2/5/2013

Well done to saxophonist Nick Russoniello (pictured above) and Sydney Camerata Quartet on doing a great job of performing my new work ‘Between Worlds’ last weekend on ABC Classic FM.

If you missed out and want to hear it (or want to listen to it again!), it will be available online for the next three weeks.

www.abc.net.au

Between Worlds

String Quartet and Saxophone

Between Worlds was written for string quartet and saxophone and draws impetus from the experience of second generation immigrants – commonly described as ‘being caught between two worlds’ – as they face challenges of an ever shifting sense of self whilst facing pressure to conserve their country of origin’s culture. The work was also inspired by the composer’s recent overseas touring and studying through Greece, Germany, Norway, Cuba and Dominican Republic. Rose’s background as a jazz saxophonist and familiarity with the instrument has combined with his compositional skill sets to create a work for the saxophone that is virtuosic and improvisatory-like.

The work expands the composers exploration of the potential interactions between art music and world music paradigms. Rose’s recent studies of Balkan Brass music at a week long workshop in northern Greece in 2013 helped shape cross-cultural/genre issues in the music such as improvisation, rhythmic vitality and folk melodic invention. The cross-cultural significance of the work stems from melodic material adapted from a Greek folk melody ‘Mirkov Cocek’, however is shifted and expanded to encompass a new context of contemporary harmony and melodic dexterity. This work is the first Rose has composed for String Quartet, drawing influences from Debussy, Ravel, and Peter Sculthorpe.

This work will be performed by Sydney Camerata Quartet and saxophonist Nick Russoniello.

Thursday 11 April: Newcastle Conservatorium lunchtime series

Sunday 28 April: ABC Sunday Live broadcast from Penrith Joan Sutherland PAC, 3pm. More info on ABC website.

PhD student and musician Jeremy Rose vamps it up

This article was written Kath Kenny and published on 28 November 2012

Sydney University Website

Despite his passing resemblance to the Twilight star Robert Pattinson, saxophonist Jeremy Rose is quick to clarify that his band The Vampires predates our current cultural obsession with the creatures of the night.

“The name comes from the musical term ‘vamp’, which is a repeating bass pattern or short set of chords,” says Rose, a founder and composer with the Vampires, who is currently studying for a PhD at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (SCM).

“A lot of the early Vampires compositions used vamps, and at the same time we were looking for a non-traditional name for a jazz group – something other than ‘The Jeremy Rose Quartet’.”

When he’s not studying for his doctorate Rose runs his own record label, composes and performs for one of his numerous other musical projects, and blogs on his eponymous website about his trips to Greece to play Balkan brass music, or to the Dominican Republic for a stint of volunteer work.

Now the 28-year-old will be soon be updating followers about trips performing around Australia, after he received two grants for national tours from the Federal Government’s Contemporary Music Touring Program. One grant will support a regional Australia tour by the Vampires, and another will put petrol in the tank for another one of his projects, the Afrobeat, reggae, jazz eight-piece ensemble The Strides.

“This is an amazing opportunity to connect with regional audiences and to take original music on the road,” says Rose, who received the 2009 Bell Award for Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year.

When he takes to the road next year with the Vampires he will be accompanied by SCM graduates Nick Garbett (trumpet), Alex Boneham (double bass) and Alex Masso (drums).

In February 2013 he will also need to find time for a residency at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, where The Strides will spend an intensive week collaborating and writing music for a new album after receiving another grant, this time from the Australia Council. The residency will include a public concert, as well as workshops with local high schools in the region, one of Sydney’s most disadvantaged.

Jeremy Rose’s PhD thesis will try to unearth what he thinks is a particularly Australian character reflected in the local jazz scene. [Image: Karen Steains]

While he is constantly thinking globally, Rose’s PhD thesis will try to unearth what he thinks is a particularly Australian character reflected in the local jazz scene. “I’m trying to show the Australian identity is clearly evident not merely in the way the music sounds, but the way we create music,” says Rose.

Pragmatism, mateship and eclecticism – drawing from musical styles outside the jazz paradigm, including from non-western countries such as India, the Caribbean and the Pacific as well as Europe – are all qualities he sees in the way jazz music is practised here.

Raised in Sydney by a visual arts teacher mother and architect father, he learnt classical music from the age of six. “I was always surrounded by music and by many different musical styles from my parents’ record collections, from Indian classical music, to folk and jazz and classical music,” he recalls.

