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10th Darmstadt Jazzforum
"Encounters ... The World meets Jazz"symposium, concert series, exhibition and workshop
from October 4th to 7th, 2007The 10th Darmstadt Jazzforum will center on the subject "Begegnungen - The World Meets Jazz". The subject matter is not so much "world music" but rather the fact that jazz was a productive music from the beginning, that musicians all over the world who took up jazz had to know and respect its roots as African-American music as well as had to contribute some of their own traditions. The Darmstadt Jazzforum will discuss this productive discourse of traditions, the fact that jazz has been influenced by music traditions from all over the globe, from countries and regions in which the jazz tradition meanwhile has been accepted as their own tradition. We plan to discuss such convergences, adaptions or adoptions and will look at ideas which come from ethnic musical genres but so excellently work within the jazz context that it's difficult to place the results in any of the existing genres. It's not "world music" and it's not mainstream jazz either. It's a creative exchange of ideas which changes jazz, whether you like it or not. At the Darmstadt Jazzforum we want to look at, analyze and critically question our own position. As always we will invite theorists and practical musicians to our international forum. And as always there will be concerts in the evening shedding a different light on what has been talked about during the day.
In jazz history books you often read about the cultural melting pot New Orleans, and indeed the mixing of cultural traditions was one of the ingredients for the birth of jazz. As an improvised music jazz was always a productive musical genre, able to incorporate influences from other cultural spheres, or to allow musicians from other cultural traditions to express themselves through jazz without completely abandoning their own cultural heritage.
In the 50s jazz musicians started to deal more and more with non-Western cultures. At the beginning there were projects in which musicians focused on allegedly African roots. In the 60s other musicians sought for new spiritual experiences and showed increased interest in Indian or Asian music. At the same time European jazz more and more came of age, emancipated itself from its American role models. Musicians looked at their very own traditions, used material of their folklore, specific regional instruments or mixed the African-American language of jazz with harmonic, melodic or rhythmic material from their own cultures. At some point in the 60s the term "world music" was coined. It denoted an alleged aesthetic openness, anti cultural imperialism. Mostly the mixing of traditions, though, was based on the aesthetic ideas of the Western musicians who took part in such projects. Traditional musicians from Asia, North Africa or other far regions of the world often did not see their music as art music in the Western sense of the word, but saw it as having a clear function within their society. Joachim Ernst Berendt's record series "Jazz Meets the World" fused jazz musicians with traditional musicians from India, Bali, Spain, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Tunisia, Switzerland and other countries. Berendt's project was an important cornerstone for what soon became to be known as world music or later as ethno jazz.
The idea of an encounter between the cultures changed to an idea of a fusion of musical traditions in the 70s, a fusion in which musicians encountered musicians with an open mind for the others' musical idioms. Now the rule was mutual respect, a need for musical communication and exchange. Jazz musicians often approached such projects with a specific interest in different sounds, rhythmic models, formal structures which enabled them to broaden the common grammar of jazz improvisation.
Post modern aesthetics found their reflection in jazz at a time when this music lacked new stylistic categories, when jazz was often described as being eclectic, at a time when musicians used all kinds of traditions as long as they fit their concept. In such an eclectic stylistic diversity many of the approaches seemed to be arbitrary, even if the musicians in case did not make use of the stylistic device of the collage. Musicians experimented with the most unusual situations, broke with genre limitations, used classical compositional techniques, Indian rhythms, Arabian melisma, the tradition of Yiddish music, folklore from all possible European and non-European regions including folklore which had no traditions: "imaginary folklore" by which musicians of the French ARFI collective understood a folklore which denoted no region in particular and thus reflected the non-regionality of the modern world.
There are many who complain that globalization minimizes cultural diversity. They speak of McDonaldization and of cultural imperialism in which people all over the world grow up with similar cultural ideals - in pop music, fashion as well as the commercial world. These complaints may seem reasonable, yet one cannot stop the world to change, and some of the changes actually engage reverse gear. The communication of a globalized world is not one-directional. American pop music may be heard in the last corners of this world, yet at the same time you can hear melisma of the Arabic world in the basic stylistic repertoire of pop singers all over. Young people may dance to techno and electronic music, but at the same time regional identity survives, for instance on the steps of St. Croce in Firenze where every night one can see cliques of young people singing drinking, satirical or love song with guitar accompaniment. The regional tradition of brass bands is in danger, as experts on Italian or French country music lament. Yet a musician such as Paolo Fresu works with Bandas; Hans Kännel with Swiss alp horns, thus calling attention to the creative potentials of their home countries. Very often it is the jazz musicians who counter globalization trends with a return to individual traditions, to regional cultures. Listeners to such kind of music often are fascinated with the disengagement of traditional musical values from their original functionality. They discover a hip potential not just in references to their own but also (and especially) to quite alien traditions which yet are perceived as clear folklore traditions. Jazz with its aesthetic of the individual voice seems to be especially prone to the trend of authenticity. Many recent discussions pick up such questions as: Can it be "authentic" if European jazz musicians emulate their American role models? How much "own" (i.e. non-African-American) traditions does jazz tolerate to still be called jazz? Are the many approaches of jazz musicians towards ethnic traditions an attempt - both of the musicians as well as their audiences - to restitute their own lost roots?
All such are questions will be asked at this year's Jazzforum: Has jazz really become a world music? Is jazz losing its African-American ingredients if it is adopted by and mixed with other musical traditions? Or is it true as George E. Lewis claims: "African-American music, like any music, can be performed [or composed or conceived] by a person of any 'race' without losing its character as historically Afrological"? Were all the encounters between jazz and other traditions mainly musical misunderstandings where the participants talk at cross purposes? Or did they actually trigger reflections about one's own musical language whenever the result of such encounters seemed not to be satisfying? Where in the same old of today's musical landscape are the individual voices that seem like an acknowledgement of regional virtues? Are regions, roots or at least the fascination with roots still of any importance for jazz musicians today? Or is the discourse about regional positioning within the musical landscape actually a through and through revisionist concept not fit for the globalized 21st century?
The Darmstadt Jazzforum tries to review what's there. Or it tries to review parts of what's there by looking at different facets of the development, by asking wherefrom and why, whereto and what for. As so often questions will predominate, as the subject is much too topical to be able to find valid answers. What we can do is stimulate thought about the tendencies which can be heard in today's jazz.
The program of the 10th Darmstädter Jazzforum
Thursday, 4. October 2007:
SYMPOSIUM
Venue: Literaturhaus (John-F.-Kennedy-Haus), Rheinstraße, corner Kasinostraße14:00 Uhr: Eröffnung des 10. Darmstädter Jazzforums
14:30 Uhr: Andrew W. Hurley (Sydney, Australien): But did the world meet jazz? Behind J-E Berendt’s ‘Jazz Meets the World’ series [in englischer Sprache]
15:00 Uhr: Maximilian Hendler (Graz, Österreich): Jazz oder nicht Jazz?
16:30 Uhr: Torsten Eßer (Köln): Jazz in Lateinamerika – eine periphere Erscheinung?
Friday, 5. October 2007:
SYMPOSIUM
Venue: Literaturhaus (John-F.-Kennedy-Haus), Rheinstraße, corner Kasinostraße10:00 Uhr: Wolfram Knauer (Darmstadt): Blowin' Up a (European) Storm. Stanko / Rava / Beckett – ein Vergleich sehr unterschiedlicher Trompetenstimmen im europäischen Jazz
11:00 Uhr: Günther Huesmann (Berlin): "Tokyo Operations" - John Zorn und der japanische Traditionsbegriff
14:30 Uhr: Gerhard Putschögl (Frankfurt): Zu den Wechselwirkungen zwischen Jazz / afroamerikanischer Musik und Flamenco Nuevo in zeitgenössischen Stilformen spanischer Musik
15:30 Uhr: Timothy R. Mangin (New York, USA): Cosmopolitan Roots: Jazz in Senegal [in englischer Sprache]
16:30 Uhr: Silvia Kurschus (Berlin): Die gegenwärtigen Jazzszenen in Berlin und Rom. Jazz tradition versus cultural background. "Melting Pot" oder "Salat Bowl"?
CONCERT
Venue: Centralstation, Saal, 20 UhrKarl Berger Sextett "In the Spirit of Don Cherry" with Steven Bernstein (trumpet), Steve Gorn (soprano saxophone, flutes), Marc Abrams (bass), Bill Elgart (drums), Ingrid Sertso (vocals), Karl Berger (piano, vibraphone, composition, arrangement)
Cyminology with Cymin Samawatie (vocals), Benedikt Jahnel (piano), Ralf Schwarz (bass), Ketan Bhatti (drums)
Saturday, 6. October 2007:
SYMPOSIUM
Venue: Literaturhaus (John-F.-Kennedy-Haus), Rheinstraße, corner Kasinostraße10:00 Uhr: Ralf Dombrowski (München): Das Originelle und das Originale. Techniken kultureller Aneignung am Beispiel des Oriental Jazz
11:00 Uhr: Martin Pfleiderer (Hamburg): The World Meets Jazz. Zur Ästhetik des Jazz im Zeitalter der Globalisierung
14:30 Uhr: Gilad Atzmon (London, UK): Aesthetics, Ethics and Contemporary Music. Musikergespräch mit Gilad Atzmon [in englischer Sprache]
15:30 Uhr: Karl Berger (Woodstock, USA): Skizzen weltmusikalischer Erfahrungen
16:30 Uhr: Harald Justin (Münster): Jazz und World Music im Fadenkreuz des Kulturkampfes
CONCERT
Venue: Centralstation, Saal, 20 UhrGilad Atzmon & Oriental House Ensemble with Gilad Atzmon (saxophone), Frank Harrison (piano), Yaron Stavi (bass), Asaf Sirkis (drums)
Sunday, 7. October 2005
CONCERT
Venue: Kulturzentrum Bessunger Knabenschule, 20.30 UhrBen's Belinga Quartet with Ben’s Belinga (tenor saxophone), Georges-Édouard Nouel (piano), Laurent Evini (bass), Serge Marnet (djembe, percussion, drums)
The 10th Darmstadt Jazzforum is a co-operation of and is funded by
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About the Darmstadt Jazzforum:
The Darmstadt Jazzforum is a unique blend of scholarly conference and festival organized every other year by the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, Europe's largest public jazz archive and highly regarded research center. One of the world's few regular jazz conferences it centers around specific subjects which are discussed at length during the three day symposium at Darmstadt's Literaturhaus (fittingly situated in the former John-F.-Kennedy-Haus) by scholars from different fields: musicologists, sociologists, psychologists, literary critics, journalists as well as musicians, who regularly participate themselves to give their view of the subjects under discussion. Former conferences centered around subjects such as "Jazz and Composition", "Jazz and Language", "Jazz in Europe", "Jazz in Germany", "Duke Ellington and what followed", "Jazz and Society", "improvising...", "Jazz goes Pop goes Jazz".
More information can be obtained from:
Jazzinstitut Darmstadt
Bessunger Strasse 88d
D-64285 Darmstadt
Germany
Tel. ++49 (6151) 963700
Fax ++49 (6151) 963744
e-mail: jazz@jazzinstitut.de
Website: www.jazzinstitut.de
