8th conference, Jazz Encounters, Graz, April 3-6 2024

The eighth Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Encounters, will take place at the Institute for Jazz Research (University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria) from 3 to 6 April 2024. This conference is organised in conjunction with the fourteenth International Jazz Research Conference. 

Keynotes

We invite submissions for Jazz Encounters, a four-day multidisciplinary conference bringing together researchers, writers, musicians, critics, and others interested in jazz studies. The event will feature academic papers and panels.

Jazz is a music born of encounter. Jazz encounters are dynamic; they create synergies and frictions and have the power to reconfigure social and political spheres. To understand these encounters is to understand ongoing processes of identity-making and the history and meaning of jazz in the world. Jazz encounters have arisen from and are influenced by myriad factors, including histories and legacies of enslavement, cultural and creative exchanges, ideological contestation, technological change, new modes of communication, economic development, trade, war, occupation, and political consolidation. These processes of encounter and migration – of people, ideas, goods, and objects – shape understandings of the music and its impact on society, from the influence on the lives of individuals to the ideology of societal institutions.

We welcome papers addressing the conference theme from multiple perspectives, including cultural studies, musicology, cultural theory, music analysis, jazz history, media studies, and practice-based research. We particularly welcome contributors who identify as women or gender diverse and from other under-represented groups and communities within jazz studies and academia more generally. Within the general theme of Jazz Encounters, we have identified several sub-themes. Where relevant, please clearly specify which sub-theme you are referring to in your proposal.

Gendered Encounters

Gender has shaped every aspect of jazz, from social interactions between practitioners to how different gendered experiences affect and reproduce understandings of and participation in jazz cultures. This strand aims to challenge established gender narratives in jazz by deconstructing exclusionary, binary, cis-normative, and male-dominated models of practice and interaction. We invite papers investigating social inclusion, diversity, and gender roles in various aesthetic, performative, social and political contexts, including the role of gatekeepers and the relevance of intersectional power relations across multiple career stages. We furthermore welcome investigations that propose new paradigms for evaluating musical experiences. This strand was developed in collaboration with the Centre for Gender Studies and Diversity, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

Jazz in Times of Crisis

Jazz has often been created and experienced amid a sense of crisis, be it personal, organisational, economic, social, or political. Whilst crises can cause anxiety and distress, they can also serve as catalysts for change, resulting in creative actions, innovations, and reflections on existing practices. Equally, jazz has often been described as a music in crisis, generating hyperbolic writings that highlight an existential threat to the art form or the precarity of the music as a cultural practice. Within this strand, topics could include reflections on jazz in crisis, its relationship to war, the climate emergency, post-pandemic responses, economic crises, forced migration, and political extremism. 

Well-being

The relationship between jazz practices and their impact (both negative and positive) on well-being is rarely discussed, and yet, such explorations are needed now more than ever. Particularly since claims of jazz’s societal value and transformative potential are often made without evidence, and the mental and physical health of those involved in jazz is rarely considered. We are interested in evidence-based interventions that help gain a deeper understanding of jazz and well-being to better support the music in the future and to make improvements that are sustainable for different groups. Subjects for consideration may include jazz and mental health, disability, ageing, social inequalities, environmental challenges, working conditions, economic welfare, and work-life balance.

Digital Encounters

Digital technologies give rise to powerful new forms of communication and new ways of acquiring knowledge and distributing information. They transform cultural values and identities by enabling novel types of connectedness and amplifying social divisions and differences. Jazz has embraced and arguably sometimes resisted the transformative potential of the digital. This strand aims to help us consider how digital technologies have brought about social and cultural changes in jazz and how those changes have been influenced by society and culture. We are particularly interested in discussions of VR, XR, and AI and their impact on jazz cultures and practices, alongside broader discussions of the digital revolution in music, from recording technologies to live performance to social media. 

People and Places

There are strong links between music, senses of place, and people’s social and cultural identities, including race, ethnicity, class, and gender. From the evocative symbolism of Ellington’s ‘Harlem’ to the images of the post-industrial landscapes invoked by DJ Spooky, jazz has played an important role in the narrativisation of place. It has been central to how individuals and groups have defined their relationship to local, everyday contexts, as well as disrupting or even erasing those connections and challenging assumptions about homelands and origins. In this strand, we invite papers that map the relationship between music, place, and people, whether past, present, or future. We welcome discussions of scenes, communities, and networks from the perspective of placemaking, and belonging, memorialisation, and the imaginary. 

Further information

Please submit your proposal (max. 250 words), including a short biography (max. 50 words) and institutional affiliation, as a Word document to Christa Bruckner-Haring (Conference director): rhythmchanges@kug.ac.at.

The deadline for proposals is 15 September 2023; we will communicate outcomes to authors by mid-October 2023. The conference committee comprises Christa Bruckner-Haring, Christa Brüstle, André Doehring, Nicholas Gebhardt, George McKay, Sarah Raine, Loes Rusch, Walter van de Leur, and Tony Whyton.

