Jazz Research Articles

Jazz Musicians and Their Disabilities: Django Reinhardt, Les Paul, and Michel Petrucciani.

Musicians with physical disabilities who achieved stardom are part of the lore of popular music. Guitarist Django Reinhardt contrived alternate fingering patterns necessitated by burn contractures of his left hand. Les Paul, a legend in the development of the solid body electric guitar and multitrack recording, mangled his right arm in a car wreck so severely that his elbow was set permanently at 90° so he could continue to play guitar. Michel Petrucciani suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition that stunted his growth to the point where he used a special attachment to reach the sustaining pedals of his piano. Their stories show the force of human genius in music.

Temporal dynamics of uncertainty and prediction error in musical improvisation across different periods

Human improvisational acts contain an innate individuality, derived from one’s experiences based on epochal and cultural backgrounds. Musical improvisation, much like spontaneous speech, reveals intricate facets of the improviser’s state of mind and emotional character. However, the specific musical components that reveal such individuality remain largely unexplored. Within the framework of human statistical learning and predictive processing, this study examined the temporal dynamics of uncertainty and surprise (prediction error) in a piece of musical improvisation. This cognitive process reconciles the raw auditory cues, such as melody and rhythm, with the musical predictive models shaped by its prior experiences. This study employed the Hierarchical Bayesian Statistical Learning (HBSL) model to analyze a corpus of 456 Jazz improvisations, spanning 1905 to 2009, from 78 distinct Jazz musicians. The results indicated distinctive temporal patterns of surprise and uncertainty, especially in pitch and pitch-rhythm sequences, revealing era-specific features from the early 20th to the 21st centuries. Conversely, rhythm sequences exhibited a consistent degree of uncertainty across eras. Further, the acoustic properties remain unchanged across different periods. These findings highlight the importance of how temporal dynamics of surprise and uncertainty in improvisational music change over periods, profoundly influencing the distinctive methodologies artists adopt for improvisation in each era. Further, it is suggested that the development of improvisational music can be attributed to the adaptive statistical learning mechanisms. This study explores the period-specific characteristics in the temporal dynamics of improvisational music, emphasizing how artists adapt their methods to resonate with the cultural and emotional contexts of their times. Such shifts in improvisational ways offer a window into understanding how artists intuitively respond and adapt their craft to resonate with the cultural zeitgeist and the emotional landscapes of their respective times.

Trade-offs in Coordination Strategies for Duet Jazz Performances Subject to Network Delay and Jitter

Coordination between participants is a necessary foundation for successful human interaction. This is especially true in group musical performances, where action must often be temporally coordinated between the members of an ensemble for their performance to be effective. Networked mediation can disrupt this coordination process by introducing a delay between when a musical sound is produced and when it is received. This can result in significant deteriorations in synchrony and stability between performers. Here we show that five duos of professional jazz musicians adopt diverse strategies when confronted by the difficulties of coordinating performances over a network—difficulties that are not exclusive to networked performance but are also present in other situations (such as when coordinating performances over large physical spaces). What appear to be two alternatives involve: 1) one musician being led by the other, tracking the timings of the leader’s performance; or 2) both musicians accommodating to each other, mutually adapting their timing. During networked performance, these two strategies favor different sides of the trade-off between, respectively, tempo synchrony and stability; in the absence of delay, both achieve similar outcomes. Our research highlights how remoteness presents new complexities and challenges to successful interaction.

Node Centrality Based on Edge Dynamics in a Chaotic Network

This paper introduces a novel node centrality index based on edge dynamics in a complex network: adjacent edge index. Through the analysis of network dynamics and topology, we provide a neat index to qualify node importance, which is calculated by the eigenvector components corresponding to the Fiedler value of the network. Notably, it identifies nodes whose adjacent edge sets play a significant role in network synchronization. The index indicates that not only a node’s degree but also its location should be considered. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed index, consider a double-star network and a Jazz Musicians network in which chaotic Chua’s circuits as nodes are coupled. By factoring in the dynamic information exchange between nodes and their neighbors, this index offers valuable insights for optimizing strategies in engineering areas such as efficient information dissemination.