His interest in exploring diverse music styles extended to a recent trip to Greece to study the complex micro-tonal techniques developed by the innovative saxophone player, the Cologne-based New Zealander Hayden Chisholm. On the same trip he also visited Cuba, working with local composers and performing with local musicians in a jazz club.

The fruits of all of this researching, travelling, composing and performing can be heard on records released through his label Earshift records, and directly via videos posted on websites for The Vampires and The Strides. “Through technology such as the internet, and particularly social media, artists are able to connect with audiences in so many different ways and also establish long-term fan bases,” notes Rose.

The spanish speaking island of Dominican Republic (DR) sits adjacent to Haiti, which many of you remember as the site of the devastating 2010 earthquake (and the name of a piece I’ve composed for the Vampires). The DR is known for its merengue music, pearly white beaches and rich colonial past. However I discovered that there are still many social challenges facing this jewel of the caribbean. I visited the DR for a week with my partner to participate in some volunteer work with a group of Chiropractors from New York State and Chicago, an NGO called Chiromission.

Acqua Negra

For the first day of volunteering, we ventured to an area simply known as ‘AcquaNegra” (black water). This village basically lives next to a small bay where fishing boats and power lines litter the shore. Opposite the village lies a large factory billowing black smoke from the chimneys. The volunteers who had come here previously didn’t know what type of factory it was but told me that whatever was coming out of the factory made the surrounding water dirty, sludge-like and ultimately black (hence the area’s nick-name). Apparently when the hurricane season hits the village, the water level rises enough so that the houses get covered in a knee-high layer of sludge water, leaving a mark that was clearly evident as we walked and inspected some of the houses Chiromission had built on previous trips. The scariest thing was that there were people fishing in the water and small children running around half naked on the shore line. Despite this environmental burden on the village, the people were beautiful and kind natured.

Press conference for the opening of the new orphanage

They village had an obvious interest in the van full of white folks, led by local Pastor Joel, rocking up with a suitcase full of donations to give out. For the first half hour, the chiropractors set up chairs and allowed anyone who wanted an adjustment to jump on in. Its amazing watching the people’s injuries, shoulder and neck problems be transformed from a single adjustment. I jumped on in with my saxophone and entertained the kids – the expressions on their faces was incredible! Soon they were all clapping and dancing along to the music. This was soon interrupted when the suitcases came out, and then it was game on for the kids to grab whatever they could. The hardest thing to see was several kids literally fighting over a matchbox toy car – they really had nothing here and so the desperation over so little was hard to bear. We also gave out some clothes, toothpaste and pencils for the kids. Hopefully they can make use of the pencils – next time we go we will have to take some sharpeners and erasures.

The following day we headed to the local schools in Puerto Plata. The kids were estatic to see us arrive, and we had to be apologetic to take over use of the courtyard, where a serious game of baseball was underway. Someone told me over there that the DR make up the second highest national representation of professional baseball players in the States, second only to the USA itself! I was also trying to incite the kids to sing some of their local songs – some of them had amazing voices! This little kid was speechless as he watched me play an Ornette Coleman tune to him. Watch his face as he stood in front of the bell of my saxophone and then started to dance.

On the Friday the local Centre of Medicine hosted a benefit concert at which I was the featured performer at the old library in Puerto Plata. I was joined by the co-founder of Chiro Mission’s son, a 16 year piano player called Tommy Herold, and a local drummer. We played four or five songs each in duo format, performing songs Tommy knew by the pianist Chilly Gonzales, a Greek ballad with the drummer and finally some merengue – “Compadre Pedro Juan” – a famous song in the DR. As soon as I started playing the rubato intro, half the crowd started to stir. By the time the main melody kicked in, half the people were up dancing and clapping along – its a lovely music culture there.

Post concert with the co-founders of ChiroMission – J.C. Doornick and Todd Herold. Local percussionist on right.

The final day we visited some Haitian refugees in a village on the outskirts of Puerto Plata. It seems these people have been through a lot – you can see it on their faces. Giving out pencils seemed so futile – they needed much more than that; health, shelter and education. They were grateful for our visit and it was an amazing experience to bring home a new perspective on life.

