The Newsletter by the Jazz Education Network Research Interest Group (JENRing)

Welcome to the March edition of the JENRing newsletter. Time is running out to apply to Perform or Present at the JEN Conference in Dallas (January 3-6, 2018) - the deadline is MARCH 31st. Apply to perform or present clinics, research, music business panels here - applicants have to be members of JEN. When applying for a research presentation, consider also presenting during the two-hour poster session to increase your chances for acceptance and sharing your research to a larger audience. Applications for the research fellowship will open in April and stay open until October 15 to provide ample time for planning a project.

We are currently in discussion with several publishers on options for a JEN Jazz Research Journal. Please take a minute and share your preferences and needs on possible content for the publication.  Here is the survey - your input is much appreciated!

Please feel free to share this news compilation and invite colleagues to join the mailing list and/or facebook page. Remember to check the updated job listings here. If you have new books/ articles/ dissertations published, send me the info to be included in the newsletter. Also send over ideas on how JENRing can help you in your jazz research and networking. Items of interest related to jazz research may also be shared on the facebook page.

Monika Herzig
JENRing committee

• The First Jazz Recording Was Made by a Group of White Guys?  A century ago, a recording of the startlingly novel “Livery Stable Blues” helped launch a new genre. The day was February 26, 1917.  While President Woodrow Wilson was facing the threat of a German alliance with Mexico, five white musicians laid down a high-energy, vaudevillian performance of "Livery Stable Blues," backed by the "Dixie Jass One-Step" on the flip side of the 78 rpm disc. This recording, long argued and debated, is likely the first jazz recording ever issued. (Several amazing videos are included in this News item).

• Welcome to the Jazzless Age: Change in New York Times coverage spells trouble for a scene: For two decades, Ben Ratliff, who was hired in 1996, and Nate Chinen, who began writing for the paper in 2005, have provided much of the paper’s jazz coverage. Starting last year the Times’ coverage began to look different. In June the paper began employing fewer reviews of shows and records. And by December, the number of once ample weekly New York jazz listings were condensed to the single digits and lumped in with the paper’s pop and rock listings. The combination of the departures and the change in coverage signaled an emerging vacuum and raised a fundamental question: Had the Times relegated jazz coverage in the interest of reallocating resources to subjects that attract more web traffic?

• The Brain on Jazz: Functional MRI Study Identifies the Cognitive Roots of Improvisation. Periods of activation and deactivation can be seen in a region known as the dorsal lateral prefontal cortex.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   

• The Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College has begun to add its more than 330 videotaped interviews with jazz greats onto its new YouTube channel. The channel can be accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAs4ozKxI7GVTWsV789yMgw.
  Artists whose conversations are now available include George Shearing, Marian McPartland, Bucky Pizzarelli, Clark Terry, Joe Wilder, Dick Hyman, Milt Hinton,Ralph Sutton, Kenny Davern, Bob Rosengarden, Bob Wilber, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Nat Hentoff. Videos will continue to be added over the next months.  Interview transcripts and further information can be found at: www.hamilton.edu/jazzarchive

• Monika Herzig News: It's that time again - Women's History Month!  March 8th is actually International Women's Day and we're celebrating women for a whole month (of course we should do it all year long). This year we were able to put together a really special series of concerts March 30 - April 1 with one of the world's leading trumpet players, Ingrid Jensen! We offer a limited amount of sponsorships for the series - contact me asap if you'd like to collaborate via merchandise features, in-kind services, or financial sponsorships. You can also pick a support level at the ongoing Indiegogo campain.

• Sexism From Two Leading Jazz Artists Draws Anger — And Presents An Opportunity: Over in the jazz world, International Women's Day was a little more ... awkward. They were busy attending to some much less celebratory women's business, a series of online events that we'll call the Saga of Musical Clitoris. It all began with a Robert Glasper interview published last weekend on Do The Math, the blog of The Bad Plus' pianist Ethan Iverson. The jazz world treasures Do The Math for its insightful content, particularly its revealing interviews, in which Iverson's status as a fellow musician is a clear advantage.

• Research project brings jazz composer’s work to life: Youngstown State University professor Kent J. Engelhardt didn’t realize how many others in the jazz music world share his appreciation for the late Cleveland jazz composer Tadd Dameron’s work, or that his research professorship project would morph to create a tribute concert series. Rehearsing with a newly organized, 15-member band made up of music educators from YSU and other universities across Northeast Ohio, Engelhardt will perform the music from Dameron’s final album and serve as co-leader for the following concerts: 8 p.m. March 30, at the Bop Stop, Cleveland; 6 p.m. April 2 at BLUEJazz+, Akron; June 22-24, Tri-C Cleveland Jazz Fest (date and time TBA).
  
