Jazz Band Research Articles

Forging a Lineage: Kinship, Mobility, and the Zildjian Cymbal

Abstract Renowned for its 400-year-old Ottoman/Turkish/Armenian past and produced by “America's oldest family-run business,” the Zildjian cymbal is paradoxically rendered an unremarkable “humble object” in its assumed inclusion in orchestras and bands around the world. Tracing the lineages of the Zildjians and their cymbals through historical documentation, ethnography, and the materiality of the instruments themselves, I first discuss the cymbal's shifting musical contexts and functions in Ottoman Janissary mehter bands, European orchestras, American jazz bands, and many other ensembles over the past four centuries, as well as the role of the Zildjians in this musical expansion. Then, I examine how twentieth-century negotiations of Zildjian kinship emerged in contentions over the authenticity and ownership of cymbal production. Finally, I consider how the assimilatory pressures of nation-states shaped narratives of cymbal production as well as the Zildjians’ mobilities, particularly in the context of the ethnoracialization of minority populations in the late Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic as well as the struggle of Armenian migrants to the United States to be recognized as valid U.S. American citizens at the turn of the twentieth century. By approaching the cymbal itself as the main interlocutor of this exploration, I aim to foreground the ways in which cymbals have sounded and resounded the mobility and kinships of its human creators. In doing so, I regard musical instruments as essential mediators of histories of cultural and musicological development as well as constructions of human identity and relationship, glimpsing how such objects may both reify and unsettle our epistemologies and the institutions of modern life.

PUNK JAZZ? An interview with John L. Walters and Richard James Burgess of Landscape

Originally an eight-piece jazz band (1974), briefly a sextet (1975) and ultimately a five-piece, Landscape performed anywhere and everywhere they could in and around London and then further afield, from art colleges to village fetes as well as pub and club venues. I’m not sure if I first saw them at The Nashville or The Music Machine, but in 1977 they were a welcome distraction from and contrast to the pub rock and recycled pub rock of punk.

Rhythm, noise and action: decoding R.D. Burman’s soundtracks of Bombay cinema

ABSTRACT The sustained use of ‘Western’ style orchestration in Bombay film music can be attributed to the trajectory of two kinds of musical practices, one tethered to the leisure economies developed by the colonial rule from the 19th century onwards, and second, the robust and frequent presence of travelling jazz bands from the early twentieth century. As a period of intense transformation, the decade of the 1940s saw musicians from different parts of the subcontinent move to Bombay to find work in the film industry. This process often involved adapting to new performance contexts, genres and instruments. Studios in the Bombay film industry became fecund spaces where musicians and arrangers trained in Western classical music came in heady contact with the jazz men of Bombay’s nightclubss. Focusing on the late 1960s as another transitional moment, this article traces R.D. Burman’s affective encounters with these ‘mobile musicking bodies.’ Biographies of his key musicians give us detailed accounts of their training and involvement in diverse sites of musical performance, before they arrived in the Bombay film industry. This detour informs my analysis of R.D. Burman and his team’s innovative film scores, underlining vocal effects, side rhythms and inclusion of edgy off-key sounds. Moving away from a song-driven approach, I focus on title tracks, background scores and extended instrumental set-pieces of crime and action genres that are now getting recirculated on the internet by R.D. Burman’s fans. Through a methodology that will combine textual analysis, internet ethnography and close listening, the article will argue that these new soundscapes carried the inscriptions of global music cultures and ‘extra-musical’ noise.

일제 강점기 한국 초기 재즈에 관한 연구 - 1927년부터 1940년 사이 신문·잡지의 텍스트를 중심으로

This study examines how jazz, first introduced to Korea in the 1920s, was received until it faced interruption by the music prohibition decree of 1940 during the Japanese colonial era. This study collected newspaper and magazine texts between 1927 and 1940. The texts were then sorted into three categories and examined based on previous studies regarding the amount of jazz record release: period of formation, development, and decay. During the formation period, “Korean Jazz Band” was notably active, which was also known as the very first jazz band in Korea. During the development period, various jazz bands were produced by record companies and they actively performed live. Lastly, during the decay period, jazz-related texts rapidly disappeared from the media due to the music prohibition decree. Although the characteristics of these three periods are less explicitly distinguished due to a brief prevalence of jazz at the time and limited available data, this study is significant in that it examines the chronology of jazz during the time of Japanese colonial rule in Korea.