Frognerparken practice session – Oslo, Norway

Played some gigs in Norway last week with my Chiba Quartet. Since studying there on exchange in 2006 its been great to visit and rekindle some old relationships with friends, not to mention get a taste of the local cuisine that you can’t seem to find anywhere else – liverpostei (tinned patee) and brunost (a sweet brown cheese made from goats milk).

As I had been doing for the past few weeks around continental Europe, I hired a tourist bike and took to the streets to get my bearings and get to the first rehearsal. Many thanks to my mate Leif Bond who kindly offered a place to stay for a few days. Leif had been doing night shifts at the local women’s drug rehab centre and so was happy for me to stay there while he was at work. He also filled me in on the local drug culture, the turnover rate of women in the centre and the risks of working there. Most of the time he just sleeps in the front office in case of an emergency (which were usually false alarms). On the night of the Oslo gig however, he had to leave before the music even started to help his colleague who had been cut by a stray syringe!

The following day I rode to the music school to fit in some practice but diverted to the nearby Frognerparker – Oslo’s famous sculpture garden. It served as a much prettier practice space and I could practise my newly learnt Balkan melodies under the bridge – NO SIGN OF TROLLS. Had the chance to hear some music as part of Oslo Kulturnatt (Culture night) Festival. It was an amazing showcase of music, from avant garde, electronica, world music, classical, and all for free too!!! I heard Oslo Philharmonic perform Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia and Swedish composer Rolf Wallin’s Manyworlds with 3d Video. The Berio was particularly good – its amazing how modern a piece that was written in the 60′s can sound.

We took the train to Trondheim for a concert on the Sunday and played in Oslo on the Monday. Hoping to get the band over to Australia for a tour in the next year or so.

Related show

• Artist: Chiba (Rose/Wiik/Myhr/Sandbakken)
• Date: Monday, September 17th 2012
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Chiba (Rose/Wiik/Myhr/Sandbakken) in Oslo
• Venue: Månefisken
• Country: Norway
• Admission: 100/55
• Age restrictions: No Minors
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Picture a 16th century village perched upon the side of a mountainous peninsula overlooking the Mediterranean sea. Every night families would flock to the town square to enjoy dinner from 11pm almost until dawn whilst taking part in traditional folk music and dancing. This is no fantasy but the scene of Agios Lavrentios and Music Village – a mini festival/workshop in Mount Pilion, Greece. I attended the workshop this August with approximately 100 other participants, mainly Greek, taking part in workshops that included dance, voice, theatre, traditional instrument performance, violin and of course saxophone.

The saxophone workshop consisted of around a dozen saxophonists from Germany, Greece, Canada and two from New Zealand (including the teacher). We worked with the enigmatic kiwi, Cologne based, Hayden Chisholm. You might have heard his name from his work with Nils Wogram’s Root 70, but he his now developing a name as a highly individualist player, who is involved in cross-collaborative art projects include installations, film scores, and poetry – becoming somewhat of a renaissance man. He has helped develop a micro-tonal language for the saxophone, can perform tibetan throat-singing (‘overtone’ singing) is a bare-foot running dedicatee, practises Tai-Chi, writes poetry, plays the Irish Flute, and has a growing number of disciples in Germany (and now one from Australia). Check out his website here and his ever interesting blog softspeakers here.

Folk dancing in the square (a traditional piece in 9/8):

The workshop focused on Hayden’s work with the overtone series combining his background in mircro-tonal saxophone techniques and eartraining. Hayden confessed to us that since he has delved into perfect intonation, it has opened up a new wound world and has changed the way he listens to music. He likened it to the Matrix film – you can take the red pill or the blue pill, but once you take the red pill, your life will be changed forever.

For those that don’t know what perfect intonation is, the physical properties of sound dictate that when a sound wave’s vibrations per second (its frequency) is doubled, it moves to the next note in a naturally occurring series. The first few notes in the series are pretty familiar to most music listeners – the octave, the perfect fifth, the perfect fourth, major third, but as we continue higher into the series, the intervals become slightly higher or lower than what our Western ear has been trained to hear. When these intervals are played together (as the saxophonists attempted to replicate in the workshop) they form ‘natural tuning’. Phenomenal things can also start to appear such as ‘difference tones’ whereby two notes from the overtone series are played together they can cancel each other out to produce a lower note within the listeners inner ear.

