Journal of Jazz Studies (JJS)
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Regulation of Feeding Behavior by Optogenetic Activation of Inputs to Lateral Hypothalamus
No full textThe bed nucleus stria terminalis (BNST) and parabrachial nucleus (PBN) are two brain regions in correspondence with the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) that are responsible for regulating feeding behavior in mice. It is acknowledged that increasing the activity of GABAergic BNST inputs (which release the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA) to the LHA inhibits LHA glutamate neurons and increases feeding, whereas increasing activity of glutamatergic PBN inputs (which release the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate) to the LHA excites local glutamate neurons and decreases feeding. Obesity is a prevalent problem in our society, and therefore it is important to understand the reasons behind excessive food intake habits of humans. To address this issue, we tested for effects of activating the BNST-LHA and PBN-LHA pathways in relation to the satiety state of the mice. We stimulated the BNST and PBN inputs to LHA in fasted and fed mice. We tested the effects of Satiety State (fed vs. fasted) and stimulation Frequency (5-40 Hz) on sucrose seeking behavior of two Groups of mice (ChR2 vs YFP controls). The BNST-LHA pathway tended to show a general increase in feeding behaviors, while the PBN-LHA pathway did not show a significant effect of activation. From these results, further studies can be conducted to explore more about these neural pathways and the mechanisms underlying feeding behaviors. On a broader scale, these findings can inform future therapeutics that could help prevent unhealthy eating habits and obesity
Book Review: Dave Brubeck and the Performance of Whiteness. By Kelsey Klotz. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2023. 320pp. $29.95.
No full textPolitical Balance in Fox News
No full textIn the era of media prosperity, Fox News, as the most significant political news provider in the United States (According to Pew Research Center’s research, 16 percent of participants consider Fox News their primary source of political news, which is higher than any other media), influences the political orientation of voters to manipulate election results through various means, such as overemphasizing, reporters’ interpreting, and disregarding news, etc. In order to make their reporting seem more objective and reliable, politically biased media may gain credibility for themselves by covering more news with different political perspectives during non-significant times, which is called political balancing. In order to verify whether political balancing exists in the mainstream media, sixty Fox News reports during the period of 2016 election were randomly selected and analyzed. According to the result, Fox News put statistically significant more positive coverage of Democrats after the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, won the 2016 election. The findings of this research are substantial since awareness of the media’s political balancing will benefit voters in making rational choices for consequential elections. Meanwhile, political balancing could be necessary for researchers conducting studies of journalism
Physical Activity and Pain During Pregnancy
No full textLow back and pelvic girdle pain are prevalent during pregnancy, impacting about 50% of pregnant women. Previous studies conducted on the general population have suggested that physical activity has been associated with reductions in pain levels.
Purpose: To determine if women with higher levels of physical activity experience less low back and pelvic girdle pain and lower disability scores than women who are less physically active.
Methods: Pregnant women (n=24, 32.2 ± 4.1 years) were recruited between 28- and 32-weeks gestation. Participants reported their weekly physical activity, responded to subjective pain surveys, and underwent a battery of objective pain testing. Spearman’s-rho was used to assess correlations between physical activity scores and each subjective pain measure.
Results: Tests for correlation between pregnancy physical activity scores and pain domain measures were not significant (ps>0.05), so no relationship could be determined between physical activity levels and low back/pelvic girdle pain based on this study.
Conclusion: This study was not able to identify a significant correlation between physical activity levels and low back/pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy
Classification of Fall Out Boy Eras
No full textThis paper explored the use of machine learning techniques to differentiate between two different musical eras of the same rock band, including the technique of Logistic Regression.
Logistic regression (LR) is a widely used statistical modeling method for binary classification in supervised machine learning. It is often used to predict whether a given event belongs to one of two categories. The process helps data scientists understand which variables are good predictors of class membership. Applications of logistic regression include loan classification in the financial industry and predicting susceptibility to disease in the medical field.
