4th Conference of the International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ)

Communities of Practice

October 3-5, 2024, Jam Music Lab University

Vienna, Austria

Call for Proposals

 

The International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ) was founded in 2019 in reaction to the increasing relevance of artistic perspectives in the academic discourses in jazz research. INARJ organizes regular symposia as a platform for knowledge exchange and connection between artistic jazz researchers worldwide. The specific focus for the fourth conference is artistic research and communities of practice ranging from geographic communities and the role of place making and curatorship, networks inside and outside of jazz, communities of pedagogy and education, social communities and marginalized groups, and economic and business communities, with the aim of discussing status, strategies, and transformation.

 

Some conference sessions will be provided in hybrid format, however, we encourage participants to plan on in-person attendance for more effective engagement in discussions and projects. Presentations should address one or more of the following areas in the form of discussion forums, project presentations, or performance sessions. 

 

Geographic Communities and Placemaking

Creative Placemaking strengthens communities through partnerships across sectors, integrating art, culture, and design activities, and helps advance local economies and social change. Creative Placemaking can be developed as an artistic strategy to bring attention to or elevate community assets, inject new or additional energy, people, resources, or activities into a place, community, issue or local community, envision new possibilities for a community or place, connect people, places, and economic opportunities via physical spaces or new relationships. What are opportunities, examples, options, strategies that connect the artistic practice of jazz with communities and placemaking activities and strategies?

Networks Inside and Outside of Jazz

Teitelbaum et al (2008)[1] note that “music is one of the richest sources of interaction between individuals”. The number of collaborations by jazz musicians is traditionally higher than in other musical genres due to the common practice of recording and performing in many different constellations. Jazz performances are highly interactive and as a result, the resulting social and musical networks are rather complex. Networks can be documented via archival, biographical, or various metadata sets and visualized in interactive maps. What is the role of artistic research in documenting existing networks, exploring the influence of networks, and exploring new ways of thinking about networks and changing norms? In which ways can artistic research contribute to the formation of new networks and what are its differences to traditional networks in jazz?

Communities of Pedagogy

Initially, during the rise of jazz as the dominant popular art form reintegrating improvisation as a musical practice in the musical discourse, jazz musicians developed their highly influential musical directions largely through autodidactic listening, practicing, jam sessions, and in touring bands. The development of an academic jazz pedagogy during the 1960s initiated the codification of jazz styles and performance practice. Parallel, rooted in the Lenox School of Jazz’ summer workshops, models of contemporary improvisation were conceived, synthesized, or even improvised resulting in various research devoted to improvisation. Current approaches focus on the notion of ‘play’ and the notion that music can serve as a model for improvisation practice in everyday life. What are new theoretical and organizational models, as well as new practices for institutional partnerships, the teaching of improvisation, teacher education, and theories of improvisation? How can artistic questions and strategies contribute to the development of jazz pedagogy in formal as well as informal learning environments?

Social Communities and Marginalized Groups

Throughout its history, jazz has functioned as a catalyst for social and political change. From early integrated bands to voices of protest for Civil Rights, to raising of awareness of contemporary racial discrimination, jazz musicians played an integral role as social and political activists. For example, during the height of the Cold War, the US Government selected a group of prominent jazz musicians to be world-wide ambassadors for peace. Furthermore, Max Roach’s 1960 release We Insist! Freedom Now! is one of the most important statements of contemporary music. However, jazz is the least diverse art form in terms of gender participation and the use of the term jazz has been widely disputed due to lingering racial connotations. Besides the canonic representations of jazz at established institutions, jazz and jazz-related practices have participated in the formation of a variety of social communities throughout the world. What contemporary social communities can we observe, are active, and are transformative through jazz practices? On the other hand, what groups are marginalized and what are effective strategies for integration? What is the role of jazz and specifically artistic practice in shaping the society of the future? How can jazz practices help to overcome gaps and conflicts between communities worldwide?

