The field of New Jazz Studies has emerged out of traditional modes of musicological inquiry, with an increasing number of scholars examining jazz as a discursive cultural practice. Drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives, New Jazz Studies has begun to promote a multiplicity of canons, exploring the overlapping and exchanges between different countries and cultural groups and challenging existing modes of understanding. Transnational Studies in Jazz presents cross-disciplinary and international perspectives on the relationship between jazz and its social, political, and cultural contexts.
While supporting ongoing research on American themes, artists and scenes, Transnational Studies in Jazz also seeks to develop understandings of jazz in different contexts, approaching the American influence - as well as the rejection of America - through analysis of international discourses and local scenes. Through US, UK and international contributors, jazz would be understood not only as a sonic form or subject of artistic expression and analysis but also as a key social and political agent in the development and exchange of culture.
By Noam Lemish
December 22, 2023
Transcultural Jazz: Israeli Musicians and Multi-Local Music Making studies jazz performance and composition through the examination of the transcultural practices of Israeli jazz musicians and their impact globally. An impressive number of Israeli jazz performers have received widespread exposure ...
By Pedro Cravinho
September 25, 2023
Encounters with Jazz on Television in Cold War Era Portugal: 1954–1974 explores the relationship between jazz and television by investigating the experiences of performers and producers in one of the last European colonial states (Portugal) during a period of political and social repression and ...
By Stan BH Tan-Tangbau, Lưu Quang Minh, Quyền Thiện Đắc
September 25, 2023
Jazz in Socialist Hà Nội: Improvisations between Worlds examines the germination and growth of jazz under communist rule—perceived as the "music of the enemy" and "ideologically decadent"—in the Vietnamese capital of Hà Nội. After disappearing from the scene in 1954 following the end of the First ...
By Mischa van Kan
September 25, 2023
Swedish Jazz in the United States: Swede and Cool traces and analyzes the dissemination and reception of jazz from Sweden in the United States during the period of 1947-1963. It maps the networks through which Swedish record companies exchanged recordings with their American counterparts, ...
By Heli Reimann
September 25, 2023
Tallinn ’67 Jazz Festival: Myths and Memories explores the legendary 1967 jazz gathering that centered Tallinn, Estonia as the jazz capital of the USSR and marked both the pinnacle of a Soviet jazz awakening as well as the end of a long series of evolutionary jazz festivals in Estonia. This study ...
By Walter van de Leur
May 12, 2023
Jazz and Death: Reception, Rituals, and Representations critically examines the myriad and complex interactions between jazz and death, from the New Orleans "jazz funeral" to jazz in heaven or hell, final recordings, jazz monuments, and the music’s own presumed death. It looks at how fans, critics,...
By Alan Stanbridge
March 30, 2023
Rhythm Changes: Jazz, Culture, Discourse explores the history and development of jazz, addressing the music, its makers, and its social and cultural contexts, as well as the various discourses – especially those of academic analysis and journalistic criticism – that have influenced its creation, ...
By Adiel Portugali
September 30, 2022
Based on interviews, conversations, and observations drawn from extensive field research, Jazz in Contemporary China: Shifting Sounds, Rising Scenes explores the current developments and conditions of Chinese jazz. Negotiating socio-political, cultural, and spatial phenomena, the author provides ...
By Marie Buscatto
December 31, 2021
Women in Jazz: Musicality, Femininity, Marginalization examines the invisible discrimination against female musicians in the French jazz world and the ways in which women thrive as professionals despite such conditions. The author shines a light on the paradox for women in jazz: to express oneself ...
By Petter Frost Fadnes
May 05, 2020
Jazz on the Line: Improvisation in Practice presents an ethnographic reflection on improvisation as performance, examining how musicians think and act when negotiating improvisational frameworks. This multidisciplinary discussion—guided by a focus on recordings, composition, authenticity, and ...
By Kristin McGee
December 13, 2019
Remixing European Jazz Culture examines a jazz culture that emerged in the 1990s in cosmopolitan cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, London, and Oslo – energised by the introduction of studio technologies into the live performance space, which has since developed into internationally ...
By Chris Tonelli
December 02, 2019
Voices Found: Free Jazz and Singing contributes to a wave of voice studies scholarship with the first book-length study of free jazz voice. It pieces together a history of free jazz voice that spans from sound poetry and scat in the 1950s to the more recent wave of free jazz choirs. The author ...