1,720,963 research outputs found
Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music, and Migration in Post-World War II ParisJazz Diaspora: Music and Globalisation
No full textThis review examines two recent monographs that explore the concept of "jazz diaspora/s": Rashida Braggs’s Jazz Diasporas: Race, Music, and Migration in Post-World War II Paris and Bruce Johnson’s Jazz Diaspora: Music and Globalisation. While both authors engage with the term, they use it in distinct and sometimes contradictory ways, especially in terms of its theoretical implications for jazz scholarship and its global significance. By highlighting their approaches to power and identity, this review clarifies how each author contributes to understanding jazz as both an African diasporic music and a global phenomeno
A drum, deferred: Solomon Ilori in the New York jazz scene, 1958– 1964
No full textDuring the 1960s, West African musicians rattled the New York jazz scene, bringing new sounds to late-night jam sessions, recording studios, and jazz festivals. Jazz schol- ars have interpreted musical imaginations of Africa by American jazz musicians as a sign of pan-African solidarity and cultural affinity among musicians of African and Afro- diasporic ancestry. While these studies have been important in identifying the politi- cal implications of such collaborations for African American musicians, they underplay the complex positioning of West African immigrants in these contexts and the social and musical gaps that separate African immigrants from their American counterparts. Drawing on my work with composer and percussionist Solomon Ilori, one of the leading Yoruba musicians in New York and amongst the last living exponents of the African jazz scene of the 1960s, I use the notion of décalage to explore how linguistic, social and historical gaps are articulated in musical recordings and public concerts in the 1960s African jazz scene in New York. Originally coined by Léopold Senghor to describe a sense of discrepancy between Africans and African Americans, décalage allows me to show how different perceptions of time, as well as choice of repertoire, instrumentation, rhythmic patterns and melodic material complicate a notion of musical pan-Africanism. Moreover, it explicates the unique ways in which African immigrants reacted socially and musically to the boundaries they face in the US and its particular formations of national, racial and musical identity
Sound at First Sight: Jam Sessions and Immigrants in Brooklyn, New York
No full textThis essay examines the incorporation of immigrant musicians in a jazz jam session in Brooklyn, New York. Migration scholars define incorporation as a dialectical process in which hosts and immigrants negotiate established social boundaries between “us” and “not us.” While the social dynamics of jam sessions have intrigued scholars since the 1950s, the interactions between immigrants and American-born musicians in jazz jam sessions have not been studied. Drawing on ethnographic participation as a bass player in a weekly jam session in Brooklyn, I analyze the ways musical competence is used to establish and negotiate social boundaries between immigrants and hosts. Ultimately, I argue that jam sessions privilege incorporation, allowing immigrant musi- cians to cross, blur and shift social boundaries between themselves and their American- born peer
Jazz Migrations
No full textSince the 1990s, migrant musicians have become increasingly prominent in New York City’s jazz scene. Challenging norms about who can be a jazz musician and what immigrant music should sound like, these musicians create a mobile and diverse notion of jazz, while inadvertently contributing to processes of gentrification and institutionalization. Jazz Migrations assesses the impact of contemporary transnational migration on New York jazz, examining its effects on educational institutions, club scenes, and jam sessions. It urges the reader to reconsider the meaning of genre boundaries, senses of belonging, and ethnic identity in American music
Spiritual Commodification: A Political Economy of African Jazz in the Civil Rights Era
No full textIn the late 1950s and early 1960s, a period marked by political, spiritual, and sexual shifts in American society, African American jazz musicians began to produce compositions that resonated with African decolonial movements. These works incorporated diverse sonic elements such as hand drums, bells, “exotic” scales, and chanting, reflecting a sense of solidarity with African struggles. Scholars have often emphasized the political nature of these recordings, interpreting them as overtly pan-African expressions of resistance. However, this focus can obscure the challenges African diasporic musicians faced in navigating economic, political, and artistic constraints within a predominantly white, capitalist recording industry. By analyzing the production processes behind recordings by Art Blakey, A. K. Salim, Randy Weston, and Max Roach, this study introduces the concept of “spiritual commodification.” This concept highlights how producers preserved the ambiguity of African-themed jazz, allowing the music to be marketed and perceived in two distinct ways: first, as “exotica” music appealing to a predominantly white mainstream audience, and second, as political and spiritual statements aimed at African American listeners and those aligned with their political perspectives. This dual interpretation reveals the complex dynamics at play in the intersection of art, politics, and commerce within the jazz industry of that er