Economic Communities and Artist Teams

The music business has experienced drastic restructuring throughout the 20^th century which has accelerated during the digital age. Initially, income from recorded music fueled a thriving support system of record labels and distribution, with live music as a secondary income source and way to connect to the public. However, the current dominance of streaming services is a convenient and cheap source of access for the consumers but has failed to provide a substantial income stream for creators. Consequently, support structures for recorded music have disappeared and the reliance on income from live performances has grown exponentially. The artist now needs to control all aspects of career development and is often confronted with the need for substantial financial investment and increasing economic instability. What are the changes of artistic practices in the context of current communities for economic support and stability? What is the current career trajectory and options for future economic viability and how does this reflect in artistic work?

1. Presentations – 20-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of Q&A and discussion
2. Performance Projects – 20 minute projects followed by 10 minutes of Q&A and discussion.
3. Open Formats – panels, jam session, focus groups up to 60 minutes

Projects can be shared via recorded materials or live. For live performances, the room allows for a basic combo setup with keyboard, bass and guitar amps, and drum set. However, it is not possible to allow for rehearsal time and space and human resources.

The conference will coincide with the launch of the Journal for Artistic Research in Jazz (ARJAZZ) through the Research Catalogue. The journal is administered through a consortium of universities and an INARJ initiative. Conference presentation have the option for submission to the second edition of ARJAZZ with publication pending peer review results.

For further information please visit http://www.artisticjazzresearch.com or contact monika.herzig@jammusiclab.com.

Please send conference proposals by July 5, 2024 in form of an Abstract of approximately 200 words or with links to media, a short Bio of not more than 150 words, and indication of presentation, performance project, or open format (with explanation) to conference@artisticjazzresearch.com.  

Conference Convenors

Michael Kahr (JAM MUSIC LAB Private University for Jazz and Popular Music Vienna / University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz)

Monika Herzig (JAM MUSIC LAB Private University for Jazz and Popular Music Vienna)

Andrew Bain (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff UK)

Mike Fletcher (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire)

Matthias Heyman (Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel / Vrije Universiteit Brussel)

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[1] Teitelbaum, T., Balenzuela, P., Cano, P., Buldú, J.M. Community structures and role detection in music networks. Chaos Interdiscip. J. Nonlinear Sci. 18, 043105 (2008).

The 2024 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium

Sheets of Sound: Jazz, Improvisation, and Liner Notes

University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

September 11-13, 2024

The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI), in partnership with  the Guelph Jazz Festival and the University of Guelph, invites proposals for presentations at our  annual interdisciplinary international conference. The colloquium will take place September 11- 13, 2024, as part of the 31st annual Guelph Jazz Festival. Featuring panel discussions, debates,  performances, workshops, keynote presentations, and critical conversations among researchers,  artists, and audiences, the colloquium fosters a spirit of collaborative, boundary-defying inquiry  and dialogue, and an international exchange of cultural forms and knowledges. 

In his liner notes for John Coltrane’s 1958 recording Soultrane, jazz critic Ira Gitler famously  coined the phrase “sheets of sound” to describe Coltrane’s unique style of improvisational  playing. It’s an apt phrase not only for attempting to capture in writing the spirit and energy of  Coltrane’s distinctive style, but also for acting as a metaphoric descriptor for the very genre of  liner notes. As an important part of the history of jazz and creative improvised music, liner notes  might themselves be considered as something akin to “sheets of sound” that have played a vital  role in shaping our understanding of the music. 

“Part publication relations blitz, part advertisement, part advance directive for hipsters, part  forum for writers hoping to match chops with the musicians they adored, liner notes  accomplished several tasks at once” writes Timothy Gray in his essay on “Jazz Criticism and  Liner Notes” in the recently published volume Jazz and American Culture. This year’s edition of  The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium invites presentations, prompts, and creative responses that  reflect on some of these tasks, and that take up the question of what it means to use the liner note  genre to write about jazz and creative improvised music. 

In what ways have liner notes shaped the way the music is received? To what extent do liner  notes contribute to the ways in which we negotiate and construct meaning about the music, how  we understand history, how and why we listen? In what ways have digital dissemination and  streaming services disrupted our notions of liner notes? And how has this shifted  listener/audience understanding about their favourite artists? 