Hayden workshopped a portfolio of miniature compositions based on combining these overtone characteristics and applying them to the saxophone. They include a piece simply titled ‘Mirror’ in which eight saxophones navigated a series of tones with “percentages” or degrees of how sharp or flat to play the note. They players move along the line until the centre, in which the composition is reflected and the part’s move in retrograde. Several other compositions utilised similar principles, including taking notes from the series using numbers from the fibonacci series.

Hayden’s G-String demonstration

The biggest revelation behind this exploration of the fundamental properties of sound came when we began talking overlaying one note from the series against another, forming an interval. This forms a ratio of frequencies against another. If you could slow frequencies down enough, the ratio could audibly be made out as a rhythm – a polyrhythm to be exact. For example if you take the interval of a fifth, you are forming notes from the series – the second and the third. 2:3 is the ratio of the interval – and is also a pretty simply polyrhythm (i could clap that out on my knees). Take the minor third and you are forming a ratio of 5:6 etc.What this ultimately means is - sound is rhythm and rhythm is sound!! Pretty wild huh!? Hayden attempted to demonstrate this principle with a limp rope tied to a post (unfortunately it had a knot in the middle otherwise this would have worked flawlessly). In his dry sense of humour, Hayden aptly named the saxophone workshop “The G-String of Pythagoras”.

Music Village Balkan Brass Band 2012

The other part of the workshop revolved around a collaboration with renowned Greek trumpeter Pantelios Stoikos and his Greek trumpet students learning a set of Greek, Macedonian, Slovakian tunes and an original piece by Stoikos. Stoikos’s intense energy (or was it the Greek coffee he was drinking) contrasted to the learning style of Hayden (a student of Zen) in the afternoon sessions as Stoikos would rip through some of the pieces to demonstrate to his students. The first time he played us his composition, he presented a score which was difficult to read at best, and improvised half of what was on the page anyway. When asked to repeat it slowly (translated through our drummer) he said sure and ripped through another version, albeit at the same tempo but with different embellishments and improvising in the rests.

Despite this the inaugural Music Village Balkan Brass Band pulled the music together but playing the songs over and over again, sometimes for 15 minutes or more, until everyone had really learnt it. One of the afternoon rehearsals was here overlooking the ocean and watching the setting sun. We even tried to play and learn a dance at the same time. The piece was in 11/8 so it proved quite challenging. I discovered that learning music like this – a kin to ‘folk’ traditions – is similar to the way that jazz musicians learn from recordings or in a live performance situation. We simply play along, picking up bits and pieces of the melody as we go along until we emulate the performer. When we learn from a teacher one-on-one we tend to ask them to slow it down and separate the melody into bite size proportions, small enough to grasp. Learning the Balkan music ‘the old fashioned way’ proved that by the end of each session, i had comfortably memorised the music and had felt that I had been developing my ear at the same time.

The clarinets practising:

The week came to a close on the Friday night when we performed in square to an excited crowed and continued until dawn. Mount Pilion seemed a million miles away from the sad realities of Greek’s economic situation. The people enjoyed the week of celebration and music, as if there were no crisis however after some enquiry, some confessed that their families were struggling, and many of the younger people were returning to support the family businesses over summer.

The part of Hayden’s workshop that most resonated with me was his daily discussions on aesthetics and professional practice. Speaking as a middle aged artist, he reminded us of the importance to KNOW THYSELF i.e. to not forget who you are when you forging a path as an artist. Not to get caught up in an intellectual ‘western music bubble’, but remember what your roots are and explore your past. Take your experiences – the good and the bad – and transform them into music through composition and conceptualisation. Sound Heals.

This research proposal forms part of my PhD Research in Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium.

A Deeper Shade of Blue: An Autoethnographic inquiry into Australian Jazz Identity

Jazz music’s malleable improvisatory methods and diverse social utility has enabled the recent emergence of distinct creative practices both linked to the genre’s traditional roots in the United States and, simultaneously, to cultures beyond the music’s roots.1 History has commonly used geographic location to help define the “identity” of various jazz cultures linked to these practices. Areas that have been commonly defined by the press and early jazz scholars include cities in the United States such as Kansas City, New Orleans, Chicago, New York along with broader categorisations such as ‘east coast’ and ‘west coast’ jazz. Initially, investigations seeking to distinguish one jazz culture from another typically relied on qualitative methods bent on charting sonoric content. Yet a second wave of scholars in the late 1940s would break new ground in their insistence that differences could only be appreciated through an examination of cultural practices as they related to sonic products (cf. Jackson). Since the publication of Sidney Finkelstein’s (1948) ethnography on American jazz practices, methods of cultural examination as it relates to jazz have been refined and many useful models have emerged for investigating what actually happens when “jazz” music is created in distinct geographical sites. My concern is to explore and delineate cultural practices related to jazz production in a geographically distant location from the genres origins – a site of distinct and unique collaborations, recordings, performances and compositions: Sydney, Australia.2