In this particular project, a dataset was constructed using data from Spotify and Genius consisting of songs and lyrics written by the band Fall Out Boy. A logistic regression model was developed from scratch to classify the songs and lyrics into one of two eras of the band: before their 2009 hiatus and afterward. The study aimed to determine if a computer could differentiate between the two eras. The model was also tested against other binary classification algorithms, including Random Forest and Support Vector Machines
Congo Square and the Second Line: Their Relevance to Shifting Narratives about Jazz History
No full textIn New Orleans, Louisiana, nearly every occasion is marked with a celebratory parade, most famously the Mardi Gras processions that seemingly take over the city during Carnival Time. But throughout the year, jazz funerals and parades known as "second lines" fill the Backatown neighborhoods of New Orleans with the jubilant sounds of brass band music. Despite this, and the rapidly growing body of well-researched and well-meaning literature by "new jazz studies" scholars, the second line culture that derives from Congo Square remains excluded from jazz history courses the world over in favor of a single text that provides an "easier read" for undergraduate students. The resulting texts provide incomplete surveys that do little to correct previously held assumptions about jazz and are now deeply embedded within American culture, serving as an indoctrinating canon that limits the brass band's role and its practitioners within the jazz tradition. Those scholars that do mention brass bands—past or present—spend little time discussing them. This article highlights these oversights and problematizes the monolithic narrative proliferating jazz texts today. Herein, I will discuss the New Orleans second line culture and its relevance to shifting narratives about jazz history in relation to Congo Square and its historical implications: what is Congo Square, what about it is missing from the jazz narrative, accepting practitioner's beliefs and social actions as proof, and why it is crucial that we (scholars/educators) implement practitioners' beliefs and community and new jazz studies scholarship to create a better, more nuanced picture of jazz as a whole
We Have No More Creators: Mary Lou Williams Performs the Jazz Canon
No full textPianist Mary Lou Williams spent the last decade of her life as an educator as well as a performer. She presented many lecture-recitals, during which she would imitate famous musicians, play examples of jazz styles, and present her own works. From 1977 to 1981, she held a position at Duke University, teaching jazz to musicians and non-musicians. In this essay I examine archival materials from her lecture-recitals and recordings from her Introduction to Jazz course. These educational activities reveal Williams’s unconventional understanding of jazz history. By examining jazz history as played by a performer who experienced it, we find Williams questioning the historiographers’ understanding of the racial composition of jazz’s background, the distinction between accepted jazz styles, and the body of canonized jazz masterworks. Williams’s educational activities provide a starting point for adding musicians’ voices to the rich body of jazz scholarship. The lecture-recitals also show Williams’s views on jazz education, colored by her opinions of other musicians. I present evidence that her performance-oriented lecture style brought her spiritual beliefs to her college audience. After converting to Catholicism in the 1950s, Williams’s compositional output turned increasingly to spiritually oriented and sometimes overtly religious music. She avoided speaking specifically about God in her classroom, but her beliefs on the spirit of jazz performance and improvisations colored her lectures. While she located positive emotions and brotherhood in some artists’ outputs, she attacked others for lacking the “spiritual feeling” in their music. This group of others was primarily comprised of avant-garde musicians, making her a divisive figure in post-bop history. I suggest here that the controversial views advocated in her lectures that bop and pre-bop music were superior to later styles were dictated by her general beliefs on spirituality
“I Just Came to Hang with You Guys”: Instructional Storytelling with the Storied Jimmy Heath
No full textIn April 2016, a then 89-year-old Jimmy Heath (1926–2020) accepted an invitation to headline the 50th annual Eau Claire Jazz Festival in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. This article captures the essence of Heath’s career-long instructional style and contributions to the festival culture at large by spotlighting his involvement with one in particular. Framed by the dichotomy of his mentorship onstage and off, it presents a case study of unique engagement with younger players and provides a rare opportunity to pore over and contextualize these interactions across a concentrated two-day period. Citing his words, this treatment showcases the impact of Heath’s dual approach as a jazz legend directing performance on the one hand contrasted with a more informal function as storyteller behind-the-scenes on the other. But there proved considerably more at work when Heath told his stories than a simple recounting of history alone. He was in fact teaching. Telling these stories served as a bona fide instructional method—a pattern borne out by close scrutiny of Heath’s rhetoric that consciously adapted his recollections for the shifting benefits of his various audiences. Three basic storytelling modes may be grafted on to the typical jazz festival: stories one shares with a general audience in concert, with specialists in a technical masterclass discussion, and with younger musicians in rehearsal or hanging out. As a result, Heath developed more than one way of telling a story—occasionally the same story—to realize comparable instructional moments in different situations. This study makes these comparisons explicit
Book Review: Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons. By Benjamin Barson. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 2024. 424pp. $40.00.
No full textReconfiguring Rhythms: Jazz, Queerness, and Subversion of the Norm
No full textAs a queer student, my decision to create a graphic work exploring the intersections of jazz and queer theory was inspired by Salim Washington’s assertion that jazz is an inherently avant-garde and perpetually evolving medium, as well as class discussions on the genre’s origins in challenging dominant ideologies. These ideas align closely with my understanding of queer theory, particularly the ways in which certain cultural elements, due to their inherent resistance to normative structures, can be strongly associated with queer symbolism without explicit connections to the LGBTQ+ community. Recognizing that jazz has been historically male- dominated, I sought to explore how other communities might have employed the genre and the social practice of jazz as a tool of subversion. I felt that using a combination of original artwork and text would most effectively convey the intricacies of queer artistic expression, given that artists like Sun Ra utilized visuals, theatricality, and camp alongside their music to convey their message, and that queer culture often emphasizes aesthetics that defy convention