. In the post-fordist, global marketplace, sudden change has become a quotidian part of the business experience. Just as a group of improvisers must negotiate sudden musical changes, unanticipated changes in the marketplace demand a similar kind of collaborative response. Faced with the unexpected, many businesses respond with collective flexibility. They establish a profoundly dialogical management structure, encouraging employees of all levels to engage in problem-solving. Akin to the musical knowledge-innovation dialectic, businesses walk the line between what Roger Martin calls reliability and validity, trusting in the knowledge and study that underlies their extant systems and models, while at the same time embracing the promise held by innovation, creativity, and surprise. Above all, they work to engage every individual in the group, giving every employee a sense of collective ownership over the challenges and the solutions.

While this burgeoning area in management studies has focused on the ways in which improvised musical practice might serve as a model for fomenting collective creativity in a corporate environment, very little extant scholarship has addressed the sociopolitical ethics that are so often an intrinsic element of improvised musicking. Because of the putatively intense dialogism and egalitarianism demanded of improvising musicians, scholars of music and culture, and musicians as well, many of them associated with the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP) project, have identified the improvised performance paradigm as a potentially profoundly ethical framework for music making. Indeed, in light of recent global political and economic developments-including the fallout from the ethically vexed speculative investing that led to the dotcom crash of 2000, the 2008 mortgage crisis, and the rise of the Occupy movements in 2011 (and with an eye to growing ethical activism in the consumer base)-ethical concerns have become increasingly urgent for corporations of virtually all stripes. These and countless other events have forced corporations to consider the sociocultural, political, and environmental impact of their actions, and to begin to reconceptualize business policy in terms of social policy. Indeed, a growing number of political power-brokers such as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Davos World Economic Forum founder and executive Chair Klaus Schwab have called on businesses to recognize the emergent ethical obligations that their pervasive influence entails. With this in mind, the communitarian ethics and contra-capitalist critiques that attend to improvised musics around the world are every bit as relevant to management studies as the collaborative modes of creativity that undergird improvisatory praxis.

At the same time, however, it is crucial to consider that improvised musics frequently emerge from marginalized communities around the world. Even where comparatively affluent communities practice the music, it is commonly inextricable from contra-capitalist politics. Improvisation therefore often represents a means of sounding resistance-a kind of "musicking from below" that challenges the logics of the free market economy by purposefully severing aesthetic value from exchange value: from the scope of production and the degree of consumption. With this in mind, a corporate use of improvisation as a model for creative problem-solving that ignores the music's indelible sociopolitical ethic stands as a clear example of hegemonic appropriation and dilution of a provocative, subaltern cultural practice. By the same token, a corporate use of the music that pays lip service to the improvisational ethic in order to obfuscate unethical behaviour in other areas-"greenwashing," for instance, or dedicating a meager proportion of net profit to CSR initiatives in order to achieve marketing goals-constitutes dissimulation at best; at worst, hypocrisy.

Critical academic essays are encouraged but the editors also welcome for consideration artist statements, commentaries, reviews, interviews and experimental textual forms. CSI/ÉCI encourages the submission of audio and visual content to accompany texts. It is the responsibility of the author to ascertain copyright and gain permissions.

Submissions should be 4000-6000 words (shorter essays may also be considered at the discretion of the editors). Please submit completed essays by April 13, 2012. Information on the submission process and examples of previously published work can be found at www.criticalimprov.com. Inquires can also be directly made to csi-eci@uoguelph.ca

Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation is an open-access, peer-reviewed, electronic, academic journal on improvisation, community, and social practice housed at the University of Guelph. The editorial and advisory boards are made up of leading international scholars spanning diverse disciplines. CSI/ÉCI publishes twice a year, in May and December. The journal publishes scholarly essays by artists, activists, and intellectuals, as well as reviews of books, performances, and films.

Michelle Peek
Managing Editor
Critical Studies in Improvisation/ Etudes critiques en improvisation
519-824-4120 Ext 56547

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Leeds International Jazz Education Conference:
Jazz Practice in the 21st Century

Thursday 29 - Friday 30 March 2012

Launched in 1993, the Leeds International Jazz Education Conference is the leading practice-based research event of its kind in Europe. The event welcomes delegates from around the world to participate in crossdisciplinary presentations, performances, workshops and discussion groups

LIJEC also provides opportunities for Leeds College of Music students to showcase their work. LIJEC is an annual event focusing on practice-based jazz research, education, performance and composition. It offers a unique forum for musicians, academics, educators, students, and arts organisers to engage with the latest sounds and emerging ideas in jazz. Along with paper presentations, workshops, performances and jam sessions, there are opportunities for discussion, networking, information exchange, and professional development.

The 18th Leeds International Jazz Education Conference takes place at Leeds College of Music from Thursday 29th to Friday 30th March 2012. LIJEC is an annual event focusing on jazz practice including research addressing education, performance and composition. It is the only conference of its kind in the UK and offers a unique forum for musicians, academics, educators, students, and arts organisers to engage with the latest sounds and ideas in jazz. Along with paper presentations, workshops, performances and jam sessions, there are opportunities for discussion, networking, information exchange, and professional development.

LIJEC 2012 focuses on Jazz Practice in the 21st Century. In keeping with this overarching theme the Postgraduate Studies and Research Centre will be announcing keynotes shortly.

Keynotes TBC

Big Band: The conference will host the National Jazz Youth Orchestra who will give an afternoon workshop and an evening concert on Friday 30th March http://www.nyjo.org.uk/

Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals

The conference committee invites proposals for lecture-recitals, workshops, panels, roundtable discussions and papers surrounding practice-led research. The deadline for the submissions of proposals is Monday 16th January 2012. We welcome presentations that advance the field of jazz composition, jazz education, the emergence of cross-disciplinary thinking and the development of new jazz scholarship. While we invite proposals on any area of jazz research, preference will be given to topics which accord with the conference’s overarching theme and are presented from perspectives of practice-led research. Proposals may address:

Performance and/or composition – including:
• Improvisation
• The use of interactive music technologies and/or live electronics
• Influences outside the jazz tradition/fusion
• The changing language of jazz

Pedagogy – including:
• Pedagogical philosophy and positions
• Teaching and learning jazz composition
• Teaching and learning jazz performance

Individual presentations should be no more than twenty minutes in duration. There may be opportunities for longer slots for lecture-recitals and workshops. Proposals should take the form of a title followed by an abstract of not more than 200 words, and should include details of each presenter(s) including brief biographical description, contact email address and details of affiliation of professional bodies or educational institutions (where appropriate); abstracts may be accompanied by audio and audio-visual materials. The deadline for submissions is Monday 16th January 2012, and decisions will be notified shortly after this date.

Any queries about a proposal should be directed to the LIJEC 2011 Conference Director: Dale Perkins LIJEC@lcm.ac.uk

Website: http://postgraduate.lcm.ac.uk/leeds-international-jazz-education-conference-jazz-practice-21st-century

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Improvisation · Self · Community · World
February 16-19, 2012
William Paterson University
Wayne, New Jersey USA

Improvisation is a gateway to discovery. Improvising as an artist is more than just creating new works of art spontaneously; it is also the process we use as individuals to create ourselves and discover our relationship to the world around us. At our best we transcend to spiritual planes - becoming both more ourselves and more finely tuned to our environment. At our worst, we are confronted with uncomfortable truths that we cannot bypass - we must evolve beyond them to move forward and open up to broader vistas. In every case, we learn, we grow, we share, and most importantly we awaken to who we are.

This year's festival/conference explores the relationship of improvisation to the self and community and everything that entails. Join us for this rare opportunity to share and learn what we all experience about each other and ourselves through improvising together. In addition to music, ISIM welcomes performances and talks from improvisers in dance, theater, film, poetry, performance art, and other fields. Individuals interested inperforming or presenting at the event will find the full Call for Proposals at www.isimprov.org. Proposals will be accepted electronically via the following link: Proposal Submission Form.

Proposals will only be considered from current ISIM members. If you are not yet a member, you are invited to JOIN ISIM. If you are already a member and need to renew, please do so here. If you are proposing a group presentation or performance, all members of your group must be current ISIM members (large ensembles can join at Associate Membership level). Please ensure that your proposal is considered for a slot at the conference by making sure your membership is up to date.

 Proposal Deadline: October 4th, 2011. Notification date: October 11th, 2011

 Questions? Please contact:

Kate Olson, Conference Director, kate@isimprov.org, 307-760-4306

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Histories, aesthetics, and politics of South African jazz:

An indaba convened by the Rhodes University/Mellon Jazz Heritage Project

Conference date: 17 – 18 January 2012
Music Department; Rhodes University; Grahamstown; South Africa

Since the 1920s South Africa has been home to an ever diversifying tradition of jazz musicking and criticism that is arguably second only to that of the United States’ in its historical, aesthetic and political scope. Currently there are numerous South African jazzes that are variously elite, disempowered, black, white, interracial, national, cosmopolitan, commercial, avant-garde, etc. Scholarship on South African jazz reflects this musical and social diversity and includes work from a range of inter/disciplinary and theoretical perspectives – social-historical, ethnomusicological, musical-analytical, literary-theoretical, etc – by established and emerging researchers. Despite thematic continuities across this work, the dispersed disciplinary, geographical and institutional loci of researchers has made it difficult to develop more focused conversations around South African jazz.

The Rhodes University/Mellon jazz heritage indaba seeks to address this situation by striving to bring together scholars working on any aspect of South African jazz. It is envisaged that a peer-reviewed selection of papers presented will be collated within a special issue of SAMUS The keynote speaker is Ingrid Monson who is the Quincy Jones professor of African-American music at Harvard University.

Submission
Abstracts limited to 300 words should be sent before 30 September to Jared Lang (j.lang@ru.ac.za) Rhodes University. Please attach your proposal as a pdf file without mentioning your name or affiliation, providing full contact details in an accompanying e- mail only.

Procedure
Abstracts will be blind-reviewed and applicants will be informed of acceptance by mid October at the latest. .

Organising Committee
Nishlyn Ramanna; Robbie van Niekerk; Jeff Brukman

The programme committee will be chaired by Jeff Brukman and Christopher Ballantine. There is no conference fee for presenters, but presenters will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses.

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Developing Tomorrow’s Jazz Audiences Today

Jazz Education Network Conference
4. - 7. January 2012, Louisville, Kentucky

Call for Conference Papers

Deadline: August 15th, 2011 - Midnight EDT
Please be advised that you must be a current member of JEN in order to submit an application.

The third annual Jazz Education Network Conference, January 4-7, Louisville, KY is calling for submission of research papers related to the conference theme: Developing Tomorrow’s Jazz Audiences Today. The research track solicits the submission of original, principled research papers dealing with topics related to audience development for jazz in particular, but also for the arts in general. The research track will run parallel with presentations by the Jazz Arts Group of Columbus on the Jazz Audiences Initiative. Such presentations will include various track offerings, i.e. Marketing and Messaging; Venues; and Presenting and Producing. During the past 18 months, the Jazz Audiences Initiative has studied fundamental questions related to how and why people engage with jazz. Jazz artists, producers, presenters, and educators nationwide will learn new ideas for building audiences, and infusing the art form with new energy. The research serves as a framework for testing new strategies for overcoming barriers to jazz participation and for building jazz audiences through more targeted marketing and programming efforts. For more information on the initiative and a review of the literature, visit: http://www.jazzartsgroup.org/jai

The Jazz Audiences Initiative explored the following key research questions:

  • What does “jazz” mean to people?
  • How do people relate to jazz as an art form?
  • How do people develop preferences for different forms of jazz?
  • What are the pathways into the art form?
  • How much “taste diversity” is there within the jazz audience?
  • What kinds of live jazz experiences do people want?
  • How does setting affect preference and attendance?
  • What are the connections between attendance and personal practice?

Submission guidelines:

Submit a 1-2 page abstract by August 15th, 2011. Papers should directly relate to the research questions above and may include:

  • Historical perspectives on jazz/ arts audiences
  • Quantitative studies
  • Case studies
  • Literature reviews

Submissions need to be Word documents in .doc or .pdf format. Presentations will be 50 minutes in length, including a minimum of 10 minutes for questions and answers. Presenters will also have the opportunity to present their findings in a combined poster/ information session showcasing all accepted research findings. A projector and screen will be available, presenters will need to provide their own computers and projector adapters. Membership in JEN is required to submit an application and applicants agree to attend the JEN Conference if selected.

Completing the JEN Online Application Form is a requirement in order to submit materials related to presenting research at the 2012 Conference. Please be advised materials will not be accepted in any other form and/or after the deadline has passed. In an effort to assist you in this process, we have created the above GUIDELINES specific to what you need to do in order to prepare your materials in advance to complete and submit your application successfully. It is recommended you print this page for reference as you prepare your materials.

Applicants agree to become members of JEN and attend the JEN Conference if selected.

TIMELINE

Stage One:

  • Applications will be taken online through midnight, EDT, August 15th, 2011.
  • Applications will be reviewed between July 31st and August 31st, 2011.
  • All applicants will be notified as early as possible beginning September 1st, 2011.
  • If awarded, applicants must accept the invitation no later than the designated deadline on the acceptance letter..

Stage Two:

  • Request for Additional Information will take place immediately after announcement of acceptance and confirmation to appear late September.
  • Should you receive an invitation to present or perform, it is at this time you will be asked to submit a Bio Request and Photo and other materials for publication online, A/V & Backline requests, Sponsor Listings, etc.
  • Your attention to this detail will ensure we have the materials we need to place your photo and bio online to promote your appearance at the conference.

Stage Three:

  • Request for Credential Information will take place in November, 2011.
  • Presenters will receive One Registration Credential valid for the entire conference.
  • Accepted performers and presenters will be sent a credential form to complete this very important step in the process to ensure that you have a Registration Credential upon arrival to the conference.
  • Anyone attending the conference is required to have a registration badge/credential to move freely about the conference. Spouse credentials are available for a nominal fee.

Contact:

Jazz Education Network
cc/o Symphony Publishing
26202 Detroit Road, Suite 300
Westlake, OH 44145
USA
jazzedmagazine@symphonypublishing.com
http://jazzednet.org

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ASPM-Tagung "Populäre Inszenierungen / Inszenierungen des Populären in der Musik"

Vom 18.-20.11.2011 findet in Paderborn in Kooperation mit der dortigen Universität die ASPM-Tagung "Populäre Inszenierungen / Inszenierungen des Populären" statt.

Weitere Information:

http://aspm.ni.lo-net2.de/info/index.htm

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Democracy and Difference (AISNA Conference)
The United States in Multidisciplinary and Comparative Perspectives
Trento, Italy, October 26-29, 2011

THEME
The focus is on two keywords of contemporary societies—democracy and difference—to consider topics that are central to American Studies, including race/ethnicity, sex/gender, nationality, religion, language, landscape, migration, law, status, economy, dispossession, and expansion. The goal is to share knowledges and methodologies across disciplines, languages, and national cultures in order to investigate processes of homogenization and differentiation, and to embrace transnational, intercultural, and interdisciplinary perspectives  with the aim of fostering cultural dialogue in an interconnected world.

The global tendency towards democratization, combined with the rise of identity politics, is increasingly paralleled on the one hand by renewed reflections upon the foundations of democracy itself and on the other by complex representations of identity grounded on the articulation of difference. How are conceptions of democracy and difference changing under the influence of these forces and in the midst of multiple global crises such as wars and starvation, climate change, and financial instability? What can American Studies and its affiliated areas of inquiry do to provide methods and questions that facilitate consideration of crucial issues and engage contemporary change across disciplines, boundaries, languages, and cultures?

The 21st AISNA Biennial International Conference offers a forum for critical engagement with American Studies—with the US, as well as with “America” and the Americas, Europe and the Americas, the North and the South, and the trans-Atlantic and the intra-Pacific.  Consideration is given to democracy and difference in various social, cultural and institutional contexts, highlighting both interior and international perspectives, as well as to expressions and interpretations of possible interconnections among multicultural societies.  Multidisciplinary and comparative approaches are deployed to map the distinct yet interconnected geographies of the present to engage democracies enriched by difference and differences nourished by democracy—i.e., to provoke a fruitful conjugation of the differencing of democracy with the democratization of differences.

Call for Papers and Contact:
Events, Magazines and Internal Communication office
Tel. +39 0461 283216-3225
Mail: convegni@unitn.it
Web: http://events.unitn.it/en/aisna2011

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12. Darmstädter Jazzforum – 29. September bis 2. Oktober 2011

Jazz. Schule. Medien

... Symposium / Konzertreihe / Workshops / Buchdokumentation ...

mehr HIER !

Jazz als Musik des 20sten Jahrhunderts! / Jazz als Musik des 21sten Jahrhunderts!

Jazz war die Musik des 20sten Jahrhunderts, die Musikform, die als expressive Kraft weit über ihr eigenes Genre hinausgewirkt hat. Selbst im 21sten Jahrhundert gehört der Jazz nach wie vor zu den kreativsten und inspirierendsten Musikformen, weil er durch die ihm eigenen Techniken, allen voran die Improvisation, Musiker zum spontanen Ausdruck ihrer selbst fordert, wie dies sonst kaum eine Kunst tut.