Citing the “far-out notes produced by Sun Ra, John Coltrane,” and others, Daphne Brooks in her  book Liner Notes for the Revolution explains that “liner notes hold out the possibility of  operating as critical, fictional, or experimental works of writing in and of themselves.  Conventional liner notes,” she suggests, “often walk a fine line between pedagogy and  socialization, between sociohistorical and cultural reportage and heuristic conditioning (here’s

how and why to love the artist in question). The most ambitious notes strive toward the narrative  realization, or the narrative reimagining, of a sonic collection of songs altogether.” What, then,  does it mean to engage in a narrative realization or reimagining of music? What are some of the  critical, fictional, conceptual, or experimental forms and practices being advanced by writers of  liner notes? What is it like to hear about the music from the artist’s perspective, and how might  this shape the listener’s sonic experience? What is the future of liner notes in an age dominated  by the digital delivery and dissemination of music? Does writing liner notes constitute a lost art  or is the practice enjoying a resurgence? In what ways do archived/archival forms of liner notes  play into thinking and writing about jazz and creative improvised music today? And what roles  do artwork, design and layout play in the presentation and impact of liner notes and the reception  of an album?  

We invite presentations that address these (and other related) questions and concerns, as well as  creative work that takes up the conference prompts. We are particularly interested in  interdisciplinary presentations that speak to both an academic audience and a general  public. We also invite presenters to submit completed versions of their papers and presentations  to our peer‐reviewed journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation  (www.criticalimprov.com) for consideration.

Please send (500 word) proposals (for 15-minute delivery—alternate formats may also be  considered) and a short bio by May 31, 2024, to Dr. Ajay Heble at jazzcoll@uoguelph.ca

Pop music is constitutively ambivalent: It emerges within the tension between counterculture and capitalist exploitation logic, as can be demonstrated by the formation of rock ‘n‘ roll in the fifties. Furthermore, pop music is characterized by the fusion of various musical styles, making pop music a prototypical example of how different cultural forms, including those from the global South, are appropriated and co-opted by practices originating in the global North. This can be observed in elements like the off-beat rhythms of blues from West Africa and reggae from Jamaica among many other examples. It’s important to note that the principle of fusion is crucial for the continual reformation of pop music, shaping it into a potent practice whose commercial distribution center have historically been predominantly located in the global North. A sociological and historical approach to pop music that does not align with this hegemonic distribution form is known to be challenging. Every scholarly reference is almost compelled to take into account the visible expressions of pop music, which typically obscure the constitutive interweaving of this influential articulation of popular culture with the cultural forms of the global South. In this special issue of the Zeitschrift der Weltgeschichte we seek to find new answers to these challenges. Based on the briefly outlined problematics of pop music, the following questions are intended to be discussed and examined in an interdisciplinary manner.

1. How can pop music from the global South be identified and appropriately made visible? What are the possibilities and limitations of the cultural and social sciences in making visible something that is regularly marginalized in cultural practice and co-opted by the hegemony of culture? How can the protagonists of pop music from the global South articulate themselves effectively? What historical examples can be found for this?
2. How can the fusional logic of pop music be adequately reflected upon within the fields of cultural and social sciences? If pop music is inconceivable without cultural appropriation, which is a point for discussion, how can it then be understood as global music without regularly marginalizing its diverse interconnections in line with the capitalist exploitation logic of the global North? What are the implications of this for the cultural and social scientific research of pop music?
3. What transformations have occurred in the global power dynamics of the pop music industry in recent years due to new digital distribution possibilities, specific trends such as Reggaeton, subcultural infiltrations, decolonial efforts in fields like sound studies, etc.?
4. Can research on pop music be conducted in the global North from a post-colonial perspective? What methodological premises and theoretical tools do we need for this? What institutional prerequisites need to be established for such research?
5. How can a contemporary, global, and postcolonial historiography of pop music be formulated, which takes into account the ruptures and discontinuities as well as the significance of the pop musical articulations and influences from the global South in the context of global pop music?
   
