Author: tony

Jazz Cosmopolitanism from East to West is 3 day symposium hosted by Ningbo University College of Arts in partnership with the School of Arts & Media, University of Salford.

Date and Location
9-12 January 2015, Ningbo University College of Arts, Ningbo, China

Call for Papers

“Jazz is so much more than music: it is a lifestyle and a tool for dialogue, even social change. The history of jazz tells of the power of music to bring together artists from different cultures and backgrounds, as a driver of integration and mutual respect.” Irina Bokova, Director General, UNESCO

Jazz Cosmopolitanism from East to West will focus on jazz as both a national and transnational cultural practice, comparing the uses and representations of music in different international contexts in order to explore questions relating to the development, assimilation, appropriation, and exchange of culture. Jazz plays a complex role in the cultural and sub-cultural life of different international scenes and this event will examine ways in which jazz scholars, musicians and fans interpret and interact with the music, the ways in which jazz networks are constructed and established in various cultures, how music is translated, and serves as a driver for social and cultural change. Jazz Cosmopolitanism from East to West will investigate ways in which the music can challenge established stereotypical distinctions between national settings and regions, including concepts of East and West.
The organising committee welcomes proposals for presentations which focus specifically on the following themes:

• Jazz as a tool for social change and/or cultural understanding
• The relationship between jazz, national cultural values, and transnational influences
• Jazz in translation: the cultural meanings of jazz in different international settings
• Challenging dominant representations of jazz as evidenced in the attitudes and practices of critics, musicians and audiences as well as representations in film, television and literature. This could include the exploration of established mythologies and stereotypes distinctions between East and West

Conference organisers
Professor Yu Hui (Ningbo University College of Arts)
Professor Tony Whyton (School of Arts & Media, University of Salford)

Deadline for proposals
12 September 2014

Proposals of c.300 words should be sent to Professors Yu Hui (hui.yuu@gmail.com) and Tony Whyton (t.whyton@salford.ac.uk)

Languages
English / Chinese

Accommodation / Fees
There will be no conference fee but travel, accommodation and subsistence costs must be met by individual participants. The symposium host will provide a limited accommodation allowance and one-day free local sightseeing for international participants.

Ningbo City
Ningbo is a seaport city in the northeast of Zhejiang province, China holding sub-provincial administrative status with a population of 7.6 million. It is one of China’s oldest cities, with a history dating to the Hemudu culture in 4800 BC. The city was known as a trade city on the silk road at least two thousand years ago, and then as a major port for foreign trade since the Tang Dynasty. It enjoys both historical culture atmosphere and the dynamic economic development of modern China.

This 15-minute film, entitled Carnivalising the Creative Economy, was funded by the AHRC and launched at the AHRC Creative Economy Showcase on 12 March 2014 at King’s Place, London.

Led by Professor George McKay, the film brings together academics and festivals directors from 5 recent / current AHRC-funded projects (including Rhythm Changes), who discuss the benefits and findings of such collaboration.

The film was made by Gemma Thorpe.

We are delighted to announce the creation of a new monograph series with Routledge entitled “Transnational Studies in Jazz” The series will present interdisciplinary and international perspectives on the relationship between jazz and its social, political, and cultural contexts, as well as providing authors with a platform for rethinking the methodologies and concepts used to analyse jazz’s musical meaning.

We therefore encourage proposals that challenge disciplinary boundaries, that find different ways of telling the story of jazz with or without reference to the United States, and that are sympathetic to jazz as a medium for negotiating global identities. This does not exclude artist biographies or close analysis of musical works, but rather, we ask that authors reconsider how they address their subjects and from what perspective they do so. Transnational Studies in Jazz explores the complex cultural and musical exchanges that have shaped the global development and reception of jazz.

We have launch publications planned for 2015 which include texts on jazz and advertising, post WWII jazz collectives, and the discourses of jazz, but we are now welcoming new proposals for monographs to appear in the series.

We would be delighted to discuss monograph proposals with you and hope you consider placing your work with this exciting new series.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Editors: Tony Whyton (t.whyton@salford.ac.uk) & Nicholas Gebhardt (nicholas.gebhardt@bcu.ac.uk)

I’ve just published a blog on the Oxford University Press website about the cover of my new book Beyond A Love Supreme: John Coltrane and the Legacy of an Album. Here’s the opening- click on the link below if you want to read more:

Judging a book by its cover: recordings, street art, and John Coltrane

Created by the Berlin-based street artist MTO, a graffiti artwork was painted on a Parisian wall a few years ago and only on display for a few days before being painted over. A few photographs of the image, taken by MTO at the scene, are all that remain of the work. MTO’s image served as a perfect visual manifestation of the issues and strategies at play in my research: a graffiti version of an iconic photograph of John Coltrane which appears on the front of his 1964 album, A Love Supreme.

