Jose Dias | Manchester Metropolitan University (original) (raw)
Chapters by Jose Dias
Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data, and COVID-19, 2022
This chapter considers how four festivals across the UK—Brecon Jazz Festival, Brilliant Corners i... more This chapter considers how four festivals across the UK—Brecon Jazz Festival, Brilliant Corners in Belfast, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, and Manchester Jazz Festival—have adapted their processes and practices in order to reimagine the jazz festival during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the emerging post-pandemic period. We explore challenges and opportunities through the virtual live music experience; the longevity of economic models developed during COVID-19; relationships with audiences, musicians and funders; and changes in the role of festivals and their teams. Building on our previous work, we maintain that the jazz scene is a particularly fragile and fragmentary element within the wider UK music industries. In the absence of certain useful infrastructure—such as agents and touring networks—many jazz musicians rely upon the festival circuit. This reliance became increasingly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when the cancellation of music festivals removed a large seasonal component of musicians’ annual income. We argue that the insights explored through this genre-specific example will offer general lessons for the UK music industries as they look towards a post-pandemic future.
Jazz-Hitz, 2020
Texture, time, and meaning: composing music for animation film and television through an improvis... more Texture, time, and meaning: composing music for animation film and television through an improviser's perspective Music is an essential and intrinsic part of educational television programmes. Jazz and improvised music have taken a very significant role in this process. Between 2007 and 2009, I was commissioned to compose music for a series of twenty-five short animation films, featured as segments of a children's educational programme for the Portuguese public channel, RTP. In this article I reflect upon my practice and challenge established notions of jazz canonicity, aesthetics and meaning in animation. Textura, tiempo y el significado: la composición de música para películas de anima-ción y televisión a través de la perspectiva de un improvisador La música es una parte esencial e intrínseca de los programas educativos de televisión. El jazz y la música improvisada han tