[Commlist] Call for papers, 7th Rhythm Changes jazz studies conference

The seventh Rhythm Changes Conference, Jazz Then & Now, will take place 
at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 25 to 28 
August 2022. This conference marks the twelfth anniversary of the Rhythm 
Changes project.

Keynotes
Lucas Dols, double bassist and founder Sounds of Change Foundation: 
Opening lecture
Rhythm Changes Then & Now: Plenary panel on twelve years of the project
Prof. Charles Hersch, Cleveland State University: Closing address

We invite submissions for Jazz Then & Now, a four-day multidisciplinary 
conference bringing together leading researchers across the arts and 
humanities and others interested in jazz studies. The event will feature 
academic papers, panels, and roundtables.

Jazz is an urgent music that responds to or addresses contemporary 
crises. Its history is inseparable from struggles over civil rights, 
racial and gender identities, cultural politics, social hierarchies, 
artistic significance, and new technologies. The music has defined 
itself through debates around inclusion and exclusion, exemplified by 
iconic phrases such as ‘This Is Our Music’ (Ornette Coleman) or ‘What 
Jazz Is – and Isn’t’ (Wynton Marsalis). The sounds of jazz have often 
been heard as strident, edgy, unexpected, demandingly presentist – as 
urgent. Or is jazz perhaps more about its ‘then’ than its ‘now’ once we 
move outside circles of scholars, musicians, and fans? Jazz Then & Now 
seeks to critically explore how this sense (or absence?) of urgency 
plays out in jazz and how it contributes to our most compelling 
contemporary debates.

We welcome papers addressing the conference theme from multiple 
perspectives, including *cultural studies*, musicology, *cultural 
theory*, music analysis, jazz history, *media studies*, and 
practice-based research. Within the general theme of Jazz Then & Now, we 
have identified several sub-themes. Where relevant, please clearly 
specify which sub-theme you are referring to in your proposal.

Jazz in pandemic times
How can Jazz Then & Now not address or acknowledge the world’s changing 
situation? What forms of jazz are there now in our reduced times, and 
are or can they be creatively innovative? From the multiple closures of 
jazz clubs to lockdowns on touring and festivals, live music has 
suffered intensely. In its urgent presentism, is jazz especially 
vulnerable or vital now? How far are we living a fermata? How will jazz 
from before the pandemic (the pre-Covidium, which was ‘then’) relate to 
jazz in the imminent post-Covidium? We may dream in compensation of a 
Second Jazz Age – à la post-1918 flu pandemic Roaring Twenties – but if 
our infrastructures fail and our elders fade, where, when, and with whom 
will we improvise? Or are improvised solutions our best cultural hope?

Environment and sustainability
Circularity, sustainability, no-waste festivals, ‘climate songs’, the 
ClimateMusic Project, Musicians for Future: This theme explores ways in 
which climate emergency and environmental debates might shape the 
production, dissemination, and experience of jazz. How do current jazz 
practices pose short and long-term threats to the environment? (How) can 
we think of jazz practices to make them more ecologically sustainable? 
What of its materials (ebony, ivory, reeds, skins)? We invite papers 
focusing on how artists, critics, audiences, producers and makers 
respond to current climate debates.

Decolonisation
Museums, galleries, even our universities have been at the forefront of 
interrogating their own pasts, digging into their foundations, archives, 
and collections to uncover uncomfortable, hidden narratives of 
complicity. Could or should jazz, as an urgent or heritage music of the 
Black Atlantic forged in the experience of the transatlantic slave 
trade, have been helping to lead such debates? In what ways has jazz, 
including its studies and institutions, involved itself in decolonising 
cultural practice and consumption, and are they adequate?

Jazz Now?
Jazz, as studied today, is successful: it flourishes in academia, where 
researchers produce a constant stream of publications, and it thrives in 
music education, where students are admitted after competitive entrance 
exams. Nevertheless, the student numbers both in academic and vocational 
programmes seem out of balance with the marketplace. Does that affect 
the relevance of these programmes? What does it mean to be a jazz 
performer in relation to the major debates of our time? Has jazz 
education a responsibility to consider such issues?

Jazz Then, and Now
Jazz is a global musical form with a complex history of more than a 
hundred years. As an innovative and improvisatory style of music, it has 
become a significant form of cultural expression with changing 
soundscapes, not least due to hybridisation with other musical 
traditions. Connected to various social and political movements, the 
meanings, perceptions, and reception of jazz have been changing as well. 
This theme addresses jazz from different historical positions, from 
different perspectives and fields in past and present to explore 
possible meanings of jazz then and now. Or does jazz inherently occupy 
an ahistorical position, a celebration of the improvisatory moment?

Further information
Please submit your proposal (max. 250 words), including a short 
biography (max. 50 words) and institutional affiliation, as a Word 
document to Loes Rusch and Walter van de Leur (Conference Directors), 
(atrhythmchanges /at/ ahk.nl) <mailto:(rhythmchanges /at/ ahk.nl)>.

The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2022; we will communicate 
outcomes to authors by mid-March 2022. The conference committee consists 
of Loes Rusch, Walter van de Leur, Christa Bruckner-Haring, Nicholas 
Gebhardt, George McKay, Catherine Tackley, Sarah Raine, and Tony Whyton.

Jazz Then & Now continues to build on the legacy of the research project 
Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities (2010–2013), 
funded as part of the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) 
Joint Research Programme. In the spirit of Rhythm Changes, the project 
team continues to develop networking opportunities and champion 
collaborative research in transnational jazz studies.

Updates on the conference and information about travel and accommodation 
will be available on our website and Facebook.

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