  
  

• Improvisation and Social Aesthetics: IICSI is proud to announce Improvisation and Social Aesthetics, a new volume in the Duke UP series, “Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice.” It addresses a wide range of improvised art and music forms in order to locate improvisation as a key site of mediation between the social and the aesthetic.

• IICSI Postdoctoral Fellowship Program: IICSI is currently accepting applications for two available postdoctoral research fellowship positions for the 2017-18 academic year. One fellowship position will be hosted at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). The second will be held at the University of Guelph, McGill, or another IICSI site, if appropriate. At MUN, the postdoctoral fellow will have the opportunity to participate in the activities of the Research Centre for Music Media and Place (MMaP). In 2017-18 IICSI-MUN will focus particularly on themes of improvisation and indigeneity, and improvisation and phenomenology. Applications are due by April 15, 2017.

• CFP: 2017 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium: In partnership with the Guelph Jazz Festival and the University of Guelph, IICSI invites proposals for presentations at our annual interdisciplinary international conference, the colloquium of the 24th annual Guelph Jazz Festival, September 13-15, 2017.  This year’s colloquium will seek to enlarge on Lewis’s comments by exploring partnerships as models for social mobilization, and is dedicated to musicians and improvisers who have engaged in community collaborations and social movements. We invite proposals to present, discuss, and showcase partnered and collaborative work, and its impact. Deadline April 30, 2017.

• Guelph Jazz Festival Announces New Artistic Director: The Guelph Jazz Festival Board of Directors is thrilled to announce that Scott Thomson has been hired as the Festival’s new Artistic Director. “The quality and richness of the candidates from Canada and beyond who expressed their interest in the artistic directorship was truly heartening,” says incoming president Kathe Gray. “Scott’s sustained connections with the improvised and creative music scene, the Guelph Jazz Festival, and the broader Guelph community uniquely position him to build on the exceptional legacy of Ajay Heble and to lead the festival creatively into the future.”

• Musical Improvisation at Land's End / Coin-du-Banc en folie: Musical Improvisation at Land’s End (MILE) is a unique summer camp that engages musicians and non-musicians alike in hands-on workshops led by world-class improvising artists. In an inclusive and supportive environment, MILE nurtures and develops musical improvisation as a vital model of arts-based community-making. In addition to workshops, lecture-demonstrations, and jam sessions, campers (generally aged 16+) will attend concerts and have opportunities to experience some of the unique offerings of the area. To register, please complete the online form.

• CFP: Creating Music Across Cultures in the 21st Century: The inaugural conference of the Australasian Jazz & Improvisation Research Network and the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music – Monash University will take place Friday June 2 to Sunday June 4 at the Paris Cat Jazz Club, Melbourne, in association with the 2017 Melbourne International Jazz Festival (MIJF). This conference invites a cross-section of researchers from the field to explore the notion of agency in jazz from multiple perspectives.  300 word abstracts/proposals and 150 word bios to be submitted by April 3, 2017 to fiona@ajirn.com before 11:59 pm.

• Call for Papers: The first Australasian Jazz and Improvisation Research Network Conference will take place in Melbourne June 2 - 4, 2017. Register by: June 1, 2017 11:59 PM Eastern Time.

• Call for Papers: The seminar, Intercultural Relations in Arts and Cultural Management Higher Education, part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council UK funded research network entitled Brokering Intercultural Exchange (www.managingculture.net), will explore how historical, institutional and social assumptions and traditions of arts and cultural management are exchanged and reproduced through the intercultural exchanges that take place in arts and cultural management training and education. We are looking for papers and provocations. The deadline for submission ends on April 20th. Speakers will be notified on April 28th. We are unfortunately unable to provide travel and subsistence. Please submit to: raphaela.henze@hs‐heilbronn.de.

• Call for Papers: In the context of one of the world’s most organic melting pots, Istanbul, The Centre for Advanced Studies in Music, Istanbul Technical University, will host an international conference, in partnership with the European Research Council funded project “Beyond East and West,” May 25-27, 2017. We invite proposals for papers (20-minute presentation plus 10-minute discussion) on any topic related to the mixing of music from different musical traditions.  Please send a 250-word abstract to Robert Reigle, rreigle@gmail.com, with subject heading “Creating Music across Cultures-Abstract,” by March 6, 2017.  We will announce acceptances by March 20, 2017.

