Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies

The Routledge Companion to jazz Studies presents over forty articles from internationally renowned scholars and highlights the strengths of current jazz scholarship in a cross-disciplinary field of enquiry. Each chapter reflects on developments within jazz studies over the last twenty-five years, offering surveys and new insights into the The major perspectives and approaches to jazz research. The collection provides an essential research resource for students, scholars, and enthusiasts, and will serve as the definitive survey of current jazz scholarship in the Anglophone world to-date. It extends the critical debates about jazz that were set in motion by formative texts in the 1990s, and sets the agenda for the future scholarship by focusing on key issues and providing a framework for new lines of enquiry. It is organized around six themes: I. Historical Perspectives, II. Methodologies, III. Core Issues and Topics, IV. Individuals, Collectives and Communities, V. Politics, Discourse and Ideology and VI. New Directions and Debates

Moving to Higher Ground: The Changing Discourse of European Jazz 1960–1980

The 2014 conference ‘Growing Up: Jazz between 1960 and 1980’ in Lucerne provided a stimulating environment for the examination of European identity in jazz, and offered several fascinating insights into the musical landscape and changing cultural discourses of jazz during this period in history. In this article, I suggest that the idea of ‘Growing Up’ encourages a way of thinking about jazz’s place in Europe that is problematic; the concept invests in the belief in linear historical progress and causal narration, the promotion of a developing artistic sensibility, and the idea of a maturation of form where jazz ‘comes of age’. In effect, whilst it is important to consider the historical development of music and its changing reception through time, the concept of growing up reinforces a number of assumptions about art music and its place in European culture; it has the ability to shape how we view the movement of music and culture, what social and cultural changes might have occurred during the period we’re looking at, and promotes a particular view of European jazz and its relationship both to the American jazz tradition and popular culture more broadly

Cultural Heritage and Improvised Music in European Festivals

Festivals have an important – if undervalued – position in Europe’s cultural ecology, with their dynamic and synergetic relationship to spaces and cultural sites. Within this context, jazz and improvised music festivals provide a distinctive lens through which to explore key issues in heritage research, drawing on music’s unique and complex relationship to concepts of high and low culture, tradition, innovation, authenticity and (non)-European identity. This chapter explores the findings from the JPI-Heritage+ project CHIME and makes recommendations for future research into heritage planning

Investigating musical performance: Commonality and diversity amongst classical and non-classical musicians

The research project 'Investigating Musical Performance: Comparative Studies in Advanced Musical Learning' was devised to investigate how classical, popular, jazz and Scottish traditional musicians deepen and develop their learning about performance in undergraduate, postgraduate and wider music community contexts. The aim of this paper is to explore the findings relating to attitudes towards the importance of musical skills, the relevance of musical activities and the nature of musical expertise. Questionnaire data obtained from the first phase of data collection (n = 244) produced evidence of differences and similarities between classical and non-classical musicians. While classical musicians emphasised the drive to excel musically and technically and prioritised notation-based skills and analytical skills, non-classical musicians attached greater importance to memorising and improvising. Regardless of genre, the musicians all considered practical activities such as practising, rehearsing, taking lessons and giving performances to be relevant. However, while classical musicians attached greater relevance to giving lessons and solo performances, their non-classical colleagues considered making music for fun and listening to music within their own genre to be more relevant. Some underlying processes that may have accounted for the differences in attitudes are explored, including musical influences, age of initial engagement with music and educational background. Points of similarity and differences are discussed, and possibilities for the two musical trajectories to inform and learn from each other are highlighted

From music student to professional: the process of transition

This article addresses the question of whether higher education music courses adequately prepare young musicians for the critical transition from music undergraduate to professional. Thematic analyses of interviews with 27 undergraduate and portfolio career musicians representing four musical genres were compared. The evidence suggests that the process of transition into professional life for musicians across the four focus genres may be facilitated when higher education experiences include mentoring that continues after graduation, the development of strong multi-genre peer networks, the provision of many and varied performance opportunities and support for developing self-discipline and autonomy in relation to the acquisition of musical expertise. Implications for higher education curricula are discussed. © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Perceptions and predictions of expertise in advanced musical learners