Jazz Encounters is hosted by the Institute for Jazz Research and the Center for Gender Studies and Diversity at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in cooperation with the International Society for Jazz Research. It continues to build on the legacy of the research project Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities (2010–2013), funded as part of the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Joint Research Programme. In the spirit of Rhythm Changes, the project team continues to develop networking opportunities and champion collaborative research in transnational jazz studies.

Updates on the conference will be available on the Institute for Jazz Research website, here on the Rhythm Changes website, Facebook, and X.

To register, click here. Early bird fee valid until 4 Feb.

Call for Papers: The seventh Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Then & Now

The seventh Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Then & Now, will take place at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 25 to 28 August 2022. This conference marks the twelfth anniversary of the Rhythm Changes project.

 

Keynotes

Lucas Dols, double bassist and founder Sounds of Change Foundation: Opening lecture

Rhythm Changes Then & Now: Plenary panel on twelve years of the project

Prof. Charles Hersch, Cleveland State University: Closing address

 

We invite submissions for Jazz Then & Now, a four-day multidisciplinary conference bringing together leading researchers across the arts and humanities and others interested in jazz studies. The event will feature academic papers, panels, and roundtables.

 

Jazz is an urgent music that responds to or addresses contemporary crises. Its history is inseparable from struggles over civil rights, racial and gender identities, cultural politics, social hierarchies, artistic significance, and new technologies. The music has defined itself through debates around inclusion and exclusion, exemplified by iconic phrases such as ‘This Is Our Music’ (Ornette Coleman) or ‘What Jazz Is – and Isn’t’ (Wynton Marsalis). The sounds of jazz have often been heard as strident, edgy, unexpected, demandingly presentist – as urgent. Or is jazz perhaps more about its ‘then’ than its ‘now’ once we move outside circles of scholars, musicians, and fans? Jazz Then & Now seeks to critically explore how this sense (or absence?) of urgency plays out in jazz and how it contributes to our most compelling contemporary debates.

 

We welcome papers addressing the conference theme from multiple perspectives, including cultural studies, musicology, cultural theory, music analysis, jazz history, media studies, and practice-based research. Within the general theme of Jazz Then & Now, we have identified several sub-themes. Where relevant, please clearly specify which sub-theme you are referring to in your proposal.

 

Jazz in pandemic times

How can Jazz Then & Now not address or acknowledge the world’s changing situation? What forms of jazz are there now in our reduced times, and are or can they be creatively innovative? From the multiple closures of jazz clubs to lockdowns on touring and festivals, live music has suffered intensely. In its urgent presentism, is jazz especially vulnerable or vital now? How far are we living a fermata? How will jazz from before the pandemic (the pre-Covidium, which was ‘then’) relate to jazz in the imminent post-Covidium? We may dream in compensation of a Second Jazz Age – à la post-1918 flu pandemic Roaring Twenties – but if our infrastructures fail and our elders fade, where, when, and with whom will we improvise? Or are improvised solutions our best cultural hope?

 

Environment and sustainability

Circularity, sustainability, no-waste festivals, ‘climate songs’, the ClimateMusic Project, Musicians for Future: This theme explores ways in which climate emergency and environmental debates might shape the production, dissemination, and experience of jazz. How do current jazz practices pose short and long-term threats to the environment? (How) can we think of jazz practices to make them more ecologically sustainable? What of its materials (ebony, ivory, reeds, skins)? We invite papers focusing on how artists, critics, audiences, producers and makers respond to current climate debates.

 

Decolonisation

Museums, galleries, even our universities have been at the forefront of interrogating their own pasts, digging into their foundations, archives, and collections to uncover uncomfortable, hidden narratives of complicity. Could or should jazz, as an urgent or heritage music of the Black Atlantic forged in the experience of the transatlantic slave trade, have been helping to lead such debates? In what ways has jazz, including its studies and institutions, involved itself in decolonising cultural practice and consumption, and are they adequate?

 

Jazz Now?

Jazz, as studied today, is successful: it flourishes in academia, where researchers produce a constant stream of publications, and it thrives in music education, where students are admitted after competitive entrance exams. Nevertheless, the student numbers both in academic and vocational programmes seem out of balance with the marketplace. Does that affect the relevance of these programmes? What does it mean to be a jazz performer in relation to the major debates of our time? Has jazz education a responsibility to consider such issues?

 

Jazz Then, and Now

Jazz is a global musical form with a complex history of more than a hundred years. As an innovative and improvisatory style of music, it has become a significant form of cultural expression with changing soundscapes, not least due to hybridisation with other musical traditions. Connected to various social and political movements, the meanings, perceptions, and reception of jazz have been changing as well. This theme addresses jazz from different historical positions, from different perspectives and fields in past and present to explore possible meanings of jazz then and now. Or does jazz inherently occupy an ahistorical position, a celebration of the improvisatory moment?

 

Further information

Please submit your proposal (max. 250 words), including a short biography (max. 50 words) and institutional affiliation, as a Word document to Loes Rusch and Walter van de Leur (Conference Directors), at rhythmchanges@ahk.nl.