Jazz Press in Serbia from 1953 to 1965

The aim of the paper was to introduce the specialized press oriented towards jazz music and its practitioners that was published from 1953 to 1965 on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The marked period was chosen for consideration since it represents the most fruitful stage in the development of the press of a specific thematic profile, but also because of the significant changes in the entire Yugoslav society. These changes, as it was possible to show, influenced the complex processes that shaped the press of the time, as well as the attitude towards this musical genre and its practitioners. The processes in question include, first of all: certain internal political movements that consistently modeled the cultural policy of the time, within which jazz attempted to obtain a favorable position; integration of the former socialist state into polarized international currents that implied the use of jazz as a means of affirming the foreign policy orientation of Yugoslav society; and the creation of the operational power of artists for self-organization and the acquisition of certain labor and social rights within the Association of Jazz Musicians. The association was founded in 1953 in Belgrade with the aim of advocating for the rights of contemporary musicians, while at the same time initiating the publication of the first newspaper Jazz: Journal of Popular and Jazz Music (Jazz. List za pitanja zabavne i džez muzike). Under this name, the journal was published from 1953 to 1954, and during the publication period from 1957 to 1958 it changed its name to Bulletin of the Association of Jazz Musicians (Bilten Udruženja Jazz muzičara). After that, in Novi Sad, in 1962, Rhythm – Yugoslav Review of Jazz and Popular Music (Ritam – Jugoslovenska revija za džez i zabavnu muziku) began to be publish by NIP Dnevnik, and later changed its name to Rhythm – Yugoslav Review of Popular Music (Ritam – Jugoslovenska revija za zabavnu muziku), under which it continued to be published until it ceased publication in 1965.

Jazz music: From black pride to political consciousness to social change in the United States

African Americans have been marginalised, discriminated against, and excluded from American society for centuries. First as slaves, but later when they gained emancipation, they remained relegated, differentiated, and discounted, in a range of areas, including in the political and economic spheres. Music has been a means to promote their greater inclusion in American society, drawing together and uniting all Americans through its power. While there have been links drawn between music and the African American struggle for equality, there has not been sufficient focus on the pivotal role that specifically jazz music has played in this regard. Jazz particularly has been a vehicle for promoting Black pride, political consciousness, and social change. This article argues that jazz has had a major effect on African American culture, society, and experience. Analysing the works of legendary jazz musicians James Brown, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and The Temptations, this article shows that jazz is not only as a catalyst for, but a driving force in, the fight for political freedom, as well as for economic empowerment, which is arguably still ongoing today.

MİLAN KUNDERA – “GÜLMƏLİ MƏHƏBBƏTLƏR” HEKAYƏSİNDƏ MƏHƏBBƏT İDEYASI

Milan Kundera – The Idea of Love in the Story "Laughable Loves" Summary Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, Milan Kundera was a student when the Czech communist regime was established in 1948, and later worked as a laborer, jazz musician and professor at the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Prague. His books were banned after the Russian occupation in August 1968. She and her husband settled in France in 1975, and in 1981 became French citizens. He is the author of the novels "Joke", "Life is Elsewhere", "Goodbye Waltz", "Book of Laughter and Forgetfulness", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "Immortality" and a collection of short stories "Laughable Loves" – all originally in Czech. His most recent novels, Slowness, Personality, and Ignorance, as well as his non-fiction works, Roman Art and Betrayed Will, were first written in French. The core of the themes that the author will work on in his later novels, as well as the original and innovative narrative methods in the development of these themes can be found in Kundera's "Laughable Loves", written with the greatest pleasure and delight. It can be said that the story book, which took ten years to write, is very different in terms of both content and form. In Kundera's stories, men persecute women with their "erotic passions." Married, single, old and young men face social difficulties, accept the loss of time and economic difficulties and try to attract women. Kundera beautifully reflects the universal challenges they face during this marathon. "Laughable Loves" is about raising the power of expression and aesthetics, as well as the successful depiction of this universal event – with humor.