   Zeitschrift für Weltgeschichte is a interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal which is published in German. Contributions in English can be translated.
   
   Please send your proposal (max. 5000 characters) for a contribution to the thematic issue to frank.hillebrandt@fernuni-hagen.de or anna.daniel@fernuni-hagen.de by April 30, 2024

Building Collective Futures: Communities Thriving Through Music

IASPM Canada Annual Conference 2024: Call for Papers

University of Regina: Regina, Saskatchewan

September 27-29, 2024

Submission deadline: 1 April, 2024

Submit proposals through: https://forms.gle/qVgRUoGyF1frMcX98

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We live in a time of uncertainty: multiple theatres of war and conflict, refugee movements across the globe, rampant technological change, political polarization, cultural upheaval, and a global climate crisis threaten individual and collective futures at every turn.  At this unprecedented point in time, how can we envision and build thriving, alternative futures?  And for whom?  Does Canada have a special place in all of this: how do we transition from the inequities of our past relationships (to Indigenous populations and to the earth) to building respectful, inclusive, and sustainable futures?  What role(s) does popular music play in such projects?  Is it sometimes, also, a part of the problem? How does digitality help or hinder efforts to elevate humanity through musicking? How do new methodologies provide insight in changing times? How are musicians working collectively to build thriving futures?

Building Collective Futures is the theme and challenge of the 2024 IASPM-CA Annual Conference. Across scholarship and practice, the pursuit of sustainability has become paramount. However, mere sustainability is no longer sufficient. Instead, we ask what musical futures would sound like if they focused on thriving collectively.  As we envision a future where sustainability extends beyond mere survival to encompass vibrant, thriving communities, music emerges as a powerful force for change.

We invite scholarship and music that brings to light the building of sustainable futures in challenging times. This call seeks presentations that explore innovative approaches across popular music studies, with particular focus on the subthemes of cultural sustainability, sovereignty, digital futures, thriving local, regional, and global music scenes, and ecological resilience.

Themes to be Explored:

1.              Cultural and Artistic Sustainability:

• Moving from the sustainability of artistic expressions into new forms of collective thriving
  • Ways in which cultural sustainability can be integrated into music production, performance, and distribution practices

2.              Sovereignty:

• Indigenous survivance and musical futures
  • Communities’ enactments of sovereignty using popular music 
  • The role music plays in asserting cultural sovereignty and promoting self-determination

3.              Digital Futures for Music:

• Shaping the use of digital technologies to more collectively impact the future of music creation, distribution, and consumption
  • Opportunities and challenges digital platforms present for promoting sustainability and equitable access to music

4.              Thriving Music Scenes:

• The role of local scenes as spaces for collective participation in the face of challenges and changes
  • Digital and hybrid music scenes
  • Musical utopias and future building
  • Local, regional, and global music scenes’ roles in contributing to the economic, social, and cultural sustainability of communities
  • Challenges and supports to strengthen local music ecosystems
  • The role of events in the making of a scene (concerts, festivals, conflicts and wars, etc.)

5.              Ecological Resilience:

• Acknowledging, mitigating, and correcting for the environmental impact of the music industry
  • Strategies for musicians, venues, and industry stakeholders to promote eco-friendly practices and advocate for environmental stewardship

While we welcome papers on any aspects of popular music, we encourage papers that align with the conference sub-themes above.

Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts of individual papers, workshops, performances and other presentations should be no longer than 300 words. The program committee is especially interested in proposals in diverse formats.  Panel submissions should include a title and abstract for the panel (300 words max.) as well as titles and abstracts for the individual papers on the panel. All abstracts for a panel should be submitted together, with one member or respondent designated as the chair. Abstracts will be adjudicated individually, so it is possible for a panel to be accepted but not an individual paper and vice versa. Each abstract should also include a short biography of the author (100 words max.) including the institutional affiliation, if any, and email address of each author. Each abstract should also include five keywords. Submissions in French and English are acceptable. Proposals will be blind-reviewed.