Der Jazz ist eine Musik, die immer auf ihre Umgebung reagiert hat, auf soziale, gesellschaftliche und ästhetische Entwicklungen. Diese Eigenschaft des Jazz, seine direkte Reaktionsfähigkeit, machte ihn immer auch zu einer hochpolitischen Musik, die in Diktaturen aneckte, weil im Jazz Individualismus wichtiger war als Angepasstheit. Der Jazz zeichnet dabei die gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen der Umgebung nach, in der diese Musik stattfindet.

Auf Deutschland bezogen wäre das etwa der künstlerisch-ästhetische Aufbruch der 1920er Jahre; die Rolle des Jazz als Gegenkultur zum Nationalsozialismus in der Zeit des Dritten Reichs; die offene Identifizierung von Jazz, Freiheit und Demokratie nach Kriegsende und Befreiung; die politischen Konnotationen, die der Jazz im Osten Deutschlands als Stimme des Westens und damit einer anderen Gesellschaftsordnung besaß; das neue Verlangen nach Freiheit – auch von Machtstrukturen in den Bürgerrechtsbewegungen der 1960er Jahre; der antiautoritäre Protest der westdeutschen Studentenbewegung der 1970er Jahre; die ästhetischen Diskussionen der Postmoderne der 1980er Jahre; der gesellschaftliche Umbruch im Zuge der Wiedervereinigung in den 1990er Jahren; das neue nationale Selbstbewusstsein, das sich in den ersten zehn Jahren des 21sten Jahrhunderts zeigte.

Im Jazz zeichnen sich all diese Bewegungen nach; mehr als viele andere Künste entwickelt er sich dabei nah am Puls der Zeit. Nach Expressionismus, einem musikalischen Nachkriegs-Strukturalismus und postmodernem Eklektizismus ist der Jazz in seinen zeitgenössischen Ausprägungen bis auf den heutigen Tag eine Stimme der aktuellen Moderne, spiegelt aktuelle Tendenzen ästhetisch wider und versucht diese im Experiment weiterzuentwickeln.

Minderheitenmusik? Schwer verständlich?
Oder einfach nur missverstanden?

Die Intensität des Jazz und seine Positionierung in den letzten Jahrzehnten innerhalb der künstlerischen Avantgarde machten ihn im allgemeinen popmusikalischen Diskurs zu einer randständigen, weil schwer verständlichen Musik. Er sei zu intellektuell, zu komplex, zu anstrengend, zu wenig nachvollziehbar, heißt es da. Und auch der Jazz hat sich scheinbar damit abgefunden, als Minderheitenmusik geführt zu werden. Die Musik sei nun mal "etwas komplizierter", sagen die Fans, wenn der Saal mal wieder nicht so voll ist bei anspruchsvollen Konzerten; man müsse ja schließlich auch einiges Vorwissen mitbringen, entschuldigen sie das überhöhte Alter der Hörer.

Doch ist es tatsächlich so, dass Jazz, und zwar auch anspruchsvoller avancierter Jazz, einem nicht-eingeweihten Publikum nicht zugemutet werden kann? Ist es tatsächlich so, dass ein Grundverständnis über musikalische Kommunikationsstrukturen im Publikum vorhanden sein sollte, damit sie einen Konzertabend (oder gar eine CD) durchstehen? Oder ist das alles eine Mär, die davon ablenken soll, dass "der Jazz" – also alle, die mit seiner Vermittlung zu tun haben, von Musikern über Konzertveranstalter, Pädagogen, Journalisten bis hin zu den Fans – es versäumt hat, die Menschen mitzunehmen auf die musikalische Reise, das Interesse zu halten oder zumindest wieder zu wecken, nachdem es offenbar bereits weitgehend abgestorben war?

12. Darmstädter Jazzforum: Jazz to the People ... Jazz vermitteln

Das 12. Darmstädter Jazzforum widmet sich der heiklen Frage, was zu tun ist, damit die verschiedenen Formen der Musikvermittlung dem Jazz zu dem öffentlichen Ansehen verhelfen, das ihm seiner ästhetischen und sozialen Kompetenz zufolge nach wie vor zusteht. Es fragt dabei nur kurz danach, wie es dazu kommen konnte, dass der Jazz scheinbar einen Großteil seiner Popularität verlor, welche Mechanismen zwischen Ästhetik, Musikwirtschaft und staatlicher Förderung dazu führten, dass der Jazz – im schlechtesten Sinne – als eine elitäre "Kunst"-musik wahrgenommen wird, die sich um ihre Hörer nicht weiter bemühen muss – und inwieweit diese Entwicklung eine globale war oder in verschiedenen Ländern unterschiedliche Ausprägungen erfahren hat.
Vielmehr aber denkt das Darmstädter Jazzforum über potentielle Wege nach vorne nach, analysiert das erstarkte Interesse am europäischen Jazz der vergangenen Jahre genauso wie die damit verbundene selbstbewusster auftretende deutsche (und europäische) Jazzszene und fragt Experten, wie dieser Vorwärtsdrive auch außerhalb der "puren" Jazzszene Effekte zeigen kann.
Jazzvermittlung also heißt das große Thema, und die Unterthemen befassen sich etwa mit der Musikerziehung, welchen Nutzen also Musik- (oder sonstiger) Unterricht von Jazzschwerpunkten an Schulen haben kann und wie sich Jazzprojekte an Schulen realisieren lassen, die ganz genre-unabhängig Lust auf kreative Selbstverwirklichung machen.

Zum Thema Ausbildung gehört auch die Ausbildung an der Hochschule, bei der zu fragen ist, inwieweit Jazzabteilungen Sinn machen, wenn sie nur darauf ausgerichtet sind, Jazzmusiker hervorzubringen und nicht, die ureigenen Kompetenzen des Jazzmusikers in den großen Ausbildungstopf der Hochschule einzubringen, bei dem also jeder, egal ob er oder sie Alte Musik, Oper, Jazz oder Pop zum Studienschwerpunkt macht, sich mit der Improvisation befassen sollte, genauso wie man Kontrapunktkurse belegen muss – und hier haben nun mal die Jazzer die meiste Erfahrung.

Ein weiteres Thema wird die Vermittlung in den Medien sein, in denen der Jazz meist vor allem in Spezialveröffentlichungen abgehandelt wird oder aber – in der Tagespresse – von Hobbyjournalisten, und in denen ein wirklicher Diskurs über Zustand und Entwicklung der Szene kaum stattfindet. Ein drittes Thema ist aber auch die Vermittlung der Szene selbst: Wie gehen Musiker auf ihr Publikum ein, und warum sind Musiker, die großen Publikumserfolg haben, vielen in der Jazzszene so suspekt? Eingeladen werden Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaftler, Pädagogen, Journalisten, PR-Experten, aber auch die praktischen Vermittler, also Musiker und Veranstalter.

Forum = Treffpunkt = Basis für Projekte auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen

Im Rahmen des Darmstädter Jazzforum wollen wir Experten zusammenbringen und aus dem Gespräch, aus den Diskussionen und Workshops lernen, wie die Vermittlung dieser so überaus lebendigen Musik weiterhin so unterstützt werden kann, wie dem Missverständnis, der Jazz sei schwer zugängig, entgegenzusteuern ist.
Das Darmstädter Jazzforum ist für uns dabei zugleich Basis für weiterführende, nachhaltige Maßnahmen wie etwa die Entwicklung eines Moduls zur Einbindung von Jazz in den Unterricht an Allgemeinbildenden Schulen. Hierfür planen wir, Lehrern wie Schülern zu einer Vielzahl an Themen Materialsammlungen zur Verfügung zu stellen, die von Musikbeispielen über Videosequenzen bis hin zu Quellen reichen, mit denen einzelne Themen (ein Stück, ein Musiker, ein Stil, ein Subgenre etc.) sich interdisziplinär von ganz unterschiedlichen Seiten beleuchten lässt, also musikalisch genauso wie etwas sozialgeschichtlich oder literarisch. Dieses Modul "Jazz in die Schule" wird von uns zurzeit als ein Modellprojekt vorbereitet. Für die Umsetzung allerdings ist das Jazzforum als eine Art "Startschuss" wichtiger Ideengeber dessen, was wünschenswert und machbar ist.

Symposium

Zum Symposium vom 29. September bis 1. Oktober 2011 werden Musikwissenschaftler, Historiker, Journalisten, Kollegen aus angrenzenden Fachgebieten und Musiker eingeladen. Das 12. Darmstädter Jazzforum fordert die Referent/innen auf mit ihren jeweils etwa einstündigen Beiträgen in die Vergangenheit, in die Gegenwart und in die Zukunft der Jazzvermittlung in Medien, Ausbildung und auf Bühnen zu blicken.

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Rhythm Changes:
Jazz and National Identities

2-4 September 2011, Amsterdam

The first Rhythm Changes Conference will take place in September 2011 and will be hosted in partnership with the Conservatory of Amsterdam.  The three-day Conference will explore the theme of ‘Jazz and National Identities’ and will include presentations from an international line up of jazz researchers.

Keynote Speakers

  • Professor Bruce Johnson (Universities of Macquarie, Turku and Glasgow)
  • Professor Ronald Radano (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Conference outline

Throughout its history, jazz has played an important part in discourses about national identity, politics and cultural value; indeed, the music continues to play a complex role in the cultural life of nations worldwide. Within this context, jazz is an ideal cultural form from which to explore a number of critical questions bound up with national identity, from the development of national sounds andensembles to the politics of migration and race, from the impact of globalisation and the hybridisation of musical styles to the creation of social institutions and distinct communities, from jazz’s shifting aesthetic status from popular to canonical ‘art’ music.  Jazz has developed in a range of national settings through different influences and interactions, so is ideally placed to explore wider issues surrounding identity and inheritance, enabling unique perspectives on how culture is exchanged, adopted and transformed.

Call for papers

Rhythm Changes is a three day multi-disciplinary conference that brings together leading researchers in the fields of jazz studies, media and cultural studies.  The Conference committee invites papers and panel proposals that feed into the Conference theme and is interested in featuring perspectives from a range of international contexts.  Although not restricted to specific themes, possible topics could include:

  • National identity and jazz
  • Trans-national or post-national jazz sounds
  • Jazz nationalism and nationalistic movements
  • The musical McDonalds?  Jazz and the politics of globalisation
  • Migration and trans-cultural exchange
  • Jazz as quintessentially American music
  • Media dissemination and the spread of jazz culture
  • Jazz as classical, folk or popular music
  • Venues, festivals and the dynamics of culture
  • Jazz and the cold war
  • Exploring sonic identities (African American, the Nordic Tone, South African jazz)
  • Jazz and ‘frontier’ myths
  • National jazz criticism
  • Jazz in urban and rural spaces
  • Interrogating the ‘Afrological’ and ‘Eurological’
  • Jazz racisms, censorship and propaganda
  • Cultural memory and jazz
  • National ensembles and/or trans-national collectives
  • Postcolonial settings for jazz
  • Origins, mythology and the construction of jazz history
  • Modernism, postmodernism and jazz

The Conference committee welcomes individual papers and proposals for panels and round table discussions.  For individual papers, abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted.  Panels and round table proposals should include a session overview, participant biographies and description of individual contributions.  Abstracts and proposals (as well as event queries) should be sent to Professor Walter van de Leur (W.vandeLeur@uva.nl) by 25 February 2011.

Conference Committee

Nicholas Gebhardt (University of Lancaster), George McKay (University of Salford), Walter van de Leur (Conservatory of Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam), and Tony Whyton (University of Salford).

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Leeds International Jazz Conference 2011: Time Captured - Jazz Composition, Composing and Composers

Thursday 7 & Friday 8 April 2011

Launched in 1993, the annual Leeds International Jazz Conference is the leading performance and research-based event of its kind in Europe.  

The event welcomes delegates from around the world to participate in a series of cross-disciplinary presentations, performances, workshops and discussion groups and provides opportunities for Leeds College of Music students to showcase their work. 

Leeds International Jazz Conference 2011: Time Captured - Jazz Composition, Composing and Composers

The 17th Leeds International Jazz Conference takes place at Leeds College of Music from Thursday 7 to Friday 8 April 2011. LIJC is an annual event focusing on jazz research, education, performance and composition. It is the only conference of its kind in the UK and offers a unique forum for musicians, academics, educators, students, and arts organisers to engage with the latest sounds and ideas in jazz. Along with paper presentations, workshops, performances and jam sessions, there are opportunities for discussion, networking, information exchange, and professional development.

LIJC 2011 focuses on the under-explored subject of jazz composition, composing and composers.

Keynote Speakers

In keeping with this overarching theme we are delighted to welcome two eminent keynote presenters:   

Mike Gibbs, distinguished composer, arranger and trombonist is our Jazz Keynote. He will address us on composing, compositional process and the influences contributing to his own distinctive voice and methods. He also offers a workshop for small groups and jazz orchestra. Mike Gibbs has worked with many music luminaries including Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Gary Burton, John Dankworth and Laurie Anderson. Born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) he was awarded scholarships to attend Lenox School of Jazz and Tanglewood Summer School where he studied with Aaron Copland, Gunther Schuller, George Russell, J.J.Johnson, Lukas Foss and Iannis Xenakis. He has several Melody Maker Awards, including First Composer, Best Big Band, Musician of the Year, First Arranger and his own album In the Public Interest was voted Best Album of 1974. He continues to write and arrange for the major European jazz orchestras. A newly commissioned piece will feature in LIJC 2011 with the LCM Jazz Orchestra.

Our academic keynote speaker is Tony Whyton Reader in Music within the School of Media, Music and Performance at Salford University, UK. His first book, Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010, and hot on its heels is a second book Beyond A Love Supreme (Oxford University Press). In his tenure at Leeds College of Music (1998-2007), Tony set up the Centre for Jazz Studies and was founding editor of the international journal The Source: challenging jazz criticism, the first peer reviewed interdisciplinary journal for jazz studies. He now co-edits the internationally peer-reviewed Jazz Research Journal. Tony Whyton has recently been awarded just under €1 million to lead a three-year, collaborative, pan-European project entitled Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities. His work champions the relationship between theory and practice and encourages performers, composers and musicologists to engage critically with music as a discursive cultural practice.

Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals

The conference committee invites proposals for research papers, workshops, lecture-recitals, panels and roundtable discussions.

We welcome presentations that advance the field of jazz composition and composition education, and the emergence of cross-disciplinary thinking and the development of new jazz scholarship. While we invite proposals on any area of jazz research and practice from within any discipline, preference will be given to topics which accord with the conference theme, and may address:

  • Defining composition, defining jazz composition
  • Performance and jazz composition
  • The changing compositional language of jazz
  • Jazz improvisation and composition
  • Improvisation and the jazz composer
  • Teaching and learning jazz composition
  • Critical evaluation of jazz composition
  • Precedent and tradition in jazz composition
  • Composition for small and large jazz ensembles
  • Jazz composition on record
  • The cult of personality and the jazz composer
  • National identities and jazz composition
  • Jazz composing and issues of notation
  • Jazz arranging techniques and aesthetic choices
  • Aesthetics and jazz composition
  • Inspiration and jazz composition
  • Influences on composition from outside jazz
  • The limitations of jazz scholarship for understanding composition

Individual presentations should be no more than twenty minutes in duration. There may be opportunities for longer slots for lecture-recitals and workshops. Proposals should take the form of a title followed by an abstract of not more than 200 words, and should include details of each presenter(s) including brief biographical description.

The deadline for submissions is Monday 10 January, and decisions will be notified shortly after this date.

Any queries about a proposal should be directed to the LIJC 2011 Conference Director: Louise Gibbs l.gibbs@lcm.ac.uk

Submissions should be addressed to: Caroline Stephenson, Academic Administrator, c.stephenson@lcm.ac.uk  or send to:

Leeds College of Music
3 Quarry Hill
Leeds
LS2 7PD
United Kingdom

Attending LIJC 2011

For more information and to make a booking for the conference please contact Louise Wood, Events Manager, on l.wood@lcm.ac.uk

Call for Papers
Jazz Research Journal
Special issue on jazz collectives (Guest-editor: Nicholas Gebhardt)

The interdisciplinary Jazz Research Journal invites contributors to a special issue on post-World War II jazz collectives. The aim of this issue is to explore the various ways in which collectives such as the Jazz Composer's Guild in New York, the A.A.C.M. in Chicago or the Globe Unity Orchestra in Berlin opened up new possibilities for making music and redefining the relationship between jazz musicians and their audiences. Although not restricted to specific themes, possible topics could include:

• The collective as social, political, or cultural phenomenon
• Performance practices
• The history of specific collectives
• Community music
• The relation of improvisation to composition
• The role of collectives in recording, radio and publishing
• The artist-audience relationship
• Organizers and activists
• The politics of venues
• The artist-business relationship
• Collectives and jazz education
• Theories of collectivity
• Mobility and cultural exchange
• Trans-national practices/theories

If you are interested in contributing an essay, interview, or review please email a short proposal to n.gebhardt@lancaster.ac.uk.

Deadline for proposals: 4 March 2011

For further information about the Jazz Research Journal, visit: http://www.equinoxjournals.com/JAZZ/index

For more details on post-WWII jazz collectives and the Rhythm Changes project, see http://www.rhythmchanges.net

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The Use of Audiovisual Resources in Jazz Historiography and Scholarship Performance, Embodiment and Mediatised Representations

Call for Papers
Please note: deadline extended (see below)!