Creative influence prediction using graph theory

Creative influence is responsible for a considerable part of the creative process of an artist and can largely be associated with their social circle. It has been observed that the type and amount of relationships with other fellow artists correlates with the success of an artist. Most of the recent literature has focused on using artefact similarity as a proxy for creative influence between two artists. However, this approach neglects the significance of an artist’s social network. In this work, we rely on an ontology that comprehensively model the relationship between individuals as a Knowledge Graph and we design an explainable method based on graph theory to predict the influences of an artist given their social network. We evaluate our method on a dataset of relationships between Jazz musicians and achieve accurate results when compared to baselines that rely on the distribution of the data. Our results are aligned with relevant works from the socio-cognitive and psychology fields. We show that our method generalises to resources where information on influence is not directly available and can be used to enrich existing Knowledge Graphs. The code and the ontology developed is shared at https://github.com/n28div/influence_prediction under CC-BY license.

Globalization, Citizenship and Subjectivity in Modern Family: An Analysis of Community And Changes In The Last Generations.

Basically, Bourdieu focuses on cultural capital is a major source of social inequality. The conflicts which take place in each social field have specific characteristics arising from those fields and that involve many social relationships which are not economic. Bourdieu developed a theory of the action, around the concept of habitus, which exerted a considerable influence in the social sciences. He introduces theoretical concepts habitus, practice, field, and different forms of capital, such as cultural, economic, social, and symbolic. While gender, class, ethnicity, culture, education, and the historical time period all shape an individual's habitus, what one does in everyday life is dynamic and fluid, like a jazz musician's improvisation on a theme. As we discussed on globalization, citizenship and subjectivity in the family through different generation, whether the globalization directly impact the family life and activities or families themselves have embodied own subjectivity to change interest, habitus and rationality. If we look from the eyes of Bourdieu or as a sociologist, we have to be skeptical of our social beliefs, cultures and should be reflexive.

Trends of modern Ukrainian jazz music in Germany in the XXI century (on the example of Tamara Lukasheva’s creativity)

Statement of the problem. European jazz art of the 21st century continues to develop the trends that were formed in world jazz in the last third of the 20th century. Among them is the interaction with musical ideas of folklore of various peoples of the world, as well as rock music. As a result of this process, such phenomena as ethno-jazz, fusion, and funk and there experimental types were formed, which is found a wide distribution in the territory of Ukraine and provided many opportunities for the disclosure and popularization of the national musical culture. Scientific interest is seen in the study of trends in its development not only within the country, but also abroad, in particular in Germany, where Ukrainian jazz musicians come to. In modern jazzology, the topic of the Jazz and Ukrainian folklore interaction has been studied to some extent, as well as the theme of interaction between jazz and academic music. Some features of the activities of Ukrainian jazzmen in Ukraine and abroad, including T. Lukasheva, are revealed in interviews with musicians, popular science articles, as well as reviews of albums or concerts. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the article is to reveal the genre-stylistic specificity of T. Lukasheva’s work in the context of Ukrainian jazz music making in Germany in the 21st century. A set of scientific methods, such as historical-genetic, comparative, interpretive and analytical, contributed to the disclosing the theme of the article. The novelty of the research topic is connected with almost complete lack of its researching in the national jazz studies. Research results and conclusion. T. Lukasheva’s work is in line with the trends that emerged in Ukrainian jazz at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: ethno-jazz, funk, fusion in there experimental forms. The individualization of her author’s style took place in Germany, where she revealed herself not only as a virtuoso vocalist and pianist, but also as a talented composer and arranger. This was manifested in the compositions that were performed in the concerts at the Stadtgarten and were considered in the study. They confirm the opinion that the artist masterfully owns her voice, demonstrates a variety of vocal techniques, embodies a wide variety of artistic images. The musician has a wide vocal range of three octaves, non-standard harmonic thinking and a sense of musical time, which allows her to freely feel herself in improvisational solos and in other sections of the form where complex meter and rhythm meet. It is indisputable that one of the leading driving forces in jazz is a creative personality, who must have leadership qualities, bright charisma, musical intelligence, and attract like-minded musicians. All these qualities are fully characteristic of Tamara Lukasheva.