Submit proposals through: https://forms.gle/qVgRUoGyF1frMcX98

Presentation Logistics and Modality:

Papers will be limited to 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of questions. Panels will be limited to a maximum of 4 papers. Other presentations (workshops, film screenings, roundtables, etc.) will generally be limited to 60 minutes, but alternatives can be proposed. All participants must be members of IASPM-Canada at the time of the conference. Membership information is available on the following website: https://www.iaspm.ca/signup.

Although in-person presentations are the conference norm, should you wish to request accessibility accommodations for a virtual presentation (e.g. a health need or visa concern), please email Charity Marsh at Charity.Marsh@uregina.ca at the time of proposal submission.

For questions about the conference, please contact the Program Committee Chair Liz Przybylski (liz.przybylski@ucr.edu), or Local Organising Chair Charity Marsh (Charity.Marsh@uregina.ca).

Program Committee Members:

Vanessa Blais-Tremblay, Université du Québec à Montréal

Maxim Bonin, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Maren Hancock, University of Wolverhampton

Charity Marsh, University of Regina

Liz Przybylski, University of California, Riverside

Paul Théberge, Carleton University

Appel à contributions

Construire des avenirs collectifs pour des communautés musicales plus prospères

Conférence annuelle de l’IASPM Canada 2024 : Appel à communications

Université de Regina : Regina, Saskatchewan

Du 27 au 29 septembre 2024

Date limite de soumission : 1er avril 2024

Soumettre les propositions via :https://forms.gle/qVgRUoGyF1frMcX98

Nous vivons des temps de grandes incertitudes : multiples théâtres de guerre et de conflit, mouvements de réfugié·es à travers le monde, changements technologiques accélérés, polarisation politique, bouleversements culturels et crise climatique mondiale menacent les avenirs individuels et collectifs à chaque tournant. En cette période sans précédent, comment pouvons-nous envisager et construire des avenirs alternatifs et prospères ?  Et pour qui ?  Le Canada occupe-t-il une place particulière dans tout cela : comment passer des inégalités de nos relations passées (avec les populations autochtones, racisées ; avec la terre) à la construction d’avenirs respectueux, inclusifs et durables ?  Quel(s) rôle(s) la musique populaire joue-t-elle dans ce projet collectif?  Fait-elle parfois partie du problème ? Comment la numérisation aide-t-elle ou entrave-t-elle les efforts visant à élever l’humanité par le biais de la musique ? Comment les nouvelles méthodologies permettent-elles de mieux comprendre ces temps qui changent ? Comment les musicien·nes travaillent-ils·elles collectivement à la construction d’un avenir plus prospère ?

La construction d’avenirs collectifs pour des communautés musicales plus prospères est le thème – et le défi – de la conférence annuelle 2024 de l’IASPM-CA. Dans les études comme dans la pratique de la musique, la recherche de durabilité est devenue incontournable. Cependant, la simple durabilité ne suffit pas. Ainsi, nous nous demandons à quoi ressembleraient nos futurs en musique s’ils se concentraient sur la prospérité collective.  Alors que nous envisageons un avenir où la durabilité va au-delà de la simple survie pour englober des communautés dynamiques et prospères, la musique apparaît comme une puissante force de changement.

Nous invitons les chercheur·ses et les musicien·nes à mettre en lumière différentes manières à travers lesquelles un avenir durable peut être pensé et construit à travers des présentations qui mettent de l’avant des approches innovantes au sein des études sur la musique populaire, en particulier en ce qui concerne les sous-thèmes de la durabilité culturelle; de la souveraineté; des futurs numériques; des scènes musicales locales, régionales et mondiales prospères; et de la résilience écologique.

Thèmes à explorer :

1. Durabilité culturelle et artistique :

-Passage de la simple durabilité des expressions artistiques à de nouvelles formes de prospérité collective

-Manières d’intégrer la durabilité culturelle aux pratiques de production, de représentation et de distribution de la musique.