Watching Jazz: Analysing Jazz Performance on Audiovisual Resources

Conference, 18/19 February 2011, University of Glasgow

Keynote address: John Altman

Jazz historiography has traditionally revolved around sound recordings, with still images, written documents and oral histories employed as complementary sources.

Although this approach has generally been regarded as successful, there is growing awareness among scholars of the problematic nature of such heavy reliance on sound recordings. In particular, it has obscured aspects of the music and the cultural practices surrounding it that are not apparent from sound recordings, and has led to the marginalisation of musicians who did not produce their best work in the recording studio.

The AHRC-funded project ‘The Use of Audiovisual Resources in Jazz Historiography and Scholarship Performance, Embodiment and Mediatised Representations', which is part of the ‘Beyond Text' scheme, proposes to address this situation through research based on the Altman Koss Collection of audiovisual recordings of jazz performances. Consisting of more than 10,000 VHS tapes and DVDs, mostly of televised broadcasts, this collection spans the history of jazz, from the invention of sound film to the present, in all its geographic and cultural variety.

Part of the project is a two-day conference, and we hereby invite contributions on all aspects of jazz performance on audiovisual resources. Among the topics to be addressed are:

  • Viewing the Performing Body
  • Group Interaction and Communication
  • Audiences, Venues and Performance Conventions in Comparative Perspective
  • Broadcasting Conventions and Mediatised Representations

It is planned for a selection of the papers to be published in a collected volume. Participants are encouraged to access materials in the Altman Koss Collection to support their research (for details, contact Björn Heile, using the email below).

We invite proposals for individual papers, panels and lecture-recitals. Individual papers should be no more than 30 minutes long, followed by 15 minutes for questions and answers. Proposals for individual papers should be no more than 300 words, and proposals for panels no more than 1000 words. Abstracts should be emailed as an anonymous attachment (doc, rtf or pdf format) to <jazzvideo.conference@googlemail.com> by 1 October 2010 (extended from 1 September). The body of the email should contain the proposal's title(s) and clarify the full name and institutional affiliation (or place of residence) of all proposed participants, as well as the e-mail address that should be used for correspondence. We intend to respond to all potential participants by early November 2010.

The programme committee consists of the project's investigators: Jenny Doctor (University of York), Peter Elsdon (University of Hull) and Björn Heile (conference organiser, University of Sussex/University of Glasgow).

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Filmer le jazz : appel à contributions
(English translation below)

L'appel à contributions de l'ouvrage Filmer le jazz, à paraître aux Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, est renouvelé avec de nouveaux délais. En raison de contraintes matérielles, ce livre ne pourra paraître que dans l’hiver 2010-2011. Le contenu de l'appel à contribution demeure inchangé. Dans le cadre du partenariat festival les "24 heures du Swing" - Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III - Collège jazz Éléonore de Provence, une journée d'étude sur le thème de "Filmer le jazz" s'est tenue en avril 2009. Suite à cette journée, a été décidé de promouvoir un livre intitulé "Filmer le jazz" à paraître aux Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux. On pourra consulter toutes les informations sur les colloques de Monségur, la publication des actes, la table ronde "filmer le jazz"
tenue en 2009, sur le lien suivant : site du festival: http://college.monsegur.free.fr/spip.php?rubrique15

Entre jazz et cinéma, le lien semble consubstantiel. Le premier film parlant de l’histoire contient dans son titre le mot "jazz", ("Le
Chanteur de jazz"). Le cinéma accompagne depuis ses origines la musique jazz, et réciproquement. Ce passé commun a généré une quantité très importante de films liés d’une manière ou d’une autre au jazz et à la danse de jazz. On peut proposer quelques grandes lignes d’approche:

L'axe historique, qui semble étroitement dépendant de l’histoire des techniques d’enregistrement des images et du son, ainsi que des enjeux économiques et sociaux de leur diffusion. Celui des genres, des questions propres aux genres : film long ou court, documentaire, comédie musicale. Quelles sont les places respectives du jazz, de la danse et du film? Musique de film ou film musical? Les approches sous l’angle de l’écriture cinématographique et de la réception de cette écriture, qui consistent à
interroger la place de la musique dans la durée de la fiction, son rôle dans le déroulement narratif, son influence sur l’horizon d’attente des spectateurs ou des auditeurs. Quelle est la place du jazz dans les musiques de films? Celui des techniques et des méthodes. Comment filmer le jazz, l’improvisation ou la danse-jazz? En y intégrant les questions du métier, anecdotes, jargon, questions du milieu professionnel, confrontation entre musiciens et professionnels du cinéma, acteurs, danseurs... Celui de la musique jazz: en quoi est-elle influencée par l’image? À l’écran, le jazz reste-t-il le jazz?

Ce rapide tour d’horizon de grands axes de questionnement montre combien le thème de réflexion autorise quantité d’approches et permet de croiser de multiples disciplines et modalités de réflexion. Les contributions, pourront donc être très variées. Elles pourront se focaliser sur uneépoque, un auteur, un thème de film, un film particulier, voire un plan de film, ou encore sur une forme particulière de jazz ou de danse, sur un musicien ou un danseur, la présence d’un standard dans plusieurs films, ou d’un instrument. Mais elles pourront aussi bien proposer d’embrasser des corpus plus vastes, sous l’angle historique, musical, chorégraphique ou générique… Des interviews de cinéastes ou de musiciens sont bienvenues. Enfin, toute approche permettant d’approfondir et d’éclairer la question centrale du lien entre le jazz et le film, ainsi que le jazz, la danse, et le film sera bienvenue.

Les responsables de l’édition accusent réception de tout article ou de tout projet d’article.

Après lecture du texte ou du projet, dans un délai maximum d’un mois après réception, nous précisons si le texte ou le projet sont acceptés. La limite haute est de 50 000 signes par article, aucune limite basse. Textes en anglais acceptés. L’envoi s’effectue sous forme électronique, format PDF, Word, ou open office de préférence. Par courrier postal, utiliser l'adresse suivante : OMCL, "Colloque jazz", 46 rue St Jean, 33580 Monségur, France. Un jeu d’épreuves est retourné pour ultimes modifications avant publication. Publication: hiver 2010-11.

Calendrier (nouveau):
- Janvier 2011 : épreuves.
- Février 2011 : parution.

Envoyer les textes à:
thierry.maligne@free.fr
pbordes.haegelin@yahoo.fr

Responsable de l'édition : Thierry Maligne.
Responsable adjointe : Paule Bordes-Haegelin.

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Filming Jazz: call for contributions
 
The call for contributions for the book Filmer le Jazz (Filming Jazz) is renewed with new deadlines. Because of practical necessities, this book will not be published before February 2011. The content of the call for contribution remains unchanged. 

A day of study on the subject "Filming Jazz" was organized in April 2009 within the partnership framework of the "24 Heures du Swing Jazz Festival" – “Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III” & “College jazz Eleonore de Provence”. Following this day of conferences it was decided to promote a book titled "Filmer le Jazz" to be soon published by the Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux.

Check information on Monségur, publication of acts, the round table conferences "Filming Jazz" held in 2009 on the following link (website of the festival): http://college.monsegur.free.fr/spip.php?rubrique15

Jazz and Cinema appear to be deeply linked. The first “talkie” in the history of cinema contains the word "jazz" in its title ("The Jazz Singer"). Cinema has been connected to jazz music since its beginning and vice versa. This common past has generated a very significant number of films linked one way or another to jazz and jazz dance.

The following main lines of reflection could thus be put forward: 

The historical point of view which seems to be closely dependent on the history of techniques for recording images and sound, as well as economic and social dissemination issues. Gender, gender-specific issues: long or short film, documentary, musical? What are the respective places of jazz, dance and the film? The musical score of a film vs. a musical film? The angle of cinematographic writing and the reception of that particular writing consisting in questioning the place of music within the fiction, its role in the narrative flow, its influence on the expectations of the viewers or listeners. What is the role/place of jazz in the musical scores of the films?

Techniques and methods. How can jazz, improvisation, or jazz-dance be filmed? By integrating business issues, anecdotes, jargon, workplace issues, meetings between cinema professionals, actors, dancers and musicians...? Jazz music: in what respect is it influenced by the image? Does jazz remains jazz on the screen?  

This rapid overview of the main lines of questioning shows how much this theme allows quantity of approaches and enables to cross multiple disciplines and methods of reflection.

Contributions could therefore be extremely varied and focus on a particular era, an author, a specific film, a precise theme or even plan of a film, a specific form of jazz or dance, a musician or a dancer, the presence of a standard in several films, or an instrument.

But they may well offer to embrace a broader corpus in historical, musical, choreographic or generic terms…

Interviews of filmmakers and musicians are welcome. Lastly, any action to deepen and inform the central issue of the relationship between jazz and film, as well as jazz, dance, and film will be welcome.

Editing officials acknowledge any article or any project item.
 
You will be informed if the text or the project is accepted within a maximum period of one month after reception. The high limit is 50.000 signs per item, no lower limit. Texts in English are accepted. Send the document via internet: PDF format, Word or Open Office preferred. Use the following address for surface mail: OMCL, "Colloque Jazz " - 46 rue Saint Jean - 33580 Monségur, France. A set of text is returned for ultimate changes before publishing. Publication: winter 2010-11.  

Schedule (new):
- January 2011: tests.
- February 2011: publication.  

Email texts to:
thierry.maligne@free.fr
pbordes.haegelin@yahoo.fr

Publishing Manager: Thierry Maligne.
Assistant Manager: Paule Bordes-Haegelin.

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Jazz and Race, Past and Present
A conference at The Open University, 11-12 November, 2010

Keynote speaker: Guthrie Ramsey, Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania and author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop (2003).

Emerging at the confluence of diverse streams, the genre we know as jazz was made predominantly by African-Americans for a good deal of its history. Indeed, African-American musicians and critics have often claimed the form as their own, part of their people’s struggle to assert their humanity in the face of a racialised structure of power which would deny it. However, year by year this position grows more difficult to sustain as jazz spreads around the world, and more musicians of other ethnic origins, and who are socially positioned in different ways, enter the field. Often they bring their own distinct musical and cultural resources to bear on the problem of making jazz. Meanwhile, of course, racial oppression persists in western and other societies.

The aims of the conference are to examine, refute or develop this account, and to do so across all the disciplines which touch on jazz. In particular, contributors might want to consider the following themes, or use them as points of departure. We wouldn’t want to be prescriptive though. Any proposal which addresses the problems of jazz and race, past and present is welcomed.

  • The nature and extent of black-ness in jazz in the ‘heroic age’, c1920-1970
  • Global jazz and ethnicities beyond black and white
  • Politics of remembering and not-remembering race
  • The African diaspora outside North America, e.g. black British jazz
  • Nationality and race in jazz
  • Race and the political economy of jazz
  • The ‘integrated’ group and inter-racial relations
  • Racial essentialism and musical hybridity
  • Mediating race and jazz: novels, films, television, new media … .
  • Subject position, objectivity and writing jazz
  • White audiences, black musicians
  • Racialised aesthetics of authenticity, primitivism and the exotic
  • Being and signifying black, white and beyond in jazz
  • Race and policing the borders of jazz
  • Questioning orthodoxies: ‘Swing plus blues’, ‘a natural sense of rhythm’ and so on
  • Prospects for a post-racial jazz
  • Stylistic change and the politics of race
  • Racialising history or telling it like it is? Realism and narratives of race in jazz
  • Race, performance and musical form.

We invite proposals for papers which address these and related questions from across the disciplines including: (ethno)musicology, cultural and media studies, sociology, anthropology, history, literary and performance studies, American studies, film studies. The conference is supported by the AHRC ‘Beyond Text’ research project based at the Open University, What is Black British Jazz? Routes, Ownership, Performance. So contributions which concern issues of jazz and race in Britain are particularly welcome. We should also acknowledge generous support from the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change.

Proposals for 20 minute papers should be between 150 and 200 words in length. Please send to Jazz-and-Race-conference@open.ac.uk making sure you include the paper title, your name, affiliation, full postal address and email address. Closing date for submission is Friday 2nd July, 2010 .

It’s worth noting that the conference takes place immediately before the London Jazz Festival, and so could be combined with a weekend of great jazz just down the road/line in the capital.

Conference convenors are Catherine Tackley, What is Black British Jazz? The Open University; Jason Toynbee, What is Black British Jazz? The Open University; Tony Whyton, Salford University; Nicholas Gebhardt, Lancaster University.

2010 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium
“Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice"

University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
September 8-10, 2010
Improvising Bodies

Call for Papers

The Guelph Jazz Festival, in conjunction with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the University of Guelph, and the SSHRC MCRI research project on “Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice,” invites proposals for papers to be presented at our annual three-day international interdisciplinary conference. This year's colloquium will take place September 8th to 10th as part of the 17th annual Guelph Jazz Festival (September 8-12). It will bring together a diverse range of scholars, creative practitioners, arts presenters, policy makers, and members of the general public. Featuring workshops, panel discussions, keynote lectures, performances, and dialogues among researchers, artists, and audiences, the annual colloquium cuts across a range of social and institutional locations and promotes a dynamic international exchange of cultural forms and knowledges. This year's colloquium will also take place on the heels of our two week Summer Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph (www.improvcommunity.ca/summerinstitute ).

Improvisation studies and studies of embodiment (from fields such as gender studies, disability studies, queer theory, and dance studies) have much to offer each other, yet these spheres often function independently and rarely in a way that accounts for the nuances of their complementary intersections. This year’s colloquium will focus on the body as a site for the analysis of new perspectives, new methodologies, new artistic and cultural practices. As a category of analysis, the improvising body opens up several vital areas of inquiry in theoretical and historical musicology, ethnomusicology, philosophy, performance studies, literary studies, women’s studies, media studies, jazz studies, and work on cultural memory and memorialization. We invite papers that draw on these areas of inquiry, as well as research with particular interests in disability studies, mobility and access in public spaces, postcolonial theory, performance studies, queer theory, theories of race and ethnicity, feminist theories of embodiment, the economic crisis, and dance studies.

What is a body, what is an improvising body, how do bodies improvise or are they improvised, and how does improvisation contribute to new thinking on bodies and embodiment? What does improvisation do for bodies not rendered "legitimate" or "legible" by social constructions of whole (normal) bodies? What improvising body practices/technologies resist hierarchical systems based on notions of whose bodies count, whose bodies are unruly, whose bodies are deficient/excessive? What kinds of community-practices improvise bodies in critical ways and how and what can we learn from them? Which bodies are thought of as not improvised, but pre-composed, and what does a framework of improvising bodies as process have to say to that?

We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary work that speaks to both an academic audience and a general public. We also invite presenters to submit completed versions of their papers to our peer-reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation (www.criticalimprov.com ) for consideration. Please send (500 word) proposals or completed papers (for 15 minute delivery) and a short bio by May 31, 2010 to

The 2010 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium
c/o Dr. Ajay Heble, Artistic Director, The Guelph Jazz Festival
email: jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca

The Jazz Chameleon: The 9th Nordic Jazz Conference
The Finnish Jazz & Pop Archive, Helsinki, August 19–20, 2010

Since its arrival on the public scene in the early 20th century, jazz has been characterised by a remarkable ability to cross musical, social and cultural borderlines. In terms of musical style and character, jazz has often crossed genre categories and undergone through radical changes. In terms of geographical and cultural boundaries, one of the most notable developments in jazz has been the internationalisation of its sound. Furthermore, jazz has also been able to ‘travel in time’. The explicit sense of traditions characterises jazz history: jazz music speaks to the past and is informed by what has been before.

What are these crossings really like? How have they changed during the history of jazz?

Organisers of The Jazz Chameloen: The 9th Nordic Jazz Conference welcome presentations on generical, geographical, historical and other (e.g. theoretical, aesthetic, educational) crossings in jazz. The main emphasis of the presentations will be on Nordic countries and their histories but we warmly welcome other aspects as well.

Proposals for presentations and work groups should be submitted as abstracts of up to 200 words by April 1, 2010 to janne@jazzpoparkisto.net. Please include the name of the speaker(s), email, affiliation, and the title of the paper or workshop group.

The conference will have two invited keynote speakers, planning for Professor Bruce Johnson (Universities of Turku, Glasgow, UK and Macquarie, Australia) and N.N. (tba). Furthermore, the conference will feature discussion on the collaboration between the members of Nordic jazz archives as well as performances by Finnish jazz musicians.

There will be a small participation fee. The main organiser of the conference is the Finnish Jazz & Pop Archive. More information will be published at the www.jazzconference.net.

On behalf of the organisers,
Janne Mäkelä, Director
Finnish Jazz & Pop Archive
Arabiankatu 2
00560 Helsinki
FINLAND
Tel. +358 9 757 0040
www.jazzpoparkisto.net

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Jazz Education Network (JEN) Conference
"Shaping the Future of Jazz Education"
20. - 22. May 2010, University of Missouri, St. Louis

  • Who: Educators, Students, Musicians (professional & amateur), Industry Representatives,Technicians, Producers, Exhibitors, Jazz Enthusiasts, Media
  • What: Jazz Education Network Inaugural Conference
  • "Shaping the Future of Jazz Education"
  • When: May 20 - 22, 2010, 9 a.m. - 1 a.m.
  • Where: University of Missouri - St. Louis campus
  • Why: A unique opportunity to network, visit with music product professionals, review materials and exhibits that provide innovative solutions, and expand one's knowledge of jazz through on stage performances
  • Cost: 3-Day Conference: $150/member, $35/spouse, $25/student member with valid ID. 1-Day Conference: $110/non-member, Meet Me in St. Louis Celebration: $45,
    Evening Concerts Only: $30/night (limited seating).
    * NOTE: Day Passes and conference registrations include evening concerts.
  • Tickets: Visit www.JazzEdNet.org

A new organization fills the void in the jazz arts community with the announcement of its inaugural conference in the Midwest. The Jazz Education Network (JEN) meets on the campus of the University of Missouri - St. Louis May 20-22, 2010.

"Jazz is the legacy of our musical heritage. Our organization is dedicated to developing the jazz audience as well as promoting and advancing education," said Mary Jo Papich, President of JEN and Fine Arts Curriculum Director at Niles Schools. A Co-Founder with President-Elect Lou Fischer, a Professor of Music from Capital University, Mary Jo went on to say, "The JEN conference is the perfect place for educators to network with performers, industry peers and jazz enthusiasts."

The event unites the jazz arts community. There will be 30+ exciting clinics and insightful panels, along with captivating concerts available to everyone. "We look forward to gathering in St. Louis. It has a rich jazz heritage and about half of our membership resides in the Midwestern region," replied Papich. "Evening concerts will be of particular interest to locals in the bi-state St. Louis area," given the internationally acclaimed musicians and high caliber of talent. To date, the members who have registered to attend are drawn from 45 states and 18 countries.

JEN is the only organization of its kind presenting an educational conference related to jazz music. It plans to showcase professional musicians alongside student performers from across the globe. All musicians and clinicians are non-paid volunteers. Many of the artists and ensembles, including one contemporary jazz trio from Sweden, plan to do outreach into local St. Louis area schools.

More information on the website www.JazzEdNet.org.

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1. International Clare Fischer Symposium
May 1 – 2, 2010 at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria

The 1. International Clare Fischer Symposium is a joint initiative of the institutes for jazz and jazz research at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz and focuses on the study, appreciation and support of Clare Fischer’s music. The event will take place in the ‘Florentinersaal’, a beautiful hall at the ‘Palais Meran’, the old main campus near the city centre.

Presenters include Prof. Bill Dobbins (Eastman School of Music), Dr. Barbara Bleij (Conservatory of Amsterdam), saxophonist Gary Foster and Brent Fischer (director of the Clare Fischer Big Band). Subsequent to the presentations on Saturday, May 1, Prof. Bill Dobbins will perform a one-hour solo piano recital featuring the music of Clare Fischer. Workshops and further performances of Clare Fischer’s music will take place during the week following the symposium. The full program will be announced by February 28 at the latest.

The symposium committee invites passive and active participation in the symposium. If you consider combining your participation with a holiday trip to Graz, please visit http://www.graztourismus.at for more information.

Please submit individual paper proposals on any topic related to the music of Clare Fischer (of 30’ – 50’ duration plus 10’ discussion) in English or German to the Chair of the Conference Committee Michael Kahr (michael.kahr@kug.ac.at) until February 10, 2010. Lecture recitals are particularly welcome. Please limit the proposals to 250 words and attach a short biography.

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Leeds International Jazz Conference 2010:
Improvisation - Jazz in The Creative Moment
Thursday 25 – Friday 26 March 2010

The 16th Leeds International Jazz Conference takes place at Leeds College of Music from Thursday 25 to Friday 26 March 2010. LIJC is an annual event focusing on jazz research, education and performance. It is the only conference of its kind in the UK and offers a unique forum for musicians, academics, educators, students, and arts organisers to engage with the latest sounds and ideas in jazz. Along with paper presentations, workshops, performances and jam sessions, there are opportunities for discussion, networking, information exchange, and professional development.

LIJC 2010 focuses on the very heart of jazz – improvisation, and in keeping with this important theme we are delighted to welcome two eminent keynote speakers/performers. 

Dave Liebman, saxophonist (ex-Miles Davis and Elvin Jones), improviser, composer, recording artist and educator, is our Jazz Keynote. He will address the conference on maintaining creativity in improvisation and its teaching, offer a seminar on his Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody (1991/2006), run a practical workshop and perform in concert.

Our academic keynote speaker is Professor Paul Berliner (Duke University), whose highly influential Thinking in Jazz: the Infinite Art of Improvisation (1994) has invigorated a generation of jazz research and scholarship. Hewill address the conference on the parallels between his study of the New York jazz scene and his longstanding research on mbira players in Zimbabwe. A specific panel and paper session will be devoted to discussing and evaluating Thinking in Jazz in terms of its impact on jazz scholarship and methodology. 

Call for Papers and Workshop Proposals

The conference committee invites proposals for research papers, workshops, lecture-recitals, panels and roundtable discussions. The deadline for the submissions of proposals is 18th December 2009. We welcome presentations that advance the field of jazz improvisation, such as creative innovation in improvisational practice, the emergence of cross-disciplinary thinking and the development of new jazz scholarship. We also particularly welcome contributions to the discussion and evaluation of jazz scholarship through the prism of Berliner’s Thinking in Jazz. While proposals are invited on any area of jazz research and practice from within any discipline, preference will be given to topics which accord with the conference theme, and may address:

  • Defining improvisation, defining jazz improvisation
  • Understanding improvisation
  • The changing improvisational language of jazz
  • Jazz improvisation and creativity
  • Free jazz and free improvisation
  • Teaching and learning in jazz improvisation
  • Comparative approaches and strategies to the teaching of improvisation
  • Critical evaluation of jazz solos and improvisation
  • Precedent and tradition in jazz improvisation
  • Improvisation and the jazz composer
  • Improvisation in the jazz orchestra setting
  • Improvised music on record
  • Jazz improvisation and transcription
  • The cult of personality and the jazz soloist
  • Improvisational ‘space’ and other jazz settings
  • Jazz improvisation as metaphor for freedom and transformation
  • Jazz Improvisation and transcendence
  • Aesthetics and jazz improvisation
  • Free will and improvisation
  • Improvisational influences from outside jazz
  • World musics and jazz improvisation
  • The limitations of jazz scholarship for understanding improvisation

Individual presentations should be no more than twenty minutes in duration. There may be opportunities for longer slots for lecture-recitals and workshops. Proposals for panels should include details of each presenter and paper to be included. Our intention is to publish a selection of papers.

Proposals should take the form of a title followed by an abstract of not more than 200 words. The deadline for submissions is Friday 18 December 2009, and decisions will be notified shortly after this date.

Any queries about a proposal should be directed to the LIJC 2010 Conference Organiser: Professor Louise Gibbs l.gibbs@lcm.ac.uk

Submissions should be addressed to: Eleanor Moore, Administration Manager, e.moore@lcm.ac.uk  or sent to her at:

Leeds College of Music
3 Quarry Hill
Leeds
LS2 7PD
United Kingdom

For more information and to make a booking for the conference go to:
http://www.lcm.ac.uk/research-conference/leeds-international-jazz-conference.htm

Queries about attending LIJC 2010 should be addressed to: Louise Wood l.wood@lcm.ac.uk

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History of jazz in France
One day symposium, Paris-Sorbonne, December 16, 2009

"Music and musicians"

With a support from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Universities of Bourgogne (Dijon), François-Rabelais (Tours) and Paris-Sorbonne Paris-IV are partners for a project of writing a history of jazz in France. Part of this research are three meetings organized with a view to the publishing of two books in 2011. Three symposiums, one international conference and one closing session are scheduled. The first symposium has been held in Tours (April 2009), two other ones are to be held in Paris (December 2009) and again in Tours (Spring 2010). An international conference will be held in Dijon (Autumn 2010) and one closing session in Paris (September 2011). The coordination of this project is carried out by Vincent Cotro (Tours), Laurent Cugny (Paris IV) and Philippe Gumplowicz (University of Burgundy).

The first one day symposium was about cultural transfers. The second one, about to be held in Paris-Sorbonne, December 16, 2009, aims to focus on the music played and the musicians. The suggested topics (non restrictive list) are as following:

  • Musicians, bands, collectives
  • Foreign musicians in France
  • Music and musicians outside the Paris region
  • Music and musicians outside the metropole
  • Jazz musicians in France and other musics (pop, classical, contemporary, traditional, film, studio…)
  • Big bands in France
  • Rhythm sections in France
  • Record production
  • Is there a French jazz ?

Send title and abstracts to Laurent Cugny (Laurent.Cugny@paris-sorbonne.fr).

Deadline October 15, 2009

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Improvisation, Diversity, and Change: Uncovering New Social Paradigms Through Spontaneous Musical Creativity

Dec 3-6, 2009
University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

A collaborative event between the International Society of Improvised Music and the University of California at Santa Cruz Improvisation Festival, with generous support from the Porter Festival Fund. Keynote conference/festival artists and speakers will include Geri Allen, Ashwin Batish, Rob Dz, George Lewis, Charles Lloyd, and Jin Hi Kim.

If the history of the world’s music may be seen as a an epic movement toward global syncretism, the advent of what has come to be known over the past few decades as “improvised music” may be seen as an escalation of this trans-cultural, creative synthesis. First coined to describe the further reaches of jazz, the phrase now encompasses a musical mosaic so vast that the very notion of style categories conjures up images of a distant and perhaps outmoded past. Upon closer inspection, however, strong grounding in one or more musical traditions is often the basis for the most compelling forms of multi-stylistic synthesis, revealing the dynamic interplay between style-specific and trans-stylistic awareness and skills to be central to navigating one’s way—as artist, listener, teacher, student, critic and scholar—through the contemporary musical landscape.

Even with the trans-stylistic riches that abound, however, schisms prevail between communities and sources of knowledge and inspiration that have only to gain from collaborative exchange. The racial divides in the improvised music community, while not commonly talked about, are one example. The gender imbalance in the field is another, where participation among women is conspicuously low, thus perpetuating limiting patterns related to access, power, value, and expression. The long-standing inertia in musical study is yet another example, where even after decades of appeals for reform, the majority of music students graduates with little or no hands-on contact with music outside of the European classical tradition. At this juncture in human history, when the ability to traverse boundaries—intellectual, political, racial, ethnic, creative, spiritual, etc.— has never been more urgent, music has the capacity to emerge as an important agent for change.

Proposals are invited for the following kinds of presentations related to the conference theme: performances, workshops, lecture/recitals, papers, panel discussions. Proposals can only be reviewed from ISIM members. Please visit www.isimprov.org for information on joining ISIM and to download the proposal application form.

Proposals are due August 5. Announcement of accepted proposals will be made by August 15. For more information, contact Kate Olson, ISIM Conference Director, kate@isimprov.org

ISIM Board of Directors
Ed Sarath, President
Karlton Hester, Vice President
Maud Hickey, Vice President
LaDonna Smith, Treasurer
Betty Anne Younker, Secretary
India Cooke, Director
Sarah Weaver, Director

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Mediating Jazz
26-27 November 2009
An international conference hosted by the Popular Music Research Centre, University of Salford.

Call for Papers:

Keynote Speaker: Professor Krin Gabbard (SUNY), author of Hotter Than That: The Trumpet, Jazz, and American Culture, Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture, and Jammin’ at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema

Mediating Jazz is a two-day multi-disciplinary conference that brings together the leading researchers in the field of New Jazz Studies.  The conference itself will comprise four key strands, each of which addresses the overarching theme of mediation in jazz:

1.  Jazz and the Media
We wish to explore the way in which media representation impacts on jazz discourse.  The review panel will welcome papers that examine the way in which jazz is represented through various media from Hollywood film to television documentary, sleeve notes to journalism.

2.  Performance and the Body
Musicians often promote the performance of jazz as an unmediated experience.  We invite papers that interrogate this assumption, exploring the relationship between performance and different types of mediation.  This could include discussions of jazz as a transcendent art or a gendered construct, as well as examining the mythologies of improvisation, musicianship and the ‘jazz life’, and the codification of performance practice.

3.  Politics and Identity
Within the jazz mainstream, the radical politics of the 1960s has arguably been replaced with a sense of homogenised culture, devoid of explicit race and class issues.  This strand explores the role mediation plays in the growth and development of identities alongside the promotion/subversion of political messages.

4.  Jazz Cultures and Narratives
This strand explores jazz as both narrative trope and changing cultural signifier.  We welcome papers that explore the concept of jazz from a range of disciplinary perspectives, encouraging a discursive approach to the cultural study of jazz.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted to Dr Tony Whyton (t.whyton@salford.ac.uk) by Wednesday 27 May 2009.

Review panel: Dr Tony Whyton (Salford), Dr Nicholas Gebhardt (Lancaster), Dr Catherine Tackley (Open University) and Professor George McKay (Salford)

March 2009

Contact:
Dr. Tony Whyton
School of Media Music and Performance
Adelphi Building
University of Salford
Peru Street
Manchester
M3 6EQ
T: 0161 295 7245

The Louis Armstrong Symposium
Saturday 21 November 2009
The College of Staten Island and the CUNY Research Foundation

The central goal of The Louis Armstrong Symposium is to stimulate scholarship about Louis Armstrong's life and professional career. Of special interest will be research that considers Armstrong's contributions as musician, improviser, and performer in relation to the people of his time, including musicians, audiences, and critics, as well as to those who came before and after him. The resulting scholarship will fill an important gap in our understanding of Armstrong's relationship to the stylistic changes that music experienced, and the cultural changes that transformed American society, during his lifetime. The Louis Armstrong Symposium will give scholars a forum for coming together to share their reflections on this remarkable man's personal and professional legacy.

We welcome abstracts of 250 words on any topic related to Armstrong's work and/or his life. Each presenter will have 30 minutes in which to set forth his or her ideas. An extended question & answer/discussion period will follow the presentations in each session.

Kindly e-mail your abstract as an attachment to the conference administrator by 21 August 2009 (see details below). With the abstract, include a short list of sources and recordings that you will draw from during your presentation. In the body of the e-mail, please include your name, contact information, and institutional affiliation (if any).

Dan Morgenstern, Director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers Newark will deliver the Keynote Address. Mr. Morgenstern is a noted jazz historian, former editor of Down Beat, and author of Jazz People, whose collected writings appeared in Living With Jazz:A Reader, edited by Sheldon Meyer. He has won seven Grammy Awards for his album notes. The National Endowment for the Arts named Dan Morgenstern an NEA Jazz Master in 2007. He has taught jazz history at Brooklyn College, New York University, the Peabody Institute, and Rutgers.

Timeline:
21 August: Abstract deadline
9 September: Notification of acceptance
21 September: Pre-registration deadline

The event will take place at The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314. For more information, contact Linda Soria at TheArmstrongSymposium@gmail.com.

11. Darmstädter Jazzforum
Darmstadt, Germany, 1.-4. October 2009

Tension / Spannung.
Ein Jazzforum um Albert Mangelsdorff und seine Wirkung auf den Jazz in Deutschland

Albert Mangelsdorff galt seit den 1950er Jahren als die überragende Persönlichkeit des deutschen Jazz. Er war ein Musiker, der stil- und genreübergreifend Anerkennung fand und an Projekten beteiligt war, die zwischen Tradition, Avantgarde und Rock/Pop wechselten. Man achtete ihn international als einen Künstler mit einem ausgewiesen eigenständigen Stil, als einen Virtuosen auf der Posaune, als einen bedeutenden Komponisten und als einen Wegbereiter des Jazz in Deutschland.

Beim 11. Darmstädter Jazzforum steht Albert Mangelsdorff im Zentrum, die wichtigste Jazzpersönlichkeit des Rhein-Main-Gebiets und zugleich eine Integrationsfigur des deutschen und europäischen Jazz. Doch dreht sich nicht alles nur um ihn. Mangelsdorff ist für uns Ideengeber für eine Veranstaltung, in der es um die Geschichte des Jazz in Deutschland genauso gehen soll wie um Instrumentaltechnik, um Free Jazz, um die Frankfurter Szene, um die Auseinandersetzung des Jazz mit Rockelementen, um ein wachsendes Selbstbewusstsein europäischer Jazzmusiker, um musikalische Kommunikation, um ästhetische Probleme und Chancen des Jazz heute. Unser Jazzforum soll sich also nicht im Zurückschauen begnügen, sondern durchaus auch einen Blick auf die Welt des heutigen Jazz werfen, an der Albert Mangelsdorff sein musikalisches Leben lang mitgearbeitet hat. Der rote Faden ist letztlich die musikalische Offenheit, die Albert Mangelsdorff uns allen vorgelebt hat.