The changing face of my jazz photographic practice

This article is a reflection on my jazz photography practice and how it has changed with my involvement in academic research after becoming actively involved in the Jazz Studies cluster at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR), Birmingham City University and starting a close collaboration with jazz scholar Dr Pedro Cravinho. My practice evolved from photographing musicians playing at gigs to visualising the jazz scene and musicians from a different perspective which includes aspects of their off-stage lives. Through our discussions and common interests in the local jazz scene(s), Cravinho and I began developing a research process in which photography is the visual driver but is underpinned by Pedro’s rigorous academic input. Our collaboration is built on my documentary photography practice and Pedro’s ethnomusicological research background.

As Hip(p) as Auer?

The vibraphonist Vera Auer (1919–1996) and the pianist Jutta Hipp (1925–2003) are known as the ‘first female European jazz musicians’. Both were born in German speaking countries and came in contact with jazz in the 1940s. These instrumentalists had the courage to try out new approaches and develop their own musical ideas early in their careers in jazz scenes shaped by androcentric dynamics. Forms of subversion of gendered assignments are to be seen and heard in Auer’s and Hipp’s performances and influenced a new generation of jazz musicians in recent years. This article discusses the biographies and works of Vera Auer and Jutta Hipp by exploring how these women known as ‘female exception[s]’ built their careers, with a critical eye on power and gender dynamics in German and Austrian jazz scenes. I argue that by subverting various gendered stereotypes such as the trope of the competitive individual jazz soloist, the supportive, caring, egalitarian aesthetic of both Hipp and Auer was coded feminine and therefore ignored in jazz history as a result of patriarchal structures in jazz.

Breaking boundaries in festival programming

In Germany, the modern jazz festival programmer descended from earlier multifaceted roles established during the interwar and war periods as cultivated by both German and international jazz critics, record collectors, and impresarios. While impresarios historically occupied multiple roles as fans, critics, and producers; they often inhabited the quintessential cosmopolitan role of (white) male jazz critic and discoverer of Black musical creativity. This article examines the impact of the legacy of this archetype in the German context, with the case study of JazzFest Berlin. In particular, we trace the particular contours of Joachim-Ernst Berendt’s (1922–2000) embodied enactment of masculinity within the postwar German jazz festival world, beginning with the seminal founder of the JazzFest Berlin. Drawing on feminist initiatives of the first American women jazz organizers, we compare this female-centric legacy with the particular style and ideologies created by Berliner Jazztage programmer Nadin Deventer, the first female programmer of this historic festival, who brings an innovative and socially engaged approach, in part by staging less constrained gender expectations. Through interviews and an examination of publications, programme reviews, and more, we reveal how the figure of the jazz impresario has been disrupted by increased attention to the roles of professional women programmers who consciously embrace diverse competencies and seek greater recognition of the intersectional barriers for women, women of colour, and foreigners within the German jazz scene.

Notes from the Editors, March 2024

buy this issuePaul Burkett's death on January 7, 2024, at age 67, means that the world is suddenly bereft of the figure who played the leading role over the last three decades in developing a Marxist ecological economics in the face of the growing planetary crisis. His loss leaves ecological Marxism without its foremost exponent of the ecological critique of capitalist value relations. It also means the loss of a warm and compassionate human being, and a beloved jazz musician.

Джаз в советском кино. Опыт ретроспективного анализа

The article is devoted to representation of domestic jazz in the Soviet feature silent and sound cinema in the period from 1926 to 1990. The author notes that jazz was becoming part of the plot of documentaries and feature films since its emergence in the USSR, but the accents in its image changed, and the genre nature of the movies evolved. There was a traceable shift from musical comedy to satirical pamphlet, from lyrical comedy to melodrama. Based on several dozens of examples of films where jazz sounds, the article shows the relationship between the ideological course of the Soviet state, the perception of the jazz performance specifics at different historical milestones, and the nature of its reflection on the screen. Thus, in the 1930s, jazz was synonymous with popular music and had a clear shade of humour and entertainment; in the late 1940s, it symbolized the ideological opponents of the country; and after the Khrushchev Thaw, it was considered an art, a kind of intellectual activity. In addition to the periodization of jazz cinema, the article provides a typology of films about jazz. The author presents a classification based on a set of qualities, such as maximum or minimum correlation of the plot of the film with jazz, participation of jazz musicians in it, and presence of a jazz soundtrack.