Jazz, Migration, and Black Atlantic Sacred Arts

Jazz bands from Benin draw on the spiritual traditions of Vodun to address the history of slavery through the creative circuits of transnational diasporic networks.

So what? Can we learn anything about university teaching from jazz?

This paper examines whether teachers in universities can learn from the practices and structures of jazz music as they try to prepare students for an uncertain future. It outlines the fundamental characteristics of jazz and how these have been applied by jazz musicians. The paper focuses on four of the building blocks of jazz: improvisation, mistakes, collaboration and leadership, and examines how these translate to university teaching. It concludes that effective learning, like the best jazz, is collaborative and occurs where the freedom to improvise and make mistakes is integral. Additionally, as with the best jazz bands, there must be some structure where the teacher, although leading, is fully involved in the collaborative act of discovery with the learners. The author argues that the lessons learned from jazz should be incorporated in professional development programmes for new university teachers.

“We Had Our Own Jazz Bands”: A Five-Bar Intro to Jazz in Lagos, 1950–1990

“We Had Our Own Jazz Bands”: A Five-Bar Intro to Jazz in Lagos, 1950–1990

Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: Heyday of the Cornet by Sabine Katharina Klaus (review)

Reviewed by: Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: Heyday of the Cornet by Sabine Katharina Klaus Bryan Proksch Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: Heyday of the Cornet. By Sabine Katharina Klaus. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2022. [xv, 336 p. ISBN 9780984826971 (hardcover), $119.95.] Illustrations, bibliography, index, accompanying DVD. In this fourth installment of a planned five-volume set, Sabine Klaus once again dives headfirst into the brass instruments collected by the late Joe and Joella Utley, now held by the National Music Museum (NMM) in Vermillion, South Dakota. Once completed, the set will present the most comprehensive view—both historical and in photographic documentation—of "trumpets and high brass" ever written. Volume 4, perhaps the set's most specific in scope, examines some 150 cornets constructed from the 1840s into the 1990s, with a noticeable weighting for instruments made from about 1880 to 1920. Klaus studies a remarkably broad range of manufacturers, both large and small, making cornets in literally every shape and size imaginable (and some unimaginable) from all the major centers of construction in the United States and Europe, as well as Japan. The book is a remarkable achievement and will surely serve as a benchmark study and baseline reference work for decades to come. Although no book can be all things to all people, Klaus must be commended for making a strong effort toward that end. Scholars—especially organologists and musicologists—will find a compilation of details on manufacturers, countless patent drawings, line drawings of valve arrangements, discussions of construction techniques, raw measurements, waveforms, X-rays, and dates and places for specific makes and models. All are useful for both general knowledge and specific study. Meticulous and numerous footnotes allow those interested in pursuing more detailed research to do so with ease. Performers, especially the modern trumpeter, will discover historical photographs of the actual instruments played by their famous predecessors, with at least passing reference to a few not owned by the NMM. Highlights include J.-B. Arban's cornets (two, both at the Musée de la musique in Paris), Walter Emerson's 1881 Courtois cornet, P. S. Gilmore's unique "Antoniophones," and the odd slide cornet–trumpet hybrid played by Louis Armstrong from his famous photo session with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band. For the lay reader—including collectors of instruments and ephemera—the book's lavish full-color illustrations, provided at a generous average of about three per page, will provide hours of armchair browsing interspersed with enjoyable skimming. The photos of the NMM's instruments are a treat unto themselves, but advertisements, ephemera, and other historical documents make this book far more than a simple parade of cornets. Even the most focused reader will [End Page 616] find it difficult to keep to Klaus's prose without getting distracted by the figures. The elaborate dedications and engravings on many of the Utley cornets—consistently featured with a detail photo as well as an in-text transcription and interpretation—are particularly enticing, given the way they offer peeks into artisan techniques, artistry, and historical details. Two jewel-encrusted Besson cornets used for exposition displays in the 1880s (NMM 7119 and 7120) are the visual highlight of the whole book and are featured on the dust jacket. When it comes to various issues in cornet history, Klaus consistently delivers thorough explanations using straightforward and accessible language. Her comparison of Périnet and Stölzel valves in chapter 1 presents the pros and cons of each, including scientific measurements alongside clear line drawings and photographs of instruments. On "high pitch" and "low pitch" cornets (pp. 76 and 77), she concisely explains the situations in both Europe and the United States as related to each instrument and practice. Cornet history is littered with instruments named after performers but outwardly similar in construction to the untrained eye. Those interested in knowing the difference between Courtois's "Arban," "Arbuckle," "Levy," and "Arbuckle/Emerson" models will find answers in terms of construction, decoration, and marketing. The same holds true for...