Zum Symposium werden Musikwissenschaftler, Historiker, Journalisten, Kollegen aus angrenzenden Fachgebieten, vor allem aber auch Musiker eingeladen. Mögliche Themen sind etwa:

  • Albert Mangelsdorffs eigene Musik; das Jazzensemble des Hessischen Rundfunks;
  • die Wahrnehmung des deutschen Jazz in den 1960er bis 1990er Jahren in Deutschland, Europa und den USA;
  • die Union Deutscher Jazzmusiker (UDJ) sowie die Notwendigkeit und Schwierigkeit bei der Organisation der Jazzszene; bi- und multinationale Projekte;
  • die Entwicklung des Posaunenspiels im modernen Jazz (J.J. Johnson / George Lewis / Albert Mangelsdorff / Nils Wogram);
  • die Technik der Multiphonics und ihre Möglichkeiten; die Frankfurter Szene;
  • Emil Mangelsdorff als Musiker zwischen Swing und Bebop, als Mahner für Demokratie und gegen jede Form der Diktatur;
  • Heinz Sauer, Wolfgang Dauner, Joachim Kühn, Eberhard Weber und andere Weggefährten Albert Mangelsdorffs;
  • Günter Kieser und das moderne Jazzplakat;
  • das JazzFest Berlin und seine Stellung in der (gesamt)deutschen Jazzentwicklung;
  • die Verbindungen zwischen Jazz, Rock und anderen Genres seit den 1970er Jahren;
  • das Berliner Plattenlabel FMP und seine Bedeutung für den europäischen Jazz;
  • deutsch-deutsche Projekte und Annäherung durch freien Jazz;
  • Solo / Duo / Trio im Jazz;
  • Deutsche Fusion (United Jazz & Rock Ensemble, Kriegel, etc.)
  • "Es sungen drei Engel" – Vom Umgang mit deutschen Volksweisen (Mangelsdorff, Ulrich Gumpert u.a.);
  • der Beitrag deutscher Rundfunk-Bigbands zum internationalen Bigbandvokabular;
  • europäische Eigenständigkeit im Jazz (Eine Diskussion der Thesen Stuart Nicholsons);
  • ein moderiertes Gespräch mit Kollegen und Zeitzeugen über Albert Mangelsdorff, seine Musik und seine Persönlichkeit.

Eine Konzertreihe wird Mangelsdorff zumindest in einem Programmpunkt in den Mittelpunkt stellen; bei den anderen Programmpunkten wird es um die heutige Auseinandersetzung mit der Sprache des Jazz gehen, an der Mangelsdorff sein Leben lang gearbeitet hat. Die Konzerte werden zwischen Solo- und großer Besetzung schwanken. Sie Konzerte werden sich auch nicht nur auf den Termin des Jazzforums konzentrieren (also nicht so sehr Festivalcharakter haben), sondern bereits vorbereitend ab etwa einer Woche vor dem Darmstädter Jazzforum stattfinden und in Zusammenarbeit mit örtlichen Veranstaltern aus dem Rhein-Main-Gebiet durchgeführt werden.

Ein Workshop wird Musikern aus der Rhein-Main-Region die Gelegenheit geben einen Tag lang mit einem der renommierten Musiker zusammenzuarbeiten, der im Rahmen unserer Konzertreihe beim Jazzforum auftritt.

Eine Ausstellung wird Mangelsdorff schließlich als Musiker und Persönlichkeit des öffentlichen Lebens beleuchten und soll sowohl in Darmstadt wie auch in Frankfurt gezeigt werden.

Eine Buchpublikation der Tagungsbeiträge ist für 2010 geplant.

Das 11. Darmstädter Jazzforum feiert damit das Wirken eines der bedeutendsten deutschen Jazzmusiker mit einer facettenreichen Veranstaltung, die sich vor dem großen Frankfurter verneigt, um dann genau das zu tun, was er getan hätte: in die Gegenwart und in die Zukunft zu blicken.

Das Darmstädter Jazzforum findet seit 1989 alle zwei Jahre statt und widmet sich dabei jedes Mal einem anderen Oberthema. Es ist eine weltweit einmalige Mischung aus Fachkongress, Konzertreihe, Workshop und Ausstellung und wird von Anfang an in Buchform dokumentiert. Die daraus resultierende Buchreihe "Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazzforschung" ist mit bislang zehn Bänden die einige in Deutschland erscheinende regelmäßige Buchreihe, die sich zwischen Wissenschaft und Dokumentation mit dem Jazz auseinandersetzt.

Das ausrichtende Jazzinstitut Darmstadt ist eine städtische Kultureinrichtung der Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt und das größte öffentliche Informations- und Dokumentationszentrum zum Jazz in Europa.

More information:
Jazzinstitut Darmstadt
Besunger Strasse 88d
D-64285 Darmstadt
Germany
Tel. +49 (6151) 963700
Fax +49 (6151) 963744
Mail: jazz@jazzinstitut.de
Web: www.jazzinstitut.de

CALL FOR PAPERS
2009 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
September 9-11, 2009

Improvisation, the Arts, and Social Policy

The Guelph Jazz Festival, in conjunction with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the University of Guelph, and the SSHRC MCRI research project on “Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice,” invites proposals for papers to be presented at our annual three-day international interdisciplinary conference.  This year's colloquium will take place September 9-11 as part of the 16th annual Guelph Jazz Festival (September 9-13) and invites participation around the theme Improvisation, the Arts, and Social Policy.  The program will bring together a diverse range of scholars, creative practitioners, arts presenters, policy-makers, and members of the general public.  Featuring workshops, panel discussions, keynote lectures, performances, and dialogues among researchers, artists, and audiences, the annual colloquium cuts across a range of social and institutional locations and promotes a dynamic international exchange of cultural forms.

Interdisciplinary research in the arts and humanities can and should actively participate in the development of public social policies. We therefore invite presentations that will help integrate an enriched understanding of improvisation into the decisions and matrices of policy-makers.  What would it mean to place the civic function of improvised artistic practices firmly at the centre of both broad public debate and informed policy decisions about the role of arts in society? How might it effect government policies and programs in the arts, immigration, citizenship, indigenous affairs, tax, or social justice? How might such studies provide strategic advice to relevant stakeholders to build greater public understanding of improvisation’s social role? Topics may include an analysis of government commissioned reports on arts funding; a consideration of how musical improvisation might help us approach policies of citizenship and participation; and case studies in which musical improvisation has been used in both Western and non-Western communities in order to facilitate reconciliation and forgiveness, or to bring about social change. We welcome and encourage the input of practicing improvising musicians.

We are particularly interested in interdisciplinary work that speaks to both an academic audience and a general public.  We also invite presenters to submit completed versions of their papers to our peer-reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation (www.criticalimprov.com) for consideration.

Please send (500 word) proposals or completed papers (for 15 minute delivery) and a short bio by May 31, 2009 to

The 2009 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium,
c/o Dr. Ajay Heble, Artistic Director, The Guelph Jazz Festival
123 Woolwich Street, second floor, Guelph, Ontario  N1H 3V1  CANADA
email: jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca, Fax: 519-763-3155

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program 2009-2010
Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice

... a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Major Collaborative Research Initiative

Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice is an interdisciplinary research project investigating the social value of improvisation.  For the 2009-2010 academic year, we invite applications of postdoctoral researchers for residential fellowships at the University of Guelph, McGill University, or Université de Montréal (in association with the Centre de recherche en éthique – CREUM).

Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice

This research project plays a leading role in defining a new field of interdisciplinary inquiry.  It brings together a dynamic international research team with a demonstrated track record in grant management and student training, and it fosters innovative partnerships with community-based organizations.  Outcomes will range across a wide spectrum of electronic, broadcast, and print media, with a focus on policy-oriented and community-facing impacts.  The project will have a significant effect on how research is done and how its results are implemented and disseminated, both within and beyond the academy. In addition to public discourse and scholarly publication, our work highlights collaboration with arts presenters, educators, and policy makers to ensure the broadest possible impact on Canadian society. 

The project’s core hypothesis is that musical improvisation is a crucial model for political, cultural, and ethical dialogue and action.  Taking as a point of departure performance practices from post-1960s jazz and creative improvised music that cannot readily be scripted, predicted, or compelled into orthodoxy, we argue that the innovative working models of improvisation developed by creative practitioners have helped to promote a dynamic exchange of cultural forms, and to encourage new, socially responsive forms of community building across national, cultural, and artistic boundaries.   Improvisation, in short, has much to tell us about the ways in which communities based on such forms are politically and materially pertinent to envisioning and sounding alternative ways of knowing and being in the world.  Improvisation demands shared responsibility for participation in community, an ability to negotiate differences, and a willingness to accept the challenges of risk and contingency.  Furthermore, in an era when diverse peoples and communities of interest struggle to forge historically new forms of affiliation across cultural divides, the participatory and civic virtues of engagement, dialogue, respect, and community-building inculcated through improvisatory practices take on a particular urgency.

Objectives

Our postdoctoral fellowships, funded through the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), support the most promising new scholars in the emerging interdisciplinary field of critical studies in improvisation, and assist them in establishing a research base at an important time in their research careers.

Our project seeks to contribute to interdisciplinary research and graduate training in this emerging field. We encourage applications from researchers working in the principal research areas related to our project: music, cultural studies, political studies, sociology and anthropology, English studies, theatre and performance studies, French studies, law, philosophy, and communications. We also welcome applications from different research areas, inasmuch as their research has a direct link with the social, cultural, or political implications of improvised musical practices.

We are particularly interested in critically informed interdisciplinary research proposals that are prompted by the theory and practice of contemporary improvised music and its related social implications.  Our research program seeks to create a climate of genuine intellectual excitement where scholars pursue research projects and participate in collaborative research activities as part of a broader network of critical practice.  Postdoctoral fellows will be expected to participate in project seminars, institutes, and annual colloquia, and will benefit from the stimulating intellectual environment provided by both our extensive and inter-institutional research network and our wide range of community partners.  Postdoctoral fellows will play an active role in planning the activities and research of the project.

Description

Our postdoctoral fellowships provide stipendiary support to recent Ph.D. graduates who are undertaking original research, publishing research findings, and developing and expanding personal research networks.

Fellowships will normally be awarded to candidates affiliated with a university other than that which awarded the Ph.D.

Value and Duration

Our SSHRC funded MCRI Postdoctoral Fellowships are valued at $31,500 CDN per year. These are non-renewable fellowships, tenable for a 12 month period beginning in September 2009.

Eligibility, Application, and Deadline
Applicants are invited to submit a research proposal focusing on the social implications (broadly construed) of improvised musical practices.  Successful candidates will be chosen on the basis of a rigorous and open nation-wide process of application, with our project's management team serving as the selection committee.  Criteria for selection are the quality and originality of the proposed research, the fit with our project's overall mandate and objectives, the candidate's record of scholarly achievement, and his/her ability to benefit from the activities associated with our project. Postdoctoral fellows will receive competitive research stipends, logistical assistance for relocation, office space equipped with state-of-the-art computers, access to the services of the host institution (library, etc), and administrative, placement, and research assistance as needed. In return, fellows are expected to pursue the research project submitted in their application, to participate in our project’s research activities (colloquia, seminars, institutes), and to present their work in progress in the context of our project’s seminars and workshops.

Applicants should have completed a Ph.D. at the time of application (to be conferred by November 1, 2009). The completed application package should be received by no later than April 30, 2009. Electronic applications are welcome, provided that original hard copies of transcripts and reference letters are also submitted by mail. Notification date for award: June 2009.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Applicants must submit all of the following by the postmark deadline:

  1. Curriculum vitae
  2. One scholarly paper or publication written in the course of the last three years
  3. A statement (1,500 words or less) describing the proposed research project
  4. Two confidential letters of reference (sent directly to us before the deadline)
  5. Graduate Transcript(s) 

Address and mail applications to:  Dr. Ajay Heble, Project Director
                                                               Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice
                                                               School of English and Theatre Studies
                                                               University of Guelph
                                                               Guelph, Ontario
                                                               N1G 2W1
                                                               Canada

Email applications to:                       improv@uoguelph.ca

Postmark deadline: April 30th, 2009
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

For more information contact the Project Manager:
improv@uoguelph.ca

Or the ICASP website: www.improvcommunity.ca

8th Nordic Jazz Conference
Aalborg, Denmark, August 25th-27th, 2009

The 8th Nordic Jazz Conference will take place the 25-27th of August 2009 in Denmark and is hosted by Centre for Danish Jazz History at Aalborg University.

Keynote speaker: Wolfram Knauer: History or Histories? Why it is so difficult to draft a European jazz history.

More information:
Centre for Danish Jazz History
The Faculty of Humanities
Aalborg University
email: thomasaj@hum.aau.dk
tel. (+45) 9940 9115
mob. (+45) 2876 1921
Web: http://www.jazzconference.net

International Conference on Music Performance Analysis (ICOMPA 2009)
part of the "19th IASJ Jazz Meeting" (June 27th- July 3rd, 2009)
Lucerne, Switzerland, July 1&2, 2009

Symposium 1: Five perspectives on ‘Body & Soul’
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

12:00-13:30 Lunch / registration
13:30-14:15 Martin Pfleiderer (Hamburg): "Body and Soul“ and the mastery of Jazz tenor saxophone
14:15-15:00 Cynthia Folio / Alexander Brinkman (Philadelphia): Dexter Gordon’s ultimate “Body and Soul”
15:00-15:45 Olivier Senn (Luzern): Crossing the bridge – Thelonious Monk plays “Body and Soul”
15:45-16:15 Tea / Coffee
16:15-17:00 Slot 4 (IASJ contributor)
17:00-17:45 José Antonio Bowen (Dallas): Who plays the tune in “Body and Soul”?
17:45-18:30 Final discussion panel (speakers slots 1-5)
18:30- Open Air Jam Session KKL Terrasse

Symposium 2: Methods of music performance analysis
Thursday, July 2, 2009

09:00-09:45 Richard Turner (Saint Julien de Jonzy): The power of the maestro – Statistical techniques to differentiate conductors’ interpretations
09:45-10:30 Olaf Eggestad (Oslo): Mr. Robert Riefling’s reproductions of Beethoven’s op. 109, 110 and 111
10:30-11:00 Tea Coffee
11:00-11:45 Matthias Arter (Bern): Measuring and describing – Two different methods of analyzing interprations
11:45-12:30 Elena Alessandri (Lugano): The Discography or What Analysts of Recordings do before Analyzing
12:30-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:45 Marc-Antoine Camp, Lorenz Kilchenmann et. al. (Luzern): On measuring and interpreting microtiming
14:45-15:30 Jürg Huber (Luzern): Transmission or interpretation? – Pierre Boulez’ performances of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”
15:30-16:00 Tea Coffee
16:00-16:45 Claudia Di Luzio (Berlin): Sound-word-space and gesture in music theatre today
16:45-17:30 Final discussion panel (speakers slots 6-12)
17:30- Aperitif

Where? Musikpavillon, Obergrundstrasse, Lucerne

More information:
Hochschule Luzern - Musik, Zentralstrasse 18, CH-6003 Luzern, Switzerland, e-mail: haemi.haemmerli@hslu.ch, Web: http://www.jsl.ch

Kulturhauptstadt Linz 2009
Tagung: Jazz und Film
16. - 18. Juni 2009

Die Visualisierung der populären Musik bietet zunehmend Jazzmusikern Platz auf der Leinwand. Ob in historischen Band-Dokumenten oder aktuellen Konzerteinspielungen, in Schwarz-Weiß oder Farbe, das bewegte Leben des Jazz zeigt sich heute vor allem mittels DVD. Es ist ein Bild-Repertoire, das stetig anwächst und der Kultur- und Filmwissenschaft neue Quellen erschließt. Den „swingenden“ Bildern auf der Spur sind die Teilnehmer dieser Radio Jazz Research-Tagung, die ganz unterschiedliche Themen zu „Jazz und Film“ präsentiert: Neben „Short Movie“-Formaten der späten 1920er und ’30er Jahre wird die Hilfestellung visueller Quellen bei der Transkription improvisatorischer Strukturen diskutiert, zudem die Ideengeschichte der „Jazz“-Spielfilme skizziert. Als Begleitprogramm zur Tagung „Jazz und Film“ werden historische und aktuelle Jazz-Filme gezeigt.

Radio Jazz Research e.V. mit Sitz in Köln ist im Jahr 2006 auf dem moers festival von namhaften Musikwissenschaftlern, Jazz-Veranstaltern, -Radio- und -Print-Journalisten gegründet worden. Zweck des Vereins ist es, den Informations- und Meinungsaustausch zum Thema Jazz zu ermöglichen und zu fördern sowie als Informationsmittler in der Öffentlichkeit zu wirken. Ziel ist es, die Bedeutung der Jazzmusik in den deutschsprachigen Ländern zu erhalten und zu verbreiten und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit für das Genre Jazz zu leisten.

Der Club Count Davis, seit März 2007 an der Landstraße in Linz, hat eine neue Linie in das Linzer Jazzleben gebracht. Der Ort dient als Plattform ebenso für den internationalen Konzertreigen wie für die heimische (Nachwuchs-)Szene. Im Juni 2009 ist das Count Davis Zentrum der Arbeitstagung von Radio Jazz Research e.V.

Konzept: PD Dr. Bernd Hoffmann für Radio Jazz Research
www.radio-jazz-research.de
Partner: Kulturradio des Westdeutschen Rundfunks, WDR 3
Ort: Count Davis, Linz
Web: www.countdavis.at

10. Diskografentag
15.‐17.Mai 2009, Center for World Music, Universität Hildesheim, Schillstraße (ehemalige/former Timotheuskirche), D‐31141 Hildesheim

MOTTO : MENSCHEN – MUSIK ……und MATRIZEN

Sehr geehrter Schallplatten- oder Grammophonsammler,

kennen Sie schon die GHT (Gesellschaft für historische Tonträger, Wien)? Falls nicht, empfehle ich Ihnen die Adresse http://www.phonomuseum.at/.