• Call for Papers: The editors of the Philosophy of Music Education Review invite philosophical articles addressing issues related to music education in political contexts. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/philmusieducrevi.24.issue-2. Abstracts of proposed essays are welcomed. Please contact: Estelle R. Jorgensen, Editor, Philosophy of Music Education Review at jorgense@indiana.edu by June 30, 2017.

• Call for Papers: The fifth international Rhythm Changes Conference ‘Re/Sounding Jazz’ will take place at the Conservatory of Amsterdam from August 31 - September 3, 2017. The event is delivered in partnership with the Conservatory of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, Birmingham City University, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, CHIME, and a number of academic publishers and journals. Send abstracts and event queries to Prof Walter van de Leur W.vandeLeur@uva.nl by March 31, 2017.

• Call for Proposals: The Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham School of Media will be hosting a one-day symposium entitled Being Thelonious: Perspectives on Thelonious Monk at 100 on Thursday, June 15, 2017, from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm. This symposium aims to undertake a wide-ranging scholarly and creative investigation of the music, history, legacy, cultural significance and wider socio-political, artistic and intellectual contexts of Monk’s music. Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to Nicholas Gebhardt (Nicholas.Gebhardt@bcu.ac.uk) no later than Friday, April 7, 2017. Notification of acceptance will be given by Friday, April 28, 2017, and details of the conference program and the registration process will be announced shortly thereafter. Please use the same email address for informal enquiries.

• Call for Papers: The fourth annual WESTMINSTER-GOLDSMITHS SYMPOSIUM for student research in popular music presented by the University of Westminster Centre for Commercial Music and Goldsmiths Popular Music Research Unit will take place on Friday, May 26, 2017, from 9 am - 6 pm. This annual symposium brings together student researchers in popular music – production, business, songwriting, performance, sociology and musicology – from across Britain and, potentially, beyond. It is an opportunity for students to present their developing research to friendly, interested and expert listeners, and to meet and network with future colleagues. Papers will be limited to 20 minutes for all researchers, with 10 minute Q&A sessions following all papers. Please send a 200-word abstract of your proposed paper to either of the symposium organisers, Dr. Chris Kennett (c.kennett@westminster.ac.uk) or Dr. Tom Perchard (t.perchard@gold.ac.uk) by 5pm on Friday, April 28th. We will let you know if your proposal has been accepted by Monday, May 8th, and will circulate a full schedule of confirmed speakers shortly thereafter.

• Composition Competition:  To celebrate the occasion of the 100th birthday of Thelonious Monk in 2017, and as an activity of applied artistic research, JAM MUSIC LAB - University for Jazz and Popular Music Vienna is organizing an international composition competition. In cooperation with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, which will be extended to include jazz soloists, the prize-winning work will be premiered on July 7th, 2018, in the "Golden Hall" of the Vienna Musikverein. We encourage great contemporary writers in jazz (and beyond) to participate in this contest, and to create a challenging piece of modern music. The competition is international and without age limitation. Deadline for applications (Phase 1) is June 1st, 2017! Call for scores PDF: http://www.jammusiclab.at/upload/monk/call-for-scores--spheres-of-a-genius--monk-2017--en.pdf; If you have any further questions, please contact ratka@jammusiclab.at.

• When Genres Collide: Down Beat, Rolling Stone, and the Struggle Between Jazz and Rock: It may appeal to those working on genre formation, music journalism / criticism, and the history of interactions between jazz and rock (particularly how jazz critics covered rock and vice versa). The publisher is actually having a flash sale just now with 40% off the retail price - the sale ends Sunday, March 26th at midnight.  In case you’re interested in reviewing it, the publisher can provide free copies to reviewers and journal editors (Lianna.Iwanikiw@bloomsbury.com).

• Cadernos de Jazz em Portugal – Essays on the History of Jazz in Portugal: “This edited collection charts the historical development of jazz in Portugal and the music’s place within the nation’s cultural heritage. Cravinho has produced a collection that is historically grounded, politically insightful, and relevant to a new generation of scholars, students, fans and artists alike. Exploring this collection, readers will gain in-depth knowledge of jazz in Portugal and the role jazz occupies within different local, regional and national contexts. They will also gain an understanding of the changing role of jazz in a time of social and political change. Cravinho’s work captures the vibrancy of the Portuguese jazz scene and offers a powerful example of the innovative research coming out of Europe today. This collection will function as a valuable educational resource, enabling students to engage with jazz in new ways and to understand the complex role of music in society.” Professor Tony Whyton & Hicholas Gebhardt (Birmingham City University)