Affective Authenticity
No full textThis article develops the concept of "affective authenticity" to explore the experiences and reception of US -based African migrant musicians in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on interviews, archival sources and musical analysis, we trace the migration stories of South African singer Letta Mbulu and the ways in which she negotiated conflicting demands for "authenticity" in her musical performances on the American stage. Affective authenticity represents a heterogenous, explorative sound, reflecting panAfrican politics and aesthetics that created the very conditions for African and African American musical collaborations. This aesthetic was countered with expectations for "scientific authenticity:" an ethno-linguistically circumscribed performance that catered to colonial ears and conceptualized African musics as insular, ancient and unchanging - an aesthetic held and policed primarily by (white) music critics. Through analysis of the Yoruba hymn Ise Oluwa (1927) and its "translations" in Mbulu's performance on the soundtrack for the television show Roots (1977), we show the careful balance of voices, texts, instruments, and rhythms African migrant musicians perform in order to adhere to conflicting demands for authenticity, and the rebuke they experience when they transgress them. We also place conceptualizations of affective and scientific authenticity applied to popular music in broader discourses occurring during the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, the decolonization of Africa, and the entrenchment of the apartheid regime in South Africa
Passing Tones: Shifting National, Social, and Musical Borders in Jazz-Age Harlem
No full textIn the early 20th century, Harlem was alive with the sounds of jazz, calypso, and rhumba, brought by recent migrants from the Spanish Caribbean, West Indies, and the US South. Traditionally, scholars viewed these musics as distinct genres tied to specific socio-linguistic groups, but these divisions were not neutral. They were shaped by record labels, media, audiences, and musicians, and reinforced in jazz scholarship. Drawing on recent theaprization of ‘the border’ migration studies, I explore how New York dance orchestra musicians in the 1920s and 30s transcended musical and social boundaries. In particular, I show that African American, Latin, and Anglo-Caribbean musicians often played together, forming culturally diverse bands that capitalized on musicians’ ability to move within and between styles of music, often as part of the same night’s performance. This flexibility allowed them to navigate and adapt to different communities and performance contexts. These musicians’ stories suggest a new way to understand migrant music, seeing it not as a static expression of identity but as a dynamic tool for communication across cultures and social positions
Musical extractivism and the commercial after-life of San Juan’s (PR) La Perla and Kingston’s (JM) Fleet Street
Full text linkThe chapter examines the problematic contributions of music tourism to the social and economic development of impoverished tourism destinations in the Caribbean. By analysing the economic returns of viral YouTube videos to the locales in which they were filmed, in this case San Juan’s La Perla neighbourhood and Kingston’s Fleet Street, Gazit and Bruttomesso suggest the need to rethink the obligations of big tech companies to the cultural places that generate so much of their revenues due to the disproportionate financial gains of data mining companies as compared to those of local musicians, venues, and producers
YouTube Logics and the Extraction of Musical Space in San Juan (PR) La Perla and Kingston's (JM) Fleet Street.
Full text linkThe chapter uses two viral music videos – ‘Despacito’ (Luis Fonsi, 2017) and ‘Toast’ (Koffee, 2018) – to explore how the global reach of YouTube has transformed and globalized low-income neighbourhoods in the Caribbean, making them visible as tourist destinations to an unprecedented number of viewers/listeners around the world. Using an ethnographic approach to San Juan’s La Perla neighbourhood in Puerto Rico and Kingston’s Fleet Street in Jamaica, the authors examine how YouTube ‘logics’ mediate and trouble relationships between locals, tourists and online platforms
GLYKERÍA’S SHABECHI YERUSHALAY’IM AND THE SHAPING OF A NEW ISRAELI LEGEND
No full textThis article examines how Greek singer Glykería’s rendition of the Israeli song “Shabechi Yerushalay’im” has contributed to the creation of a new cultural icon in Israeli music. Originally a religious hymn, the song was popularized by Glykería in a way that transcends its spiritual roots, blending Greek and Jewish elements to resonate widely across Israeli society. The analysis explores the song’s adaptation and recontextualization through Glykería’s performance, considering the layers of identity, spirituality, and nostalgia it evokes. Drawing on the concept of "meticulous ritual", the article delves into how Glykería’s version shapes collective memory and identity, effectively recasting "Shabechi Yerushalay’im" as a piece that bridges secular and religious Israeli audiences, while also connecting Israel to its Mediterranean cultural landscape during the hopeful 1990s
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