As a professional discipline, jazz and creative music composition has yet to extensively address the issue of identity and hybridisation. As a saxophonist and composer in the field of jazz and creative music, I find myself working in a fertile overlap of world music, including reggae, afrobeat, tango, indian and african music, as well as the many sub-genres of jazz – bebop, modal, and free, just to name a few.

Living in the twenty-first century in a country far removed from jazz’s origins poses interesting questions regarding identity, transnationalism, and hybridisation. How current artists have forged an identity among the growing conservatism in jazz is an important question and central do my research. As certain sections of the jazz community has become increasingly institutionalised, authentism appears to often be based on ethnicity and racial background.

The projects that I compose and perform with form an eclectic mix of influences and styles. The concept of a ‘project’ is becoming the norm among the Australian jazz scene, as well as abroad. A band’s compositional and performance practice adopts cross-idiomatic improvisational and compositional lexicons, forming hybridisation of jazz and unique musical identities. My compositional portfolio and exogesis will examine existing discourse on the topic of hybridisation in jazz and its use of identity, as well as use musical samples to place my compositional practice in a contemporary and global context.

Significance

There are several reasons why this research is important at this time. First, there are a number of important artists who’s music demands an assessment of a new perspective on jazz hybridisation and identity. My main objective is to articulate the features that make their music successful through literature surveys and musical analysis,

Secondly, a contextualisation of my work among current research and musical examples will greatly assist and allow my work to be placed within a global and up-to-date framework. Thirdly, improvisation through composition is an area of study that is generally overlooked. Without broadening the scope beyond the limits of this research, I wil also argue that compostional choices such as performer selection and the creation of improvisational platforms are an integral part of jazz compositional practice.

Literature Review

Reviews of research on case studies of different jazz hybrids have concluded an increased interest in global sounds and a quest for new and under utilised influences. (Farrell, 1988; Kalmanovitch, 2008; Levy, 2007, Nettle, 1998; Zorn, 2000) The reviews revealed a relationship between many artists – one in which the the common trend is that artists create ‘projects’ to adopt cross-idomatic identitities to explore transnational influences. Several other researchers highlighted how a number of artist’s have used their ethinic identitities to forge what has been labelled as “identity jazz”. (Gendreau, 2009; Kalmanovitch, 2008; Levy, 2007; Völz, 2006)

One study which examined causal effect of the relationshop between Indian music and jazz was conducted by Tanya Kalmanovitch. Kalmanovitch conducted a landmark study on Indian Karnatak Music’s contact with jazz music in three contexts – jazz pedagogy, intercultural collaboration, and the Indian Diaspora in the United States. The study presented a comprehensive analyses including reference to recent recordings by pianist Vijay Iyer, saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and drummer Ravish Momin, as well as highlighting their accounts in historical, policitcal and social contexts.

In another cross cultural study, Clair Levy reveals the open nature of jazz and its response to the work and influence of Bulgarian-born musician Milcho Leviev. The genesis of Bulgarian music’s odd meter rhythms and jazz paved a new direction for the music. “In a certain sense there has always been globalisation. Just not on the same scale as it is today.” (Leviev, quoted in Levy 2007:26)

The globalisation of the music was also a common topic of discussion in several studies which examined the origins of jazz’s transnational nature. (Monson, 1998; Farrell, 1988) Research confers that John Coltrane stands out among others as one who explored the spiritual ideas of the East and West and theories of harmony. Kalmanovitch (2008), also provides a comprehensive account of Coltrane’s use of Indian music concepts, and further suggests that this concept of experiencing or even creating freedom through improvisation is still prominent in contemporary jazz aesthetics.

Further case studies in the research include Strunk’s study on the music of Wayne Shorter, who elaborated and extended bebop and modal harmony by manipulating the functional progression of chords – using common chords in uncommon ways. (Strunk, 2005) Strunk is much more analytical than philosophical/sociological, however there is a link between the research. The research suggests that the concepts of modal jazz harmony fostered a new world for artists to create other world connections and hybridised forms.