In der GHT haben sich eine Reihe von Diskografen und ernsthaften Sammlern zusammengeschlossen, um das Thema (Schellack-)Schallplatten mit wissenschaftlichem Hintergrund aufzuarbeiten. Dazu gehört die enge Zusammenarbeit mit der IASA und anderen internationalen Institutionen, wie z. B. dem Sokrates/Grundtvig-Programm der Europäischen Union.

Die GHT veranstaltet regelmäßig „Diskografentage“, die als ein- oder mehrtägige Kongresse den fachlichen Austausch der Mitglieder und weiterer Interessenten ermöglichen sollen. In diesem Jahr steht der 10. Diskografentag unter dem Motto „Menschen – Musik … und Matrizen“. Er findet diesmal in Hildesheim vom 14.05.2009 bis 16.05.2009 statt. Nach zwei erfolgreichen Diskografentagen in Immenstadt/Allgäu haben wir in diesem Jahr Hildesheim als Veranstaltungsort im Norden Deutschlands gewählt. Bei den bisherigen Veranstaltungen dieser Art, die regelmäßig seit 2001 durchgeführt werden, haben jeweils zwischen 30 und 60 Teilnehmer aus ganz Europa teilgenommen.

In diesem Jahr veranstalten wir bereits den zehnten Diskografentag. Dies ist für uns ein Anlaß, Ihnen ein ganz besonders vielseitiges Programm zu bieten. Unter dem Motto „Menschen – Musik … und Matrizen“ werden wir uns wieder mit Musikern, ihren Darbietungen und diskografischen Themen beschäftigen. Anläßlich des 95. Geburtstags von Horst Winter haben wir seine Witwe, Frau Dorothea Winter zu Gast, die uns den Menschen Horst Winter vorstellen wird. Selbstverständlich präsentieren wir auch die neuesten Ergebnisse unseres internationalen Forschungsprojekts „The Lindström Project“, in dem wir die Geschichte dieses einst so bedeutenden Medienunternehmens aufarbeiten. Die Veranstaltung wird in deutscher und englischer Sprache abgehalten (mit schriftlicher Zusammenfassung in der jeweils anderen Sprache).

Den geplanten Ablauf des Diskografentags können Sie der PDF-Datei im Anhang entnehmen, sowie auf der Webseite der GHT http://www.phonomuseum.at/ nachlesen. Dort finden Sie auch die Möglichkeit, sich für die Teilnahme anzumelden.  Bitte beachten Sie auch unser neues Diskussionsforum im Internet, das Sie über unsere Webseite erreichen. 

Bei weiteren Fragen zur GHT und zu den Diskografentagen wenden Sie Sich bitte an die Präsidentin der GHT, Fr. Mag. Christiane Hofer (office@phonomuseum.at).

CALL FOR PAPERS: March 1, 2009 Deadline

Lex Non Scripta, Ars Non Scripta: 
Law, Justice, and Improvisation
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
June 21 and 22, 2009   

Improvisation is an important art form and an artistic and cultural phenomenon – a manner of speaking, a way of being, and a realm of experience. For theorists, improvisation as a practice and as an idea raises questions not just about how law comes to describe, judge, and regulate improvisation, but the converse – how improvisation might describe, judge, and regulate the law. What does or should law tell us about improvisation?  What does or should improvisation tell us about law?

For intellectual property, ars non scripta is a challenge and confrontation to legal orthodoxy. Does the alternative paradigm of sharing provide a better set of governance options in the creative realm? What other models might serve the purpose of respecting the art in and of improvisation better?

For legal theory, lex non scripta is likewise a challenge and confrontation to orthodoxy. Perhaps all art is improvised. Perhaps all law is too. Or perhaps we have lost something that once we knew about the relationship between meaning and silence, prescription and invention, justice and law.

Improvisational art practices are also deeply anchored in assorted social constructions that one might think a just and civil society should protect and encourage. Do we have a right to improvise and might we improve our rights?  Can improvisation be seen as a context within which new forms and relations of social justice might be modeled?

Proposals for papers are invited on these or related themes for an international, interdisciplinary conference on "Law, Justice and Improvisation," to be held at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on June 21 and 22, 2009. Possible topics might include:

  • The legal status of improvised music
  • Music sampling as improvisation
  • The law of improvisation
  • Legal decision-making as improvisation
  • Ruling law, improvising justice
  • Improvisation and legal precedent
  • Improvisation and legal/social change
  • Informal norm development as improvisation
  • Improvisation and art/law and improvisation
  • The normative space(s) for improvisation
  • Justice and improvisation (or Justice as improvisation)
  • The sounding of social justice
  • The law of the singular event

Proposals should include a title, the name and affiliation of the author, and an abstract of 150-200 words. Please send proposals by March 1, 2009 to David Lametti (david.lametti@mcgill.ca) or Tina Piper (tina.piper@mcgill.ca). Proposals are particularly encouraged from graduate students working in a variety of disciplines on and around these themes; conference funds will be made available to subsidize their participation.

The conference is hosted under the auspices of the Improvisation, Community and Social Practice project (www.improvcommunity.ca), a Major Collaborative Research Initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. It is supported by the Suoni per il Popolo Music Festival, the McGill Centre for Intellectual Property Policy (www.cipp.mcgill.ca) and the Faculty of Law at McGill. Please address all inquiries to david.lametti@mcgill.ca or tina.piper@mcgill.ca.

History of jazz in France

One day symposium, Tours, April 15, 2009

With a support from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Universities of Bourgogne (Dijon), François-Rabelais (Tours) and Paris-Sorbonne Paris-IV are partners for a project of writing a history of jazz in France. Part of this research are three meetings organized with a view to the publishing of two books in 2011. Two symposiums are organized in Tours (April 2009) and Paris (December 2009), and one international conference will be held in Dijon, spring 2010. The coordination of this project is carried out by Vincent Cotro (Tours), Laurent Cugny (Paris IV) et Philippe Gumplowicz (University of Bourgogne).

The first one day symposium about to be held in Tours, April 2009, aims for an initial outline of research themes related to the history of jazz in France. A disciplinary approach is wished : musicology, history, sociology, economy, anthropology, social psychology, psychoanalysis… The following topics (non restrictive list) are as following :

  • Musicians, bands, collectives, clubs, concerts, festivals (monographies, synthesis works).
  • French musicians abroad ; American musicians in France.
  • Establishement and diffusion of jazz in regions.
  • Jazz and recording.
  • Jazz and image : photography, cinema.
  • Jazz and medias : press, radios, television.
  • Jazz and education : conservatories, universities.
  • Jazz and public communities : State, regions, cities.
  • Jazz and cultural history.
  • Jazz theory and critic.
  • Jazz in France : a cultural exception ?
  • Does a French jazz exist ?

Send title and abstracts to Vincent Cotro (vincent.cotro@univ-tours.fr). Deadline : March 1, 2009.

Leeds International Jazz Conference 2009: The Word on Jazz: critical writing and the relationship of jazz with the Media and Academe

Thursday 26 – Friday 27 March 2009

Leeds International Jazz Conference 2009 takes place at Leeds College of Music from Thursday 26 to Friday 27 March. LIJC is an annual event focusing on jazz research, education and performance. It is the only conference of its kind in the UK, offering a unique forum to hear some of the latest sounds and ideas in jazz, as well as opportunities for discussion and networking, information exchange and professional development.

For the 15th LIJC we are delighted to welcome the acclaimed jazz scholar, writer and broadcaster Stuart Nicholson as the keynote speaker. Professor Nicholson’s output, described by the music critic, Ned Rorem, as ‘Intelligent, well written and maddeningly thorough’ has been translated into twelve languages. His books include: Jazz: The Modern Resurgence (1990) reprinted in the US as Jazz: the 1980s Resurgence; prize-winning biographies of Ella Fitzgerald (1993), Billie Holiday (1995), and Duke Ellington (1999); Jazz-Rock: A History (1998); The Guitar In Jazz (1999);  and the controversial Is Jazz Dead (Or Has It Moved To A New Address)? (2005). Stuart Nicholson has contributed to: The Essential Jazz Records Vol. 2 (1999); The Cartoon Music Book (2002), Future Jazz (2002), The Cambridge Companion to Jazz (2003), and The Encyclopaedia of the Harlem Renaissance (2005). 
‘The Word on Jazz: critical writing and the relationship of jazz with the media and academe' is the theme for LIJC 2009. Conference presentations, papers, workshops and performances will be framed by two forums. A panel of prominent jazz writers and broadcasters will set out the issues exploring how the media influences the critical review, promotion and public perception of jazz. Another panel, all key figures in jazz teaching and academe, will address how jazz education and scholarship has shaped the development of the music, and how the academic world has been both refuge and shaper of thinking and writing on jazz.   
For more information and to make a booking for the conference go to:
http://www.lcm.ac.uk/research-conference/leeds-international-jazz-conference.htm

The Early Booking Rate is available until Friday 13 February.

Powerplay: Improvisation and Sport

CALL FOR PAPERS — PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY

Power Play: Improvisation and Sport
February 6-7, 2009
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C.

Many improvising musicians who are fans of a variety of sports, including hockey and basketball, have identified parallels and synergies between athletic pursuit and contemporary creative music, such as the discourse of rules, set formations and plays, along with an improvisational or“thinking on your feet” approach to playing games. Miles Davis, for example, was an avid boxer and swimmer, and the poet Quincy Troupe has examined the connections between basketball and the drumming of Roy Haynes, while John Zorn uses sport-based systems in his game compositions such as Lacrosse or Archery.

The symposium Power Play: Improvisation and Sport — presented by Coastal Jazz in conjunction with the Time Flies Improvised Music festival — will provide artists, academics, athletes and fans an unprecedented opportunity to investigate ways in which both athletes and performers utilize improvisation when they “play.” We invite proposals for presentations on the many intersections of sport and improvisation. Essays can range from theoretical to practical, from aesthetic to political in their aims and methods, and interdisciplinary work is both welcome and encouraged. We are especially interested in provocative, informed work that deals with improvisation in as unlimited a sense as possible. Submissions are invited from both academic and non-academic writers and critics.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the many aspects of the cross-over between sport and musical pursuits: the identification of national cultural signifiers intrinsic to sport and music; the exploration of how signifiers are manifest in national protocols of training, teamwork, sportsmanship, rivalry and cultural aesthetics; the place of the body and human kinetics in improvised performances; improvisation, dance and theatre sports; music in sport — improvising along with the crowds; game-theory and improvisation; improvisation and power — sport as discourse; sport as cultural or social pedagogy; improvisation, sports and the law; bioethics and improvisation; the gender politics of play.

The symposium will be presented at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia on February 6 and 7, 2009, as part of the Major Collaborative Research Initiative “Improvisation, Community and Social Practice,” funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the University of British Columbia Department of English, and Coastal Jazz. Please submit conference-paper proposals of no more than 500 words — finished papers should conform to a 20 minute delivery — by December 7, 2008 to Dr. Kevin McNeilly, mcneilly@interchange.ubc.ca or Dr. Julie Smith, julie@coastaljazz.ca. Notification of acceptances will be given by December 14, 2008

Denver, Colorado, 5. - 7. December 2008

International Society for Improvised Music
Lamont School of Music, University of Denver, Colorado USA

Third Annual Conference "Improvisation and Identity: Discovering Self and Community in a Trans-Cultural Age"

Keynote Address – Roscoe Mitchell
Featured Performers and Speakers – Joëlle Léandre and India Cooke

When Charlie Parker stated that "if you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn," he conveyed, in his inimitable way, the capacity of improvisation to serve as a vehicle for integrating the totality of influences that shape personal and social identity.  From class, culture, economics, and ecology to gender, race, sexuality, and spirituality; improvising musicians spontaneously meld these and other aspects of their being in expressions that serve as both profound personal and collective commentaries.  In an era in which unprecedented levels of superficiality, alienation, and violence often overshadow a growing interest in creative and transpersonal development, and where an ever-escalating morass of data threatens to engulf a genuine cross-fertilization between disciplines and cultures; the importance of a creative vehicle for accessing and expressing one's inner and outer worlds has never been greater.

Improvisation not only excels in this regard, it also—through the very moment-to-moment decision-making sequences that require individuals to penetrate beyond ordinary patterns of behavior—may exemplify the dissolution of provincial and nationalistic tendencies that divide communities and countries in our politically fragile world.  Improvisation, in fact, may be the ultimate lens through which the quest for self and community is revealed to be as much a collective as a personal endeavor.

The International Society for Improvised Music invites proposals related to the above theme for performances, papers, workshops, and other presentations for its third annual conference.  The theme may be construed broadly: it is compatible across wide-ranging approaches to improvised performance, it invites wide-ranging pedagogical applications, and suggests connections to wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary areas.  ISIM is committed to diversity in its programming.

Deadline for proposals: September 1, 2008
Notification date: September 26, 2008

ISIM Conference 2008 Proposal Form available at www.isimprov.org
Proposals accepted via e-mail: info@isimprov.org
Or by postal mail: ISIM, P.O. Box 1603, Ann Arbor MI, 48106 USA

As with prior conferences, applications will only be reviewed from current ISIM members.  New members may submit membership application with conference proposal.
Join ISIM at www.isimprov.org

For more information contact Sarah Weaver, ISIM Conference Director,  sarah@isimprov.org 734-277-2690

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30. October - 1. November 2008

"Brownie Speaks".
A Symposium Celebrating the Life, Music and Legacy of Clifford Brown

The University of the Arts to Host a Symposium Celebrating Clifford Brown. "Brownie Speaks" Will Examine the Life, Music and Legacy of the Influential Trumpeter

Jazz aficionados, musicians and educators will gather at The University of the Arts (UArts) in Philadelphia on October 30-November 1 for Brownie Speaks, a symposium celebrating and documenting the life, music, and legacy of Clifford Brown, the influential jazz trumpeter who died in 1956 when he was just 25.

The Philadelphia Music Project, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by The University of the Arts, is sponsoring the symposium. The three-day event will feature performances by Terence Blanchard, Benny Golson, Lou Donaldson, Marcus Belgrave, the UArts Jazz Ensembles and many others. A new John Fedchock composition dedicated to Clifford Brown will be performed by the Lars Halle Jazz Orchestra.

Brownie Speaks: A Video Documentary, produced by UArts School of Music faculty member, composer, pianist, and recording artist Don Glanden, will premiere at the symposium.

Brown's son, Clifford Brown Jr. will serve as master of ceremonies for the duration of the symposium.

A Call For Papers

The focus of the symposium is the presentation, celebration, and documentation of the life, music, and legacy of Clifford Brown. His creative contribution will be explored in terms of its historical-sociological context, and its lasting impact on the jazz aesthetic. Papers should address some aspect of the symposium's focus. This may range from musical analysis to the presentation of new historical or sociological perspectives. Proposals for panel discussions will also be considered.

Guidelines and deadline for abstract submission: send a one-page abstract to Marianne Mele at mmele@uarts.edu or fax 215/717.6127. Abstracts must be received by Monday, July 28, 2008. Decision notification will be made no later than Friday, August 1, 2008. The final version of selected papers must be submitted by October 1, 2008. Presentations should be approximately 30 minutes long with an additional 20 minutes planned for discussion and Q&A.

Ten Years of Hip Hop and Jazz

Datum: 11. bis 13. September 2008

Ort: Schönes Haus (Nadelberg 6, Basel) und the bird's eye jazz club (Kohlenberg 20, Basel)

Veranstalter: Veit Arlt, Koordinator, Zentrum für Afrikastudien Basel und Colin Miller, Projektleiter, Pro Helvetia Kapstadt

Thema: 2008 feiert die Aussenstelle der Schweizer Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia in Kapstadt ihr zehnjähriges Bestehen. Im Verlauf dieses Jahrzehnts hat sie über 500 Projekte realisiert und KünstlerInnen aus dem südlichen Afrika und der Schweiz zusammengebracht. Einer der Schwerpunkte in dieser Zusammenarbeit ist die Projektarbeit im Bereich Musik, insbesondere Hip Hop und Jazz. In diesem öffentlichen Symposium diskutieren KünstlerInnen, VeranstalterInnen, MusiklehrerInnen und AkademikerInnen über Trends und Hintergründe der Musik, sowie die Erfahrungen und Chancen von Austausch und Zusammenarbeit.

Kontext: Es ist kein Zufall, dass diese Veranstaltung an der Universität Basel stattfindet. Die Universität ist ein Zentrum der Afrikaforschung und das Leading House für die bilaterale Forschungszusammenarbeit mit Südafrika. Als einzige Universität der Schweiz bietet sie einen interdisziplinären Master-Studiengang „Afrikastudien“ an. Das 2001 gegründete Zentrum für Afrikastudien Basel (ZASB) arbeitet regelmässig mit Pro Helvetia Kapstadt zusammen. Die Präsenz von Kunstschaffenden aus dem südlichen Afrika in Basel ist eine wichtige Ergänzung zum akademischen Angebot und bietet immer wieder fruchtbare Möglichkeiten für Kooperation und Austausch.