2.         Souveraineté :

-Survivance autochtone et avenirs musicaux

-Mise en application de la souveraineté par les communautés à l’aide de la musique populaire 

-Rôle de la musique dans l’affirmation de la souveraineté culturelle et la promotion de l’autodétermination

3. Avenir numérique de la musique :

-Façonner l’utilisation des technologies numériques pour influencer de manière plus collective l’avenir de la création, de la distribution et de la consommation de musique

-Opportunités et défis que représentent les plateformes numériques pour promouvoir la durabilité et l’accès équitable à la musique.

4.         Scènes musicales plus prospères :

-Rôle des scènes musicales locales en tant qu’espaces de prise en charge collective des défis et des changements actuels et passés

-Scènes musicales numériques et hybrides

-Utopies musicales et construction de l’avenir

-Rôle des scènes musicales locales, régionales et mondiales dans la durabilité économique, sociale et culturelle des communautés

-Défis et formes de soutien visant à renforcer les écosystèmes musicaux locaux

-Rôle des événements dans la constitution des scènes (concerts, festivals, conflits et guerres, etc.)

5.         Résilience écologique :

-Reconnaître, atténuer et corriger l’impact environnemental de l’industrie musicale

-Stratégies permettant aux musicien·nes, aux salles de concert et aux acteur·rices de l’industrie musicale de promouvoir des pratiques respectueuses de l’environnement et de plaider en faveur de sa protection.

Bien que nous acceptions des communications sur tous les aspects de la musique populaire, nous encourageons particulièrement celles qui correspondent aux thème et sous-thèmes détaillés ci-dessus.

Directives pour la soumission :

Les résumés des communications individuelles, des ateliers, des concerts et autres présentations ne doivent pas dépasser 300 mots. Le comité de programme est particulièrement intéressé par des propositions de formats divers. Les propositions de panels doivent inclure un titre et un résumé pour le panel (300 mots maximum) ainsi que les titres et les résumés des communications individuelles. Tous les résumés d’un panel doivent être soumis ensemble, et un·e membre ou un·e répondant·e doit être désigné·e comme président·e de séance. Les résumés seront évalués individuellement; il est donc possible qu’un panel soit accepté et non un article individuel, et vice versa. Chaque résumé doit également inclure une courte biographie de l’auteur·rice (100 mots maximum), y compris l’affiliation institutionnelle, le cas échéant, et une adresse électronique. Chaque résumé doit également inclure cinq mots-clés. Les soumissions en français et en anglais sont acceptées. Les propositions seront anonymisées dans le cadre du processus d’évaluation.

Soumettre les propositions par : https://forms.gle/qVgRUoGyF1frMcX98

Logistique et modalités de la présentation :

Les communications individuelles seront limitées à 20 minutes, suivies d’une période de questions de 10 minutes. Les panels seront limités à un maximum de 4 communications. Les autres présentations (ateliers, projections de films, tables rondes, etc.) seront généralement limitées à 60 minutes, mais des alternatives peuvent être discutées/proposées. Tous·tes les participant·es doivent être membres de l’IASPM-Canada au moment de la conférence. Les informations relatives à l’adhésion sont disponibles sur le site web suivant : https://www.iaspm.ca/signup.

Bien que les présentations en personne soient la norme de la conférence, si vous souhaitez demander des aménagements d’accessibilité pour une présentation virtuelle (par exemple, un besoin de santé ou un problème de visa), veuillez envoyer un courriel à Charity Marsh à Charity.Marsh@uregina.ca au moment de la soumission.

Pour toute question concernant la conférence, veuillez contacter la président·e du comité de programme Liz Przybylski (liz.przybylski@ucr.edu) ou la présidente de l’organisation locale Charity Marsh (Charity.Marsh@uregina.ca).

Membres du comité de programme :

Vanessa Blais-Tremblay, Université du Québec à Montréal

Maxim Bonin, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue

Maren Hancock, Université de Wolverhampton

Charity Marsh, Université de Regina

Liz Przybylski, Université de Californie, Riverside

Paul Théberge, Université de Carleton