The influence of recordings is more than just musical or sonic in nature; recordings impact different arts and appear in different cultural contexts. In many ways, they have the potential to alter our view of the places we live in and, in some instances, can change our relationship to history itself. The temporary nature of MTO’s artwork and its subsequent use in photographic form and on the web also mirrors the changes that occur when music is recorded, disseminated, and used in different ways. Just as the recordings themselves can be understood in a number of different ways, these layers of mediation – that is, the channels through which we communicate, or the involvement of third parties in the construction and distribution of meaning – enable A Love Supreme (and other recordings) to take on infinite new lives and meanings.

Read more

On Sunday 16 June, I hosted a public conversation with Django Bates‘ Belovèd before their concert at the Holmfirth Arts Festival in West Yorkshire. Bates was joined on stage by bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun and I started off the conversation with a question about the relationship between place and creativity. We moved from an examination of the differences between festivals and venues – how performing contexts shape the direction of music – to exploring how the Danish jazz scene had led to the formation of the trio. Belovèd formed in Copenhagen during Bates’ time at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and their Charlie Parker-inspired albums developed out of an event organised by the Copenhagen Jazzhouse.

During the talk, we discussed concepts of inheritance and identity, how the “weight of history” can often hamper the creative process. In my first book, Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition, I suggested that official histories of jazz are too fixed in nature and the presence of iconic figures has spawned a number of imitative projects which can be read as too indebted to past masters. Exploring these themes with Belovèd, Bates was keen to stress the difference between love and reverence for an artist, and suggested that this was the key to his success; using Parker’s music as a springboard for his own creativity without feeling restricted by official narratives or expectations about how to draw on music of the past. The trio touched on ways in which working transnationally encourages this kind of thinking.

The conversation moved on to a consideration of what it means to be an artist and a refusal to be pigeonholed and the trio discussed their musical and compositional processes. Bates will be developing the Belovèd project for big band for the BBC Proms in August and the translation of this material has presented a number of challenges for the group. Both Bruun and Eldh have such a close working relationship with Bates, feeding off each other and taking the music in different directions, that the inclusion of additional musicians has led to the need for the clarification of ideas and the sharing of established processes beyond the trio.

We concluded our discussion by considering the dynamics of cultural influence and the flow of ideas. I asked the trio to reconsider the well trodden idea that creative influences flow in one direction – namely that musicians of the present are influenced by the great masters of the past a?? and posed the question of how Bates’ music could encourage us to think about the past in different ways. For example, I asked how does Belovèd encourage people to listen again to Charlie Parker with fresh ears and think differently about Parker? Although Bates acknowledged that all our listening is tempered by present values, he suggested that associations with his own music (ranging from compositional complexity to playful humour, from political statement to improvising in the moment) could be used as a strategy for revising our readings of the music of the past.

Here’s a brief promo from Kings Place featuring Soweto Kinch. Kinch has been working with the HERA-funded SCIBE project (which explores creativity through scarcity in architecture) in developing content and ideas for his Urban Landscape concert on Friday 31 May.

Visit the Serious website for booking information and more details about The Time and The Place.

If you’re still having Conference withdrawal symptoms and enjoyed the Storified Twitter feed and London Jazz Blog Conference summary below, why not check out the photo gallery of selected images from the Rethinking Jazz Cultures event here?

A big thank you to Ian Patterson, Andrew Dubber, George McKay and Walter van de Leur for sharing their images with us! Feel free to send in more images and we’ll add them to the gallery.

In 2012, Rhythm Changes commissioned Paul Floyd Blake to produce a photography exhibition based on his experiences and impressions of three leading European jazz festivals. As the 2009 Taylor-Wessing National Portrait Photography Prizewinner, Floyd Blake has gained critical acclaim for his unique studies of identity and place, and his work often seeks to challenge existing photographic practice.

The brief from the Rhythm Changes team was simple: Floyd Blake was to present an impression of music and its relationship to place in three international festival settings and to capture aspects of festival life that were either unique, counterintuitive or which captured a sense of social ambience. Rather than capturing shots of musicians on stage, we invited Floyd Blake to explore jazz from different perspectives, from the views of audiences to examinations of festival settings.

The resulting collection of 30 images on display at CUBE encourages the viewer to rethink their relationship to jazz and consider the role music plays in very different festival, and social, contexts. Click here for more images and to read Floyd Blake”s reaction to the commission.

Paul Floyd Blake’s “Rethinking Jazz” runs from 5 – 14 April at CUBE Gallery in Manchester.