 

The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2022; we will communicate outcomes to authors by mid-March 2022. The conference committee consists of Loes Rusch, Walter van de Leur, Christa Bruckner-Haring, Nicholas Gebhardt, George McKay, Catherine Tackley, Sarah Raine, and Tony Whyton.

 

Jazz Then & Now continues to build on the legacy of the research project Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities(2010–2013), funded as part of the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Joint Research Programme. In the spirit of Rhythm Changes, the project team continues to develop networking opportunities and champion collaborative research in transnational jazz studies.

 

Updates on the conference and information about travel and accommodation will be available on our website and Facebook.

 

COVID-19

An international congregation for a conference, postponed twice, on the cultural topic of then and now, including liveness, presentism, and urgency; is this a symptom of jazz madness? We prefer to think of it more as a statement of faith in jazz studies as a creative, intellectual community, where ideas and interaction are our currency and lifeblood. We expect that we will be able to gather in Amsterdam, and we tremendously look forward to meeting you there, onsite, in person. We will comply with any measures in operation at the time, which we will let you know in advance.

Rhythm Changes Jazz Now! postponed

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we have decided to postpone the seventh Rhythm Changes conference Jazz Now! to next year, most likely 26-29 August 2021, in Amsterdam. We fear that in the coming months many delegates will have difficulties making travel arrangements; we also expect that the end of the current academic year and the start of the next will require many delegates to be in their posts by the end of August. Given the circumstances, we will circulate the CfP again this fall.

Best wishes, and stay healthy!

Loes Rusch & Walter van de Leur (RCVII co-chairs)

George McKay, Catherine Tackley, Christa Bruckner-Haring, Sarah Raine, Tony Whyton and Nick Gebhardt

Call for Papers: 2020 conference, Amsterdam

The seventh Rhythm Changes conference: Jazz Now! will take place at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (Amsterdam University of the Arts), the Netherlands, from 27 to 30 August 2020. This conference marks the tenth anniversary of the Rhythm Changes project.

Keynote speaker

Lucas Dols (Sounds of Change Foundation)

Closing address

Prof. Charles Hersch (Cleveland State University)

Special plenary session

Rhythm Changes tenth anniversary panel

We invite submissions for Jazz Now! a four-day multidisciplinary conference bringing together leading researchers across the arts and humanities. The event will feature academic papers, panels, roundtables, and poster sessions.

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Rhythm Changes Conference 2019 Graz

The Sixth Rhythm Changes Conference: Jazz Journeys will take place at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria from 11 to 14 April 2019.

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Jason Stanyek (University of Oxford)

Prof. Marie Buscatto (University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)

Closing Address

Prof. Alan Stanbridge (University of Toronto)

We invite paper submissions for Jazz Journeys, a four-day multidisciplinary conference bringing together leading researchers across the arts and humanities. The event will feature academic papers, panels, roundtables, and poster sessions, as well as an exciting programme of performances by students and staff of the Jazz Institute of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

Jazz has typically been the music of journeys and mobility. Its history is inseparable from global patterns of migration and changing demographics, as well as new forms of media communication and cultural production. The music speaks as much to dreams of escape as it does to the desire to put down roots; it continually seeks new pathways to meaning, even as it reinforces old boundaries. Jazz Journeys seeks to critically explore how ideas of mobility, movement, travel, exchange, voyaging, border-crossing and odyssey have shaped – and continue to shape – debates about the music’s past and future. We welcome papers addressing the conference theme from multiple perspectives, including cultural studies, musicology, cultural theory, music analysis, jazz history, media studies, and practice-based research. Within the general theme of Jazz Journeys, we have identified several sub-themes. Please clearly identify which theme you are referring to in your proposal.

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Rhythm Changes Amsterdam 2017 conference

The organising committee met at Amsterdam Conservatory in late September 2016 to reflect on the Birmingham conference at Easter, and to discuss the theme and call for papers for our 2017 conference… Announcement imminent, but do note the 2017 dates below! The committee consists of (L-R in photo) Dr Loes Rusch (BCU), Dr Christa-Bruckner-Haring (Graz), Prof Tony Whyton (BCU), Prof Nick Gebhardt (BCU), Prof Walter van de Leur (Amsterdam) and ace photographer Prof George McKay (UEA).

One LP Project exhibition by William Ellis

This photo is Copyright William Ellis. All rights reserved.
This photo is Copyright William Ellis. All rights reserved.

You may have had the opportunity to view the One LP Project exhibition by William Ellis at the conference, consisting large portraits in the atrium area and a series of photographs adjacent to the lecture theatre.

One LP is a unique and critically acclaimed portraiture photography project that explores the inspirational qualities of music recordings and the impact that they have on people’s lives. It consists a portrait of an artist with a favourite recording. Each photograph is accompanied by a short interview that explores the meaning and value to the subject.

The One LP project is offered as a bespoke art event consisting of a pop up exhibition with seminar/workshop options. The presentation concept has been developed to appeal to arts, music, literary organisations and educational settings.

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