Friday 2 September – 11.00-12.15 (Sweelinck)
Chair: Ken Prouty
Darius Brubeck – Jazz Education at UKZN, South Africa Early History, Development and Drinks at 5
This paper will cover early days at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and describe staff and student needs in the very different South Africa of 25 years ago. It looks at a time when institutions, programs and people had to confront dramatically changing political and economic realities. This paper includes a look at the move from “colonial” music education to the acknowledgment and advancement of South African jazz and its contribution to the local and international political and cultural arena.
The struggle to change and develop a new model of learning cites personal stories that include humour, passion, problems and achievement reflecting the improvisational aspects of the music itself. The paper further reviews important stages in South African jazz education and includes descriptions of the projects, tours, links and music that made progress possible. It also suggests that the connections made during the last quarter of the Century, both in South Africa and abroad are still worth pursuing. Finally, it provides an updated overview of jazz at tertiary institutions and of jazz performance in present day South Africa, with a brief examination of influences and directions. This will inevitably raise questions about inherited culture, indigenous input and attitudes to both. This paper is co-authored with Catherine Brubeck.
Christa Bruckner-Haring – Aspects of the Current Jazz Scene in Austria Higher Jazz Education
Austria is a country which is deeply steeped in musical history and famous for its classical composers; nevertheless, jazz had no problem to gain importance, especially since the end of World War II, when in the two biggest Austrian cities, Vienna and Graz, rather quickly jazz scenes evolved. Once jazz for the first time in Europe was academically institutionalized at the “Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz” (now “University of Music and Performing Arts Graz”, abbrev. KUG) on the initiative of a young group of academics who were enthusiastic jazz musicians in 1965, jazz definitely fixed its status within Austria’s music life.
In this paper, the main results of the Austrian Rhythm Changes country report regarding jazz musicians and professional jazz education will be examined. After giving an overview of the general situation of Austrian jazz musicians, the higher educational institutions (universities and conservatories providing a jazz education) including training programs and analyses of student data (academic year 2010/11) will be presented. Furthermore, existing problems, such as the missing political support for a jazz education at the university “Mozarteum” in Salzburg will be pointed out. Expert interviews will help to gain extensive insights into the topic. The main aim of this paper is to present the role and importance of higher jazz education in Austria.
Claudia M. Rolando – “Tres morillas me enamoran en Jaén” (Three Moorish Girls Woo Me in Jaén) Migration of Three Andalusian Singers to Key Current Jazz Centres as Part of their Educational Process
Since 2001, Spain has a net of Higher Music Conservatories specialized in vocal jazz. Nevertheless this academic offer is insufficient since it fails to officially cover all formative stages and is not established in all Spanish provinces. A singer who wishes to specialize in this genre is bound to cover these institutional deficiencies either by self-learning, or by resorting to private centres. Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account that extra-academic aspects of a varied nature come into play. Together with living conditions, for example, there appear those choices and expectations created around the singer’s own vocal training. This reality turns migration into a possible, and sometimes inevitable, option.
Taking the Moorish Tres morillas me enamoran en Jaen, as a metaphor, this article exposes the particular cases of three renowned singers (Celia Mur, Pepa Niebla and Lara Bello), who migrated to prominent centres of the actual jazz scene (Madrid, London and New York) from their native Andalusia. The study analyses the needs and motives that determined these relocations, parallel and complementary, and reflects on “migration” as a resource of the first magnitude within the complex process of vocal training.