Perspectives were added from non-jazz related research to broaden the research to contemporary classical music. Research indicated Australian composers such as Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards have drawn from unqiue indiginous characteristics of Aboriginal Song, traditional indigenous instruments and concepts suggested through the Australian landscape. (Boyd, 2007; Williams, 1988) There is a clear gap in the research on Australian jazz collaborations and hybrids, suggesting possible future analasyis.

Another component of the research focused on the music of Nigerian saxophonist Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and his style of music prominent in the 1970s’ called Afro-beat. Much of the research covers Afro-beat’s origins and Kuti’s legacy. (Grass, 1986; Gendreau, 2009) A revealing study by Gendreau details a case study of Afro-beat’s resurgence since Kuti’s death in 1997 in three North American bands and the hybrids created through displacing the music from its original context. The research suggests that Afro-beat music deserves a re-evaulation and further scope for collaborative use.

Research covering the topic of improvisation was also evaluated. At the risk of broadening the scope of this research too wide, the focus was limited to include the most cited references.

The relevance to my compositional research is clear – many elements of jazz music is not confounded to the traditional paradigm of composition. Decisions such as who will play the composition and how the composition frames an improvisational platform are integral to making the composition potential more than the individual composer can portray in notation and conduction. Hence these aspects of the music demand critical attention.

The research all presented various musical styles and form that utilise improvisation, suggesting that composition has much to learn from improvisational traditions, and is generally undervalued. (Bailey, 1980; Nettle, 1990; Nyman, 1974)

Another important research on improvisation and jazz music’s identity was from Rae-Connor, who provided a case study of bassist and composer Charlie Haden and his Libertation Music Orchestra. The research contextualised the struggle of the black civil rights movement to non-black performers by aligning itself with progressive political movements throughout the world and utilising musical narratives. Haden stands as a model for extending the African American tradition as a non-black without appropriatition. This has particular resonance with my compositional research as an Australian jazz composer and saxophonist by presenting ways to perceive my work as a hybrid of jazz without losing its authenticity as a valid artform.

An alternative discourse was also surveyed, one which exposes the artists as being reactionary to the growing canonisation of jazz. (Kalmanovitch, 2008) The research suggests that the viewpoint of jazz music as the “classical music of the twentieth century” runs the risk of a growing conservatism and backward looking art form. (Levy 2007) A number of researchers notifed the decline in growth of the music since the artform’s early days – as is implied in the title of British journalist Stuart Nicholson’s book Is Jazz Dead? (Or has it moved to a new address), suggesting that American Jazz is stagnant, and jazz’s true creative potential has since flowered in Europe. (Nicholson, 2005)

I believe that the reaction to a blossoming monopolisation of the genre by ‘young black lions’ was that there was a general shift towards more global sounds and ideas of cross-idiomatic hybridisation.

A number of important recordings that contribute to this discourse have also been referenced for the purpose placing the literature in the context of the music itself. The range of recordings show that jazz artists are becoming more preoccupied with representaions of ethinicity and identity. The range of projects diversified to an increasing interest in global sounds.

Trumpeter Dave Douglas (1963-) explored Balkan traditional music in the Tiny Bell Trio, Indian music in Satya, and contemporary classical music in Parrallel Worlds.¹ Saxophonist John Zorn (1953-) created the Masada project, which feature different ensembles interpreting a range of “Jewish” inspired compositions. Kalmanovitch elaborates to suggest that representaions of ethnicity have become commonplace in modern jazz – non-black musicians creating jazz ‘projects’ where the compositions and performance style are often hybridised and cross-idiomatic rather than follow the path of mainstream jazz.

Further analyses of prominent American diasporic recording artists illustrate the concept of “identity jazz” even further. Indian-Americans Vijay Iyer (1971-) and Rudresh Manhanthappa (1971-) both explore their Indian heritage by using Karnatak elements as a means of organising relationships among instrumentalists and creating a multi-levelled, polyrhythmic environment.² Another important reference is Peurto Rican saxophonist and composer, Miguel Zenon (1976), who successfully forges his latino heritage with modern jazz compositional vocabulary and harmony.³

On musical reference texts, Ludmila Ulehla Contemporary Harmony: Romanticisim through the Twelve-Tone Row (1994) and Liebman’s A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody (1991) contain a gradual study of the increasing harmonic complexities in contemporary musical structure with an awareness of the relationship of root tones to their parent tonality.