The aim of this article was to compare musicians' views on (a) the importance of musical skills and (b) the nature of expertise. Data were obtained from a specially devised web-based questionnaire completed by advanced musicians representing four musical genres (classical, popular, jazz, Scottish traditional) and varying degrees of professional musical experience (tertiary education music students, portfolio career musicians). Comparisons were made across musical genres (classical vs. other-than-classical), gender, age and professional status (student musicians vs. portfolio career musicians). Musicians' 'ideal' versus 'perceived' levels of musical skills and expertise were also compared and factors predicting musicians' self-reported level of skills and expertise were investigated. Findings suggest that the perception of expertise in advanced musical learners is a complex phenomenon that relates to each of four key variables (gender, age, musical genre and professional experience). The study also shows that discrepancies between advanced musicians' ideal and self-assessed levels of musical skills and expertise are closely related to gender and professional experience. Finally, characteristics that predict and account for variability in musicians' views and attitudes regarding musical expertise and self-assessments of personal expertise levels are highlighted. Results are viewed in the context of music learning and implications for music education are discussed

Seeking Resolution: John Coltrane, Myth and the Audiovisual

This chapter examines the complexity of the relationship between John Coltrane's recordings and audivisual material following the release of his seminal album A Love Supreme in 1965. Drawing on video footage of the Classic Quartet's televised European Festival performances, I discuss the symbolic importance of Coltrane's music in relation to the notion of an authoritative jazz canon. The chapter comments ont he ways in which audiovisual mediations of jazz feed into mythoc representations of the past and enable seminal recordings and artists to accrue a series of cultural meanings that go betyond the production of sound

Four for Trane : jazz and the disembodied voice

This article comments on the paradoxical nature of new art and its relationship to technology, and discusses the impact of iconic recordings on contemporary performance habits. Using four examples of iconic media associated with John Coltrane, I construct a model from which to examine current trends in jazz performance that are influenced both directly and indirectly by recordings. I open with a discussion of how the jazz icon-audience relationship is affected by recordings and draw on examples to illustrate how records can either contribute to the mystery and magic of performance or create a sense of unease in listeners through conscious awareness of the disembodied voice. The latter point is emphasised through a study of constructed iconic presence, using the sound of John Coltrane’s spoken voice in an interview conducted by Carl-Erik Lindgren in 1960. Conversely, the study moves on to demonstrate how acts of recorded jazz performance have the potential to instil music with a sense of mystery. Within this context, I include quotation, transcription, study aids, historical re-enactments, and musical tributes under the same theoretical model, highlighting the influence of iconic presence on contemporary performance practice. I go on to demonstrate my theoretical model in practice, using both the Jamey Aebersold produced/Andy LaVerne ‘play-along’ Countdown to Giant Steps and Branford Marsalis’s Footsteps of Our Fathers album as examples

Preface

The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives: This Is Our Music documents the emergence of collective movements in jazz and improvised music. Jazz history is most often portrayed as a site for individual expression and revolves around the celebration of iconic figures, while the networks and collaborations that enable the music to maintain and sustain its cultural status are surprisingly under-investigated. This collection explores the history of musician-led collectives and the ways in which they offer a powerful counter-model for rethinking jazz practices in the post-war period. It includes studies of groups including the New York Musicians Organization, Sweden’s Ett minne för livet, Wonderbrass from South Wales, the contemporary Dutch jazz-hip hop scene, and Austria‘s JazzWerkstatt. With an international list of contributors and examples from Europe and the United States, these twelve essays and case studies examine issues of shared aesthetic vision, socioeconomic and political factors, local education, and cultural values among improvising musicians