Jazz and its Impacts on Racism: A Cultural Consideration

This paper reviews the impacts of jazz on racism through a cultural perspective. It examines the various changes to jazz music and whether black jazz musicians were affected through the production of jazz. Many black jazz musicians today are still facing discrimination in the music industry. However, jazz audiences have continued to retain interest in jazz music and jazz has certainly transformed and continues to evolve and adapt to changing music preferences. As long as African Americans continue to produce jazz and advocate for their music, jazz music can create positive impacts in American society and reduce racism.

Is creativity computable?

ABSTRACT Is creativity based on the brain's computations? Some scientists say, No, because of Gödel's argument that humans can grasp the truth of sentences that formal algorithms cannot. A taxonomy implies that only three sorts of algorithm could be creative: neo-Darwinian algorithms, neo-Lamarckian ones and Multi-level ones. These algorithms accommodate “breaking the rules”, and they have the computational power—the working memory for intermediate results—needed for natural language and for the creation of informal algorithms. A programme illustrates how jazz musicians can improvise with the minimum of power—no use of working memory—because they have access to a long-term memory for chord sequences created using a similar computational power to natural language. A programme that reverse engineers Boolean electrical circuits uses a verification algorithm to check that they are correct. And programmes that verify sentences obviate Gödel's argument. Hence, whether creativity is computable is an open question.

Finding Your Niche as a Jazz Music Entrepreneur

Abstract: Since we continue to live in a digital age where billions of people are connected through the internet, and entrepreneurship opportunities become more realistic and accessible, an increasing number of jazz musicians are exploring ways where they can transform their art into a viable music business. "What does it take to run my own music business?" and "can I really have an independent and sustainable music career as a jazz artist?" are questions that are becoming increasingly common among student jazz musicians with entrepreneurial mindsets. The first step at achieving a viable music business is finding one's niche. Once a jazz entrepreneur finds their niche, they can then identify their target market. This Quick Hit aims to provide a method of approach to which jazz musicians can find their niche to stand out among the digital noise of other jazz competitors so they can identify their target market. Additionally, tips on how jazz educators can help their students find their niche will be discussed.

The Jazz Diaspora: Challenging Perspectives for 21st-Century Jazz Education Methodologies

Abstract: Until the late 20th century, global narratives of jazz were limited. However, more recently, as the field of New Jazz Studies has gained a strong foothold in academia, the need for a more critical understanding of diasporic jazz studies within the academy is now timely. This study examines the jazz diaspora and the growth of New Jazz Studies. A literature synopsis of jazz diaspora and New Jazz Studies scholarship serves as a reference for further investigation and practical application within jazz education settings that are discussed in the final sections of the article. As an example of the jazz diaspora, Australian jazz musician Graeme Bell is presented as an instructive case study for his contribution to establishing the Australian jazz style. Accordingly, the study of Bell is used as an example for suggesting a rethinking of jazz education through the lens of the jazz diaspora.

Improvisational Conversations: Teaching as an Interpretive Practice

Improvisation is a phenomenon that is deeply embedded in the day-to-day lives of teachers and students. Yet, few educators take the time to consider improvisation as being necessary to reach meaningful understandings with students. This paper is a hermeneutic inquiry that positions curriculum as improvisation by engaging in a conversation that may expand others' understandings of what it is and means to be a teacher who is living well with others. Examining specific incidents that have undergirded my life as a jazz musician and educator, I offer reflections on teaching as being, at its core, an interpretive practice. Drawing further on Gadamer’s (2001) notion of genuine conversation, the history of jazz improvisation and my own lived experiences, I engage in a conversation about why I believe teaching is an interpretive practice akin to improvisation and genuine conversation.