With a background in Musicology and Ethnomusicology, Dr Cravinho's research has focused on the reception and development of jazz as a social and musical practice outside the US, particularly interested in the twentieth century's jazz diaspora political and social history and its distinct representations in the public sphere.
Using an interdisciplinary approach by combining fieldwork indebted to Ethnomusicology with archival research and discourse analysis from Media and Cultural Studies, he is particularly interested in the role that the media played in the representation of jazz in public spheres, how technology has been used for its dissemination, and how both factors have been influencing the development of jazz in a single locale and, subsequently, its connections to the distinct national and international jazz scenes.
After two decades of researching jazz in Portugal since September 2015, Dr Cravinho expanded his area of research to the West Midlands, conducting original historical research about jazz in Birmingham.
Dr Cravinho is the co-founder of the international conference Documenting Jazz (DJ): co-organiser DJ2019, Dublin: co-organiser and Chair DJ2020, Birmingham; co-organiser DJ2021, Edinburgh; and co-organiser and Co-Chair DJ2022, Swansea.
Dr Cravinho is a SEDA Recognised Doctoral Supervisor and is interested in supervising doctoral students in urban music practices, media, and archives.
Current PhD students:
- Alan Musson
- Simon Crisp
- Ben Torrens
- Paloma Trigas
Selected Publications since 2014
- [CHAPTER] “Portugal 1918-1940”, in Walter van de Leur [ed] The Oxford History of Jazz in Europe - Vol No. 1. (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024)
- [ARTICLE] “Jazz in fado/fado in jazz: Encounters between jazz and fado in Portugal (Part 1)” (Jazzforschung / Jazz Research 49, forthcoming 2024)
- [BOOK] Encounters with Jazz on Television in Cold War Era Portugal: 1954–1974 (Routledge 2022).
- [ARTICLE] “The Birth of Porto’s Jazz Scene: Culture, Spaces and Networks”, Popular Music Society – Special Issue Jazz Diaspora (Popular Music and Society 2022)
- [ARTICLE] “Jazz, Revue and a Thriller: The Reception of Duke Ellington and his Orchestra in Birmingham” (Blue Light 2020)
- [ARTICLE] ‘“The ‘Black Angel’ in Lisbon”: Josephine Baker confronts Salazar live on TV’ (EU- topías 2020.
- [ARTICLE with Brian Homer] “Everyday Jazz Lives: A photographic project on contemporary jazz musicians lives in Birmingham” (Jazz Research Journal 2019)
- [ARTICLE] “The ‘truth’ of jazz: The history of the first publication dedicated to jazz in Portugal” (Jazz-Hitz,2018)
- [CHAPTER] “24 – Portugal: 1920–1974”, in Francesco Martinelli [ed] The History of European Jazz: The Music, Musicians and Audience in Context. (Equinox 2018).
- [CHAPTER] “A Kind of ‘in-between’: Jazz and Politics in Portugal (1958–1974)”, in Bruce Johnson [ed] Jazz and Totalitarianism (Routledge 2017).
- [BOOK] Essays on the History of Jazz in Portugal: Jazz in Coimbra. (JACC 2016).
- [ARTICLE] “Historical Overview of the Development of Jazz in Portugal, in the First Half of the Twentieth Century” (Jazz Research Journal 2016).
- [ARTICLE with José Dias] “Jazz on Portuguese Film: Belarmino (1964) and Alice (2005) – Two Milestones”, in Kiko Mora [ed] (Quaderns de cine no 9 – Cine y músicas populares urbanas, 2014).