Rahmenprogramm: Das Symposium wird umrahmt von zwei Konzerten des Swiss South African Jazz Quintet, einer Hip Hop Performance und einem Filmabend zum Thema Hip Hop in Südafrika. Zahlreiche weitere Konzerte mit Hip Hop und Jazz basierend auf Austauschprojekten von Musikern aus dem südlichen Afrika und der Schweiz finden im August und September in Aarau, Bern, Chur, Genf, Luzern und Zürich statt

Eine Veranstaltung im Rahmen des Jubiläums 10 Jahre Pro Helvetia Kapstadt Weitere Auskünfte: Veit Arlt, Zentrum für Afrikastudien Basel, T. +41 (0)61 267 34 82, M. +41 (0)79 753 68 31, veit.arlt@unibas.ch (abwesend vom 17.-24. August 2008, dringende Anfragen können in dieser Zeit per SMS übermittelt werden)

Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, September 3-5, 2008
(University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada)

Call for Papers

Diaspora, Dispersal, Improvisation, and Imagination

The Guelph Jazz Festival, in conjunction with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the University of Guelph, and the SSHRC MCRI research project on “Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice,” invites proposals for papers to be presented at our annual three-day international interdisciplinary conference. This year's colloquium will take place September 3-5 as part of the 15th annual Guelph Jazz Festival (September 3-7). It will bring together a diverse range of scholars, creative practitioners, arts presenters, policy makers, and members of the general public. Featuring workshops, panel discussions, keynote lectures, performances, and dialogues among researchers, artists, and audiences, the annual colloquium cuts across a range of social and institutional locations and promotes a dynamic international exchange of cultural forms and knowledges. This year's colloquium also takes place on the heels of our inaugural Summer Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation at the University of Guelph (www.improvcommunity.ca/summerinstitute).

We seek studies of dispersed and diasporic peoples that focus on how they use improvisation and imagination to maintain links with their lands of origin, to connect culturally and politically with other groups, to build communities out of cultural collisions and coalescences, and to turn exile into an art. We are especially interested in studies of how Brazilian identity and culture are lived outside of Brazil and studies of Afro-diasporic peoples in metropolitan centers like New Orleans, Montreal, and Toronto. Yet we also seek presentations about improvisation and imagination among any group of people outside their place of origin who use improvisational expressive culture as a means of calling communities into being, as a repository of collective memory, as a response to (and expression of) communities in crisis, or as a site for moral instruction and inspiration.

We are particularly interested in papers that cut across communities of interest and involvement and that speak to both an academic audience and a general public. We also encourage presenters to submit completed versions of their papers to our peer-reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation (www.criticalimprov.com) for consideration.

Please send (500 word) proposals or completed papers (for 15 minute delivery) and a short bio by May 31, 2008 to

The 2008 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium,
c/o Dr. Ajay Heble, Artistic Director, The Guelph Jazz Festival
123 Woolwich Street, second floor, Guelph, Ontario N1H 3V1 CANADA
e-mail: jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca, Fax: 519-763-3155

Konferenz „Jazz hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang“ / “Jazz behind the Iron Curtain“
Deutsches Historiesches Institut Warschau, Polen (27. - 29. September 2008)

Call for Papers (english version)

Projekt “Widerständigkeit durch Kulturtransfer – Jazz im Ostblock’“ am Osteuropa-Institut der FU Berlin Leitung: Prof. Dr. G. Pickhan, Koordination: Dr. Rüdiger Ritter

DEADLINE: 1.4.2008

Informationen und Vorschläge an Dr. Rüdiger Ritter, RRitter@gmx.de

Ziele der Konferenz

Musik der Freiheit und Demokratie, der Modernität sowie Symbol des american way of life – dies sind die zentralen Elemente eines Mythos, der den Jazz seit seiner Entstehung umrankt und insbesondere in den staatssozialistischen Gesellschaften Ostmitteleuropas nach 1945 virulent wurde. Insider der Szene schreiben dem Jazz eine wichtige Rolle im Widerstand gegen die staatssozialistische Ordnung zu. Hier muss jedoch differenziert werden: Formen politischen, zielgerichteten Widerstands lassen sich im ostmitteleuropäischen Jazz kaum beobachten. Aber bereits auf den ersten Blick so „unpolitische“ Erscheinungen wie simple Spiel- und Improvisationsfreude oder die Existenz einer vom Regime schwer zu kontrollierenden Jazz-Szene machten den Jazz und sein Umfeld im Ostblock unweigerlich zu einem Politikum ersten Ranges, das zudem durch die Verbindung des Jazz mit seinem Ursprungsland geprägt wurde: Der Transfer US-amerikanischer Kulturformen bewirkte eine ideelle Stärkung oppositioneller Kreise; dies wiederum nutzen US-amerikanische Propagandaoffiziere aus und machten den Jazz ihrerseits zu einer politischen Waffe im Kalten Krieg.

Die Konferenz wendet sich sowohl an Sozial- als auch an Musikwissenschaftler, die sich mit Jazz und jazzverwandter Musik und seiner gesellschaftlichen Wirkungen in den staatssozialistischen Gesellschaften des östlichen Europa nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg
beschäftigen. Ziel soll die Beschreibung der Wirkungsparadigmen des Jazz im Staatssozialismus sein.

Die Konferenz wird getragen von einem am Osteuropa-Institut der FU Berlin angesiedelten und von der Volkswagen-Stiftung geförderten Forschungsprojekt zum „Jazz im Ostblock“ unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Gertrud Pickhan (Projektkoordination: Dr. Rüdiger Ritter). Sie soll Anstoß geben zur Intensivierung der Forschung zur Funktionsweise staatsozialistischer Gesellschaften aus einer bislang aus wissenschaftlicher Sicht noch kaum in Angriff genommenen Perspektive. Unmittelbares Ziel ist daher eine Bestandsaufnahme der gegenwärtigen Arbeiten zur gesellschaftlichen Funktion des Jazz als Ausgangspunkt für
weitere Forschungen. Ausgewählte Beiträge sollen im Anschluss publiziert werden.

Mögliche Themen (nicht ausschließlich):

  • Jazz-Szenen in einzelnen Ländern (vorzugsweise Polen, CSSR, Ungarn, DDR, UdSSR, Baltikum, andere Ostblockstaaten)
  • Jazz als Mittel von Propaganda und Gegenpropaganda Jazz und Film Jazz und Medien (Radio, TV, Fotografie)
  • Jazz und Juden
  • Einzelne Jazzmusiker
  • Jazz im Radio Jazzfestivals und -organisationen (z. B. Jazz Jamboree, Jazz-Sektion in der CSSR)
  • Musikerreisen von West nach Ost und umgekehrt (Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong)
  • Entstehung „nationaler Stile“ im Jazz? Jazz als Vehikel der „Amerikanisierung“ Jazz und Jugendkultur
  • Jazz und andere Musikformen: Rock, Pop, Lieder, Klassische Moderne

Erwünscht sind Vorschläge sowohl zum Jazz in einem als auch vergleichende Arbeiten in zwei oder mehreren Ländern des ehemaligen „Ostblocks“; auch aussagekräftige Vergleiche zwischen „West“ und „Ost“ sind willkommen. Aufgenommen werden auch Beiträge, die methodische Probleme diskutieren, sowohl von sozialwissenschaftlicher als auch von musikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive aus. Konferenzsprache ist Englisch.

Bitte senden Sie Ihre Vorschläge bis zum 1. 4. 2008 per e-mail als Word-Dokument (ca. 1 Seite) sowie einen kurzen CV an: Dr. Rüdiger Ritter, RRitter@gmx.de. Über die Auswahl erhalten Sie bis zum 1.5.2008 eine Nachricht.

Eine Publikation ausgewählter Beiträge der Konferenz in einem Sammelband ist geplant.


Conference “Jazz hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang“ /“Jazz behind the Iron Curtain“ Place: German Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland Dates: 27 – 29 September 2008

Call For Papers

Project “Widerständigkeit durch Kulturtransfer – Jazz im Ostblock’“ Institute for Eastern-European Studies FU Berlin Leitung: Prof. Dr. G. Pickhan, coordination. Dr. Rüdiger Ritter

DEADLINE: 1 April 2008

Please email your suggestions (approx. one page) and a brief CV as Word documents by 1 April 2008 to Dr. Rüdiger Ritter at RRitter@gmx.de. We will inform you of our selections by 1 May 2008.

Conference Aims

The music of freedom, democracy and modernity as well as a symbol of the American way of life – these are the central elements of a myth that has surrounded jazz since its inception, and which became influential particularly in the state socialist societies of East-Central Europe after 1945. Scene insiders accord jazz an important role in resisting the state socialist order. We need to differentiate here: Forms of targeted political resistance are scarcely to be found in East-Central European jazz. Even at first glance, however, such “apolitical“ phenomena as the simple joy of playing and improvisation or the existence of a jazz scene that was difficult for the regime to control necessarily made this music and its environment a political factor of the first rank, which was also shaped by the connection of jazz to its country of origin. The transfer of U.S. American cultural forms helped to bolster oppositional circles intellectually, which in turn was exploited by U.S. American propaganda officers who made jazz a political weapon in the Cold War.

The conference is directed at historians, scholars in the field of cultural studies, sociologists and musicologists who are working on jazz and related music and its social impact in the state socialist societies of Eastern Europe after the Second World War. The aim is to describe the efficacy paradigms of jazz in state socialism.

The conference is being organised by a research project on “Jazz in the Eastern Bloc” based at the Institute for Eastern European Studies of the Free University of Berlin and funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The project is under the direction of Prof. Gertrud Pickhan, (project coordinator: Dr. Rüdiger Ritter).

It is intended to inspire more intensive research on the functioning of state socialist societies from a viewpoint that scholars have largely neglected up until now. The immediate aim is thus to take stock of current work on the societal function of jazz as a point of departure for further research. A selection of the contributions will be published.

Possible topics (by no means exhaustive):

  • The jazz scene in individual countries (especially Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the GDR, the USSR, the Baltic countries, other eastern bloc States)
  • Jazz as a means of propaganda and counter-propaganda
  • Jazz and film
  • Jazz and the media (radio, TV, photography)
  • Jews and jazz
  • Biographical studies of individual jazz musicians Jazz festivals and jazz organisations (e. g. Jazz Jamboree, Jazz Section in the CSSR)
  • Musicians’ travels from West to East and vice-versa (Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong)
  • Development of “national styles“ in jazz?
  • Jazz as a vehicle for “Americanisation”
  • Jazz and youth culture Jazz and other musical genres: rock, pop, chanson and modern classical music

We encourage suggestions for papers on jazz in an individual country as well as on comparative work about one or more countries of the former “eastern bloc”; relevant “East-West” comparisons are also welcome. We are also interested in contributions that discuss methodological issues from both social scientific and musicological perspectives. The conference language will be English.

We plan to publish selected papers in a conference volume.

Address to:
Freie Universität Berlin
Osteuropa-Institut
Garystr. 55
14195 Berlin
http://www.oei.fu-berlin.de/projekte/jazz/index.html

Jazz: Places & Spaces
2008 Leeds International Jazz Conference

Thursday 13 - Saturday 15 March 2008

Leeds International Jazz Conference is an annual event focusing on jazz research, education and performance. It is the only conference of its kind in the UK, offering a unique forum to hear some of the latest sounds and ideas in jazz, as well as opportunities for discussion and networking, information exchange and professional development.

LIJC 2008 will take place at Leeds College of Music from Thursday 13 to Saturday 15 March. We are delighted to welcome Professor Ingrid Monson as the keynote speaker for the event. Professor Monson is the Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University, supported by the Time Warner Endowment. Prof. Monson won the Sonneck Society's 1998 Irving Lowens Prize for the best book on American music for Saying Something, Jazz Improvisation and Interaction (1996). Her most recent work is on Freedom Sounds: Jazz, Civil Rights, and Africa, 1950-1967, (2005). She is also editor of The African Diaspora: A Musical Perspective (2000).

The conference programme will encompass paper presentations, workshops, performances and discussions under the overarching theme of Jazz Places and Spaces. Whilst the classic triumvirate of places - New Orleans, Chicago and New York - has become well established through the
construction of jazz history, jazz is now regarded as an integral part of society and community life in many locations across the globe. Within geographic areas, specific places have functioned as significant centres for jazz performance, from formal concert halls to informal domestic situations, leading to consideration of the various relationships negotiated amongst performers and audiences and the positionality of jazz in cultural hierarchies. In a more abstract sense, various physical and virtual spaces for jazz can be created by elements as diverse as architecture, dance, film, social context, musical forms and performance practice.

Call for Papers
The conference committee invites proposals for papers, lecture recitals, panels and roundtable discussions. We welcome presentations that seek to comment on advances within the field, including commentary on the emergence of cross-disciplinary thinking and the development of new jazz scholarship. Proposals are invited for papers on any area of jazz research; however, possible topics for consideration in accordance with the theme may include:

  • Jazz in specific geographic locations
  • 'Local heroes'
  • Stylistic associations of places
  • The effect of migration and multiculturalism on jazz
  • Jazz communities and scenes
  • Mythical places in jazz history
  • The social role of jazz in specific communities
  • Jazz in the concert hall
  • Jazz clubs
  • Jazz and dance places
  • Jazz outside the city: suburbs and countryside
  • Reflections of location in jazz composition and improvisation
  • Improvisational 'space'
  • Jazz outside America
  • Perceptions of place and space on jazz recordings
  • The effect of location on jazz performance
  • The place of jazz in cultural hierarchies
  • Jazz in popular culture
  • Reception of jazz
  • Jazz places on film
  • Gender in jazz places and spaces
  • Jazz and tourism

Individual presentations should be no more than twenty minutes in duration. There may be opportunities for longer slots for lecture recitals. roposals for panels should include details of each presenter/paper to be included.

Proposals should take the form of a title followed by an abstract of not more than 200 words. The deadline for submissions is Monday 26 November 2007, and decisions will be notified shortly after this date.

Submissions should be addressed to:
Amy Jagger
Research and Enterprise Administrator
Leeds College of Music
3 Quarry Hill
Leeds LS2 7PD
a.jagger@lcm.ac.uk
Web: http://www.lcm.ac.uk

John Coltrane (1926-1967): the Work and its Legacy
International Conference, University Francois-Rabelais, Tours (France), 26 & 27 November 2007

Organisation:
Research Unit «Lieux et Enjeux des Modernités Musicales» (University F. Rabelais, Tours).
Referent: Vincent Cotro

Scientific Committee:
Vincent Cotro (University François-Rabelais Tours, Lieux et Enjeux des Modernités Musicales)
Laurent Cugny (Université Paris-IV Sorbonne, Observatoire Musical Français)
Ekkehard Jost (University of Giessen)
Michel de Lannoy (University François-Rabelais, Tours, Lieux et Enjeux des Modernités Musicales)
Lewis Porter (Rutgers University of Newark, Director of M.A. Program in Jazz History and Research)
Claudine Raynaud (University François-Rabelais, Tours, CNRS-GRAAT)

Jazz’s recent evolutions invite musicologists to interrogate two essential phenomena: 1) the fragmented heritage of free jazz as the ultimate and clearly identifiable current in an inexorable succession of schools and styles since the 20s; 2) the stubborn and multifaceted re-emergence of jazz’s past as the necessary condition of its present (re-editions, tributes, postmodernist experiments, …). John Coltrane’s place in the history of jazz can be considered from these two points of view.

If major musicians like Sonny Rollins or Ornette Coleman are still active today, Coltrane is currently identified as the last of jazz’s “historic masters," the ultimate repository of its modernity. Tributary of a tradition that goes back to Swing, and then to Bebop (through the influence of Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker), Coltrane nonetheless remains at the heart of free jazz, a music that he inspired and that nourished him in his last years. This double positioning, that does not preclude other approaches, allows us to see in John Coltrane’s personality, his work and influence, essential keys to understanding contemporary jazz. The upcoming publication in French of Lewis Porter’s monograph (John Coltrane, His Life and Music, University of Michigan Press, 1998) will coincide with the 40th anniversary of the musician’s death.

Papers will be organized along the following five headings (whose content and formulation might evolve depending on the papers that are finally accepted).

1. Research on Coltrane: biography, discography, unedited tapes, etc.
2. Questions of language (Giant Steps, modality, …) and form (Ascension…)
3. John Coltrane the instrumentalist
4. Influences, partners, outreach, filiations
5. Coltrane in his time (modernity, free jazz and Black Power, politics and spirituality …)

A concert will be organized during this two-day event with the saxophonist Dave Liebman and pianists Andy LaVerne and Lewis Porter (program might be subject to change).

One-page abstracts, with a short biography and a list of recent publications, must be returned by email or snail mail before May 20th, 2007 to:

Vincent Cotro – Colloque John Coltrane
Département de Musique et Musicologie
5, rue François-Clouet
37000 Tours, France
mail: vincent.cotro@univ-tours.fr

No Time for Losers. Kanonbildungen in der populären Musik
18. Arbeitstagung des Arbeitskreises Studium Populärer Musik e.V.

2. bis 4. November 2007, Bildungs- und Tagungsstätte Ostheide, barendorf bei Lüneburg

Kontakt: ASPM e.V.
Dr. Alenka Barber-Kersovan
Ahornweg 154
25469 Halstenbek
Tel. (04101) 44840
e-mail: fk8a003@uni-hamburg.de
Internet: www.aspm-online.org

10. Darmstädter Jazzforum "Begegnungen - The World Meets Jazz" (2008)
Darmstadt, Germany, 4. bis 7. Oktober 2007

Das mittlerweile 10. Darmstädter Jazzforum befasst sich mit dem Thema "Begegnungen – The World Meets Jazz". Dabei geht es um die Tatsache, dass der Jazz von Anfang an eine produktive Musik war, dass Musiker in aller Welt, die sich ihm zuwandten, seine Wurzeln als afro-amerikanische Musik genauso kennen und respektieren mussten wie sie aufgefordert waren, ihre eigene Traditionen mit einzubringen.