Jazz Influence and Synthesis in the Music of John Adams

This article examines the influence of jazz in John Adams's oeuvre. Adams's interest in jazz has shaped his compositional output, developing in tandem with the minimalist traits apparent throughout his works. Part 1 chronicles Adams's early encounters with touring jazz bands during his formative years. Following his formal studies, Adams turned to the music of Duke Ellington as inspiration for "Sentimentals" (1973), a work that precedes his initial experimentation with minimalism. His interest in jazz has en dured throughout his compositional career, as evidenced by jazz references found in work titles, program notes, and anecdotal accounts from his interviews. Part 2 reframes the vocabulary of Adams's harmonic structures, particularly those subsequent to Nixon in China (1987), using a jazz-oriented approach. Timothy A. Johnson's theoretical model designed for the examination of Adams's harmony provides a means of comparison between a classical approach and a jazz perspective. I explore Adams's in corporation of jazz harmonic idioms, which emerge prominently soon after Nixon. I then consider how works from the 1990s onward exhibit a synthesis between jazz and post minimalism that characterizes his mature compositional style. In conclusion, I present a jazz "chord-scale" model analysis using an excerpt from Adams's City Noir (2009) to highlight the interaction between melody and harmony.

Formation of individuality of a jazz performer: theoretical and practical aspects

The experience of leading musicians and composers played a key role in the formation of jazz art. They invented not only new ways of improvisation, but also new styles, genres, and forms of jazz, created educational institutions, and launched festivals and competitions that helped young jazz performers develop their sound and be competitive. In the twenty-first century, such a specific quality as the individuality of sound is becoming a central feature of individual and collective jazz practices. To achieve it, jazz performers should use previous historical experience, and have certain theoretical knowledge and understanding of the laws of jazz performance. The article proves the necessity of combining theoretical and practical knowledge that should be used by a jazz performer, ensemble leader, or jazz orchestra conductor to develop an individual style of sound and work with a jazz band.

Cherry River: Art, Music, and Indigenous Stakeholders of Water Advocacy in Montana

The 2018 performance event, Cherry River, Where the Rivers Mix, designed by Indigenous scholar, Dr. Shane Doyle, a member of the Apsaalooke Crow community, in collaboration with artist Mary Ellen Strom, a founder of the nonprofit Mountain Time Arts program, endeavored to address the surging environmental problems associated with water in Montana. Drought and water scarcity impacts a diverse population, including Indigenous communities and the life of nonhuman plant and animals beyond the urban and rural populace of landowners, ranchers, and farmers. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a federal emergency of drought disaster in a majority of Montana’s counties, and the recent disappearance of glaciers at Glacier National Park is of great concern. Doyle and Strom sought the opportunity to foster relationships and greater dialogue among regional constituencies, particularly among Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and they were successful in raising awareness regarding the need for equitable water use and conservation. Cherry River brought an audience of local people to the banks of the Missouri River Headwaters, where the Gallatin, the Jefferson, and the Madison rivers converge to present a mix of American music—Crow and Northern Cree singing, Métis violin, Big Band Jazz. The sound of the music of the rivers, however, was the all-encompassing engagement for those who attended. Drought and environmental crisis impels us to think more broadly about the role of the arts and humanities in environmental studies. Can the arts and performance contribute a different model for environmental advocacy, acknowledge a different perspective for understanding ecologies, and therefore expand the transdisciplinary process for engaging in environmental studies?

Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency

Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency

Smears, Laughs, and Barnyard Hokum: Early Jazz Trombone and the Problem of Novelty

Smears, Laughs, and Barnyard Hokum: Early Jazz Trombone and the Problem of Novelty

Critiquing the “What Is Jazz” Puzzle in a Diasporic Setting: “Jazz-Related” Performance and Patronage in Australia before “Jazz”

ABSTRACT This article proposes that the framing of jazz diaspora in relation to Australia must embrace significant antecedents of jazz-related performance and culture in Australia, including blackface and African-American minstrel show music, improvisatory popular and art music practices and various subgenres of ragtime. It argues that the spirit of “jazz” as a vehicle for extroverted self-expression and identification with American popular modernity and youthful rebellion through music, dance, and fashion was already present in the Antipodes from around 1912 to the final year of World War I, when a “ragging” and “jazzing” novelty act called Australia’s First Jazz Band appeared in vaudeville.

Network Leadership and Team Creativity: An Exploratory Study of New York City Jazz Bands

Jazz bands exemplify the creative economy of teams engaged in flexible and precarious work. Theory is conflicted concerning how leadership of such audience-facing organizations affects outcomes. For the 346 New York City jazz bands active in 2010, we explored how formal and network leadership related to music creativity and popularity; as well as to band longevity through the year 2021. Formal leadership may direct band members toward joint creative outcomes. Or such leadership may harm the free-flowing energy that fuels creative performance. Network leaders engage in brokering connections across the network of jazz musicians; or building status through connections to central people. The network in this case consisted of ties between people who had overlapping band membership. We found that formal leadership negated band creativity but made no difference to band popularity or longevity. Network leadership, defined as status, facilitated both creativity and popularity, whereas brokerage had no discernible effects. Interestingly, creative bands were less likely to endure. In the creative industries, formalized hierarchy may be less important for a team’s creative output than representation in the external market for talent and aesthetic judgment that well-connected network leaders bring.

Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing

Elizabeth Bishop and the Art of Losing

Jazz Feminism is to Soul as Purple is to Lavender

Jazz Feminism is to <i>Soul</i> as Purple is to Lavender

The Study of Australian Jazz and the Issue of Methodological Nationalism

The Study of Australian Jazz and the Issue of Methodological Nationalism

Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood

Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood

«Urban music» in intermedial and artistic studies of Ukrainian culture of the 1920’s

The purpose of the article is to reveal the “consonance” of urban-artistic reflections of musical and literary works in intermedial-eminent context. The research methodology are based on the complementary principle. The intermedial approach to the study of various artistic codes in one work was applied, as well as to the search of the consonant symbols and signs of a city in different types of synchronic and artistic practice. System-analytical, typological and comparative methods have been used in drawing the parallels and finding the coincidences and differences of realization of the “urban music” in the piano cycle “A Notebook of Miniatures” by the composer Mykola Zaderatskyi and a in the novel “City” written by V. Pidmohylnyi. A receptive methodology, as well as the empirical methods of description, observation and reflection, has been applied. Scientific novelty lies in an attempt of an intermedial comparison of the images of urban sounding in modernistic works of different arts by means of semantic-semiotic interferences. A concept of eminence has been used for the first time for a comparative characteristic of the urban music in the artifacts of the Ukrainian culture of the Industrialization era. Conclusions. Various scenes, pictures, emotional reactions, “technocratic” symbols became common audial-semiotic images of the city in the program-cyclic and novelistic discourses. The contrasts of sounding of the natural beauty of the clouds and artificial aesthetics of the machines, the silence as a contemporary island of self-concentration and “muscular strength” of the crowd (according to V. Zaderatskyi, Jr.), song folklore and a jazz band, a flashy poster and a spinning carousel in a symbolic and intermedial way reflect the interaction of sociological and psychological aspects of urbanism, i.e. personal and collective (private and public), contemplative and effective, emotional and rational, spiritual and material. “Notebook of Miniatures” and “musical-audial” fragments of “City” – are “eminent texts” (H. G. Gadamer) which interpret the encoded in them additional foreign medial contents (verbal – in a musical piece, and musical – in a literary work).&#x0D; Key words: urbanism, urban music, composer, writer, novel, piano cycle, intermediality, eminent text.