The examples and concepts offered provide an excellent method for organising chromaticism and will be used throughout the duration of my course. Ron Miller”s Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony Vol.1 and Vol. 2 (1997) will also be consulted for the development of the chromatic-modal system and asymmetric form.

A survey of this material presents ideas for future analyses, particularly in the field of improvisation and jazz music pedagogy. A growing concern is the canonisation in jazz institutions, as well as ‘real book’ rote learning. Utilising this research will present ideas to address this issue.

This research places my compositions in a historical, political and social context, and serves as a case study of jazz in contact with the non-Western world and other non-jazz influences. This research through composition aims to provide an account of jazz’s international character and contribute to the body of work in jazz and its many hybrids. Ultimately, this account aims to contextualise my compositions and highlight important points of collaborative potential.

Conclusion

The literature surrounding my research through compostion encompasses many different aspects of hybridisation and identity. The challenge is to piece together a context for my own work and put it in a framework where I can verbalise what makes a work successful and why. The hybridisation of styles in jazz and creative music has yet to be addressed, and my portfolio and exogesis will deliver a discussion and exploration of these ideas. I hope to also outline the lack of literature in the field of improvisation and creative music, and make calls for further discussion on its potential for further practise and teaching around the world.

Reference List

Bailey D. Improvisation – its Nature and Practise in Music (Da Capo Press, Ashbourne, England, 1980)

Borgo, D. “Free Jazz in the Classroom: An Ecological Approach to Music Education” in Jazz Perspectives (Vol. 1, Issue 1, April 2007)

Boyd, A. “Landscape, Spirit and Music : An Australian Story” in The Soundscapes of Australia : Music, Place and Spirituality eds Richards, F. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, c2007)

Farrell, G, “Reflecting Surfaces: The Use of Elements from Indian Music in Popular Music and Jazz” in Popular Music, (Vol. 7, No. 2, The South Asia/West Crossover pg 189-205 May 1988)

Gendreau, I. F. Sound The Alarm: Politics, Music and Appropriation in Contemporary North American Afrobeat Thesis for Masters in Music (Tufts University, May 2009)

Grass, R. F. “Fela Anikulapo-Kuti: The Art of an Afrobeat Rebel” in The Drama Review: TDR, (Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 131-148 Spring, 1986)

Kalmanovitch, T. ‘Indo-Jazz Fusion’ : Jazz and Karnatak Music in Contact A Thesis for

Doctor of Philosophy (University of Alberta, Spring 2008)

Levy, C. “Diversifying the Groove: Bulgarian Folk Meets the Jazz Idiom” in Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies (Vol. 1, Issue 2, Art. #071202, pp. 25-42 fall 2007)

Liebman, D. A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody (Rottenburg, Advance Music, 1991)

Monson, I. “On Freedom: George Russell, John Coltrane, and Modal Jazz” in Nettle, B. and Russell M. eds. In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Improvisation (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1998)

Miller, R. Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony, Vol 1. and Vol 2. (Advance Music, Frankfurt, 1997)

Nettle, B. and Russell M. eds. In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Improvisation (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1998)

Nicholson, S. Is Jazz Dead? (Or Has it Moved to a New Address?) (New York: Routledge, 2005)

Nyman, M. Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond Second edition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1974)

Sawyer. K. “Improvisational Creativity: An Analysis of Jazz Performance” in Creativity Research Journal (Vol. 5, No. 3 pp. 253-263, 1992)

Strunk, S. “Notes on Harmony in Wayne Shorter’s Compositions, 1964-67” Journal of Music Theory, (Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 301-332 Fall, 2005)

Ulehla L. Contemporary Harmony: Romanticism through the Twelve-Tone Row (Rottenburge, Advance Music, 1994)

Völz, J. “Improvisation, Correlationm, and Vibration: An Interview with Steve Coleman” in Critical Studies in Improvisation (Vol 2, No. 1 2006)

Williams, L. “Emerging Composers” The Musical Times (Vol. 129, No. 1749, pp. 591-594 Nov., 1988)

Zorn, J. eds Arcana : Musicians on Music (Granary Books, New York, 2000)

Film:

Inception (2010) written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan, Warner Bros, United States.