Beim Jazzforum geht es also nicht so sehr um "Weltmusik" an sich als vielmehr um diese produktive Auseinandersetzung mit den Traditionen, um die Tatsache, dass der Jazz mittlerweile jede Menge Impulse aus anderen Ecken der Welt erhält, die ihn als ihre ganz eigene Musik begreifen. In Referaten und Diskussionen sollen unterschiedliche Annäherungen, Adaptionen oder Adoptionen näher beleuchtet werden. Oft handelt es sich dabei ja um Ideen, die zwar aus ethnischen Musikrichtungen stammen, aber mit der Spielhaltung des Jazz so hervorragend harmonieren, dass es schwer fällt, die musikalischen Ergebnisse noch unter gängigen Genrebegriffen abzulegen. Weder handelt es sich bei ihnen nämlich wirklich um "Weltmusik", noch ist es Mainstream-Jazz im herkömmlichen Sinne. Es ist ein kreativer Austausch, der den Jazz verändert, egal ob einem das gefällt oder nicht. Beim Jazzforum wollen wir beobachten, analysieren, kritisch unsere eigene Haltung hinterfragen.

Zum Hinterfragen haben wir Theoretiker wie Praktiker eingeladen, Musikwissenschaftler, Historiker, Journalisten, Musiker, um die unterschiedlichen Seiten des Themas zu beleuchten. Am Donnerstag klopft Andrew Hurley Joachim Ernst Berendts legendäre Plattenreihe "Jazz meets the World" auf die Wahrheit des Titels ab: "But did the World meet Jazz". Maximilian Hendler schaut auf alternative Entwicklungen zur Jazzgeschichte und deckt dabei auf, dass das Thema der Begegnung schon weit vor Berendt ein ganz wichtiges war. Torsten Eßer wird die Jazzentwicklung in Lateinamerika unter die Lupe nehmen, und dabei sicher auch die Frage nach dem Verhältnis der vielen kleinen Brüder mit ihrem großen Bruder stellen, der sich gern alles vereinnahmend einfach als "Amerika" bezeichnet. Der Freitag ist den Case Studies vorbehalten, also konkreten Beispielen aus der Musik selbst. Im Mittelpunkt stehen die Trompeter Tomasz Stanko, Enrico Rava und Harry Beckett (Wolfram Knauer), John Zorn und Japan (Günther Huesmann), Flamenco Nuevo und afro-amerikanischer Jazz (Gerhard Putschögl), Jazz im Senegal (Timothy Mangin), sowie der Schmelztiegel Berlin (Silvia Kurschus). Am Samstag geht es um die ästhetische Seite der kulturellen Verflechtungen in der jüngsten Gegenwart (Harald Justin) und um diverse Ansätze, arabische Traditionen und Jazzimprovisation miteinander zu verbinden (Ralf Dombrowski). Zwei Musiker werden am Nachmittag ihre Sicht der Dinge vorstellen: der israelische Saxophonist, Autor und streitbare Verfechter eines Friedens zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern Gilad Atzmon, sowie Karl Berger, der in den 60er Jahren mit Don Cherry in die USA ging und in Woodstock das Creative Music Studio gründete, das schon früh über die Grenzen des herkömmlichen Jazzbegriffs hinwegblickte. Zusammenfassendes und Selbstkritisches zum Schluss: Martin Pfleiderer wird nach drei Tagen voller Referate und Diskussionen fragen, was den Jazz im Zeitalter der Globalisierung eigentlich noch ausmacht.

Und da Vorträge allein zwar anregend, aber irgendwie auch recht trocken sind, haben wir ein begleitendes Konzertprogramm organisiert, das sehr unterschiedliche Seiten der angerissenen Thematik beleuchten soll. Karl Berger wird im Sextett mit Steven Bernstein und anderen den "Spirit of Don Cherry" wiederaufleben lassen. Die Berliner Band Cyminology, heißt es, spiegele die multikulturelle Gesellschaft in Deutschland wider – in den Biographien der Bandmitglieder auf jeden Fall, aber auch in den auf Farsi vorgetragenen Texten der Sängerin Cymin Samawatie. Gilad Atzmons Oriental House Ensemble reflektiert durch die Brille des Jazz auf chassidischen Klezmer genauso wie auf andere musikalische Traditionen des Nahen Ostens. Am letzten Abend ist Ben's Belinga mit seinem Quartett zu hören. Den Saxophonisten bezeichnete die westafrikanische Musiklegende Manu Dibango als seinen legitimen musikalischen Nachfolger. Belinga spielt mit an Rollins und Coltrane orientiertem Ton und verbindet afro-karibische und westafrikanische Rhythmik und Harmonik mit der Komplexität des Jazz

Jazz in the Global Imagination: Music, Journalism, and Culture (2007)

Saturday, September 29, 2007
Columbia School of Journalism
2950 Broadway (at 116th Street)
9:00 am – 6 pm, with an evening panel at 7:30 pm.

The Jazz Journalists Association is pleased to announce its participation in “Jazz in the Global Imagination: Music, Journalism, and Culture,” an international conference of jazz journalists presented by Columbia University’s Center for Jazz Studies, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, September 29, 2007, in the Lecture Hall of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism 2950 Broadway (at 116th St.) in New York City. The main event is free and open to the public.

The conference – first ever in the United States to gather senior, mid-career and emerging jazz-oriented media professionals from around the world in discussions of topics focused on globalization and new technologies – includes six panel discussions as well as a JJA reception (invitees only) on Friday, September 28 and a send-off brunch Sunday, September 30. Details will be posted at www.Jazzhouse.org, website of the JJA. The JJA also will hold a real- time, globally interactive blog from and about the conference at www.Jazzhouse.org, and is currently investigating webcasts of the panels.

Thirty-two jazz journalists from Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey besides the United States will speak in the moderated 90-minute sessions on “The Global and the Local,” “Systems of Production and Consumption,” “Globalizing the Personal,” “New Music, New Aesthetics,” “Journalism and History,” and “Jazz in the Global Imaginary,” The conference is curated by George E. Lewis, Edwin H. Case professor of music at Columbia University director of the Center for Jazz Studies, in close consultation with JJA president Howard Mandel. Mandel is author of Miles, Ornette, Cecil – Jazz Beyond Jazz, to be published this fall by Routledge, adjunct
faculty at New York University and a blogger (http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz; Lewis is a trombonist, electronic music composer-improviser and author of the upcoming Power Stronger Than Itself: The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press (http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/236682.ctl).

JJA members participating include Seda Binbasgil (Turkey), Alain Derbez (Mexico), James Hale (Ottawa), Ashante Infantry (Toronto), Francisco Martinelli (Italy), Cyril Moshkow (Russia), Kazue Yokoi (Tokyo) as well as Marcela Breton, Francis Davis, Gary Giddins, Don Heckman, Dan Morgenstern, Ron Scott, John Szwed and Ted Panken, all from the United States. Participants not officially unaffiliated with the JJA include Gwen Ansell (South Africa), Christian Broecking (Germany), Alex Dutilh (France), Andy Hamilton (UK), Patrik Landolt (Switzerland), Jason Lee (China), Alexander Pierrepont (France), Maxi Sickert (Germany), Bert Vuisje (Netherlends), Lars Westin (Sweden), and Jason Berry, June Cross, Stanley Crouch, Jennifer Odell, Ben Ratliff, Bill Shoemaker, Greg Tate, K. Leander Willliams and George Varga.

Jazz in the Global Imagination: Journalists on Music and World Culture is the culminating event of the Columbia/Harlem Festival of Global Jazz, which takes place from Wednesday, September 19 through Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007. The Festival, which is presented by Columbia University's Center for Jazz Studies in partnership with Jazzmobile, Inc., and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, will feature leading national and international musicians, journalists, and scholars in performances, conferences, symposia, film screenings, and technology-based community events, all open to the public.

For up-to-date information, please visit the Center for Jazz Studies website: http://www.jazz.columbia.edu. For further information about the JJA receptions, interactive global blog and panel webcasts, please visit www.jazzhouse.org.

Media Contact: Anne Burt, 212-854-7884 ab2673@columbia.edu

Center for Jazz Studies Contact: Dan Beaudoin, 212-851-1630, db2469@columbia.edu

Jazz Journalists Association Contact: Howard Mandel, 212 -533-9495, hman@jazzhouse.org

Lennie Tristano Symposium
15. April 2007, Worcester/MA

A symposium on the life and music of Lennie Tristano will be hosted by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Music Division on APRIL 15, 2007 (Sunday).

Panelists will include: Connie Crothers, Ira Gitler, Jimmy Halperin, Sal Mosca, Eunmi Shim, and Bud Tristano.

This program is free and open to the public, and will take place from 2-6pm at Alden Hall, WPI Campus (100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA).
Directions to Worcester Polytechnic Institute can be found at: <http://www.wpi.edu/About/Visitors/directions.html> (Worcester is about 50
miles west of Boston).

Please contact: Richard Falco, Director of Jazz Studies, at rfaloc@wpi.edu, Tel. (508) 831-5794, or Eunmi Shim, Assistant Professor, at eshim@wpi.edu or eshim500@yahoo.com (508) 831-5695

Time, Sound, and Transcendence: Forging a New Vision for Improvised Music Pedagogy and Practice
The inaugural conference of the International Society for Improvised Music

The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dec 1-3, 2006

Featured artists/speakers: Steve Coleman, Janne Murto, Stephen Nachmanovitch, Pauline Oliveros

The increasingly eclectic nature of the musical landscape yields fertile ground for new approaches to improvised music performance and pedagogy. The term transcendence may help us navigate our way through this maze of possibilities: transcendence of boundaries between genres and ethnicities within an emergent trans-stylistic expanse; transcendence of old pedagogical patterns, where improvisation has been marginalized or excluded in musical study; transcendence of distinctions between "high" and "low" art in a more inclusive aesthetic sensibility; and transcendence as in the heightened states of consciousness that improvisers have long claimed to be central to their work. In short, improvisation possesses rich unitive and transformational qualities that can be harnessed in new musical and educational models that reflect the creative needs and potential of our times.

In this inclusive spirit, the International Society for Improvised Music is happy to announce its first inaugural conference and invite proposals for performances, workshops, and papers from individuals involved in all kinds of improvised music. Submissions are welcome from artists/educators working in tradition-specific realms?e.g. Jazz, traditional Hindustani, European baroque, Arabic maqam?as well as in trans-stylistic approaches. Given the dearth of trans-stylistic approaches to improvisation pedagogy, proposals are welcome for hands-on workshops that present strategies in this regard.

Deadline for submissions: August 15, 2006
Response from ISIM: Sept 15, 2006

Prospective presenters must be ISIM members for their proposals to be considered. To download a proposal form online and to join ISIM visit www.isimprov.org. To request a proposal form or for more information contact info@isimprov.org.

Ed Sarath
Professor of Music and Chair
Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation
Director, Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
734-995-0239

Sound and the City. Populäre Musik im urbanen Kontext

27. bis 29. Oktober 2006, Schloss Rauischholzhausen bei Marburg

Auf der vom Arbeitskreis Studium Populärer Musik e.V. (ASPM) in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Musikpädagogik der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen veranstalteten Tagung wird die Rolle der Musik im urbanen Kontext gegenwartsbezogen und praxisnah diskutiert werden. Eingeladen sind Referenten aus einer Vielzahl von Disziplinen, die sich dem Themenkomplex "Stadt und populäre Musik" aus dem je eigenen Blickwinkel nähern: Musik- und Kulturwissenschaft, Stadtplanung, Kultur- und Sozialgeographie, Soziologie, Ethnologie, Freizeit- und Tourismusforschung und Stadtmarketing. Anhand ausgewählter Fallstudien beleuchtet werden ferner die Bedeutung regionaler Zentren für die Geschichte populärer Musik sowie die spezifischen sozialen und ökonomischen Verhältnisse, die zur Genese lokal verankerter resp. lokalisierbarer Stilrichtungen (Jazz aus New Orleans, Chicago Blues, detroit-Sound...) beigetragen haben.

Kontakt:
Arbeitskreis Studium populärer Musik e.V. (ASPM), Ahornweg 154, 25469 Halstenbek, Tel. (04101= 44840, e-mail: fk8a003@uni-hamburg.de, Internet: http://www.lo-net.de/group/aspm

Gianluigi Trovesi (Analyse, Musik, Geschichte)

Dozent: Stefano Zenni

"Stefano Zenni is an Italian musicologist, teacher and artistic director of jazz concerts and is a SIDMA president. He is the author of highly praised books on Louis Armstrong and Herbie Hancock. Mr. Zenni writes for Musica Jazz and has contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (forthcoming edition). He has received a Grammy nomination for liner notes on Charles Mingus' music. Zenni works for the Jazz programm  on Radio Rai Tre, Italy."

Ort: Italienisches Kultur Institut, Köln Universitätstraße 81
Termin: 27.09.06, 10:00 Uhr -13:00 Uhr
Freier Eintritt
Ammeldung: Tel. (0221) 940-5610, e-mail: birgit.otten@esteri.it

2006 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium
Sounds of Hope, Sounds of Change: Improvisation, Pedagogy, Imagination

Guelph, Canada, 6. - 8. September 2006

The Guelph Jazz Festival, in conjunction with the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre and the University of Guelph, invites proposals for papers to be presented at our annual three-day international multidisciplinary colloquium. This year's colloquium will take place September 6-8 as part of the 13th annual Guelph Jazz Festival (September 6-10). It will bring together a diverse range of scholars, creative practitioners, arts presenters, policy makers, and members of the general public. Featuring workshops, panel discussions, keynote lectures, performances, and dialogues among researchers, artists, and audiences, the annual colloquium cuts across a range of social and institutional locations and promotes a dynamic international exchange of cultural forms and knowledges.

Music, as Jacques Attali has argued in his pioneering book Noise, “is a tremendously privileged site for the analysis and revelation of new forms in our society.” Music exists, he tells us, to help us hear the sound of change. “It obliges us to invent categories and new dynamics to regenerate social theory, which today has become crystalized, entrapped, moribund.” Commenting explicitly on the prophetic force of post 1960s free jazz and improvised music, Attali argues that improvisatory music-making heralds the possibility of “new relations among people.” To what extent and in what ways might improvised creative practice foster a commitment to cultural listening, to a widening of the scope of community, and to “new relations” of trust and social obligation? If, following Henry Giroux, we understand pedagogy to be “the complicated processes by which knowledge is produced, skills are learned meaningfully, identities are shaped, desires are mobilized, and critical dialogue becomes a central form of public interaction,” then to what extent (and in what ways) might improvisational musical practices be understood as vital (and publically resonant) pedagogical acts which generate new forms of knowledge, new understandings of identity and community, new imaginative possibilities? How do the kinds of cultural (and pedagogical) institutions that present and promote jazz and improvised music shape our understanding of public culture, of memory, of history?

We invite papers that address these questions and concerns, as well as papers that discuss any issues of jazz and musical improvisation in relation to questions of pedagogy. We are particularly interested in papers that cut across communities of interest and involvement and that speak to both an academic audience and a general public. A forthcoming special issue of our peer-reviewed online journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation (www.criticalimprov.com) will be devoted to the theme of improvisation and pedagogy.

Please send (500 word) proposals or completed papers (for 15 minute delivery) and a short bio by June 7th to:

The 2006 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium,
c/o Dr. Ajay Heble, Artistic Director, The Guelph Jazz Festival
123 Woolwich Street, second floor, Guelph, Ontario N1H 3V1 CANADA
Fax: 519-763-3155
e-mail: jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca

Freie Töne - Jazz in der DDR/Jazz in der Provinz

Im Rahmen der Eberswalder Jazztage veranstaltet der HochVier e. V. vom 26.-28. Mai 2006 ein Seminar zum Thema: "Freie Töne - Jazz in der DDR/Jazz in der Provinz". In Gesprächen mit Zeitzeugen wie Joe Sachse, Herbert Flügge, Gruppen aus verschiedenen Orten, Fans und Veranstaltern stehen die Jazzkultur in den größeren Städten und in der Provinz, die Kulturpolitik, die Bedingungen und Schwierigkeiten für Musiker, Veranstalter und Jazzfans in der DDR im Mittelpunkt. Darüber wird diskutiert, ob und was sich in der Jazzszene seit dem Mauerfall verändert hat und ob der gegenwärtige Jazz noch eine Form von musikalischer und künstlerischer Freiheit darstellt. An den Abenden besteht natürlich die Möglichkeit an den Konzerten der Eberswalder Jazztage (www.jazz-in-e.de.vu) teilzunehmen.

Anmeldung und nähere Informationen zu dieser und anderen Veranstaltungen des HochVier e.V. unter: www.hochvier.org oder Tel. (0331) 581-3210.

Nachfragen und Interviewwünsche bitte an Michael Jahn, HochVier - Gesellschaft für politische und interkulturelle Bildung e.V., Schulstraße 9, 14482 Potsdam, Tel. (0331) 581-3210,e-mail: hochvier@gmx.de, Internet: http://www.hochvier.org [4/2006]