Through a series of seminars, musical performances, and workshops, this project examined different claims about jazz’s aesthetic value in the context of everyday practices of living.
Researchers
- Professor Nicholas Gebhardt
- Associate Professor Roger Fagge (University of Warwick)
- Dr Sarah Raine (Edinburgh Napier University)
Research background
The research network was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK and explored the everyday value of jazz and the aesthetic experiences associated with it. Our focus was on those aspects of the music that connected to people’s ordinary experience of the music, from the Muzak in supermarkets to the street musicians in subway stations. Our partners were the University of Edinburgh, Westminster University, the Conservatory of Amsterdam, London Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and Stoney Lane Records.
How has the research been carried out?
Through a series of seminars, musical performances, and workshops, the project examined different claims about jazz’s aesthetic value in the context of everyday practices of living. Using oral histories, personal recollection, experimental writing, sound recordings, and film, we set out to explore how specific kinds of words, gestures, texts, sounds and objects came to define the artistic possibilities of the music within ordinary experience.
Intended outcomes
As this was a research network, the results of each of the workshops were to identify key areas for further investigation, as well as create new connections between researchers and non-academic partners.
The outcomes of the project included a double issue of the (Volume 13, Numbers 1-2, 2019) that included fourteen articles that highlighted a range of perspectives on jazz and the everyday, a self-guided Sound Walk at the 2018 Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and a series of sound recordings by the Mike Fletcher Trio, the Medbøe/Furniss/Bancroft trio, Sanne Huijbregts, Trish Clowes, and Ross Stanley that will be released as a compilation in 2021 on Stoney Lane Records.
Funded by
- Arts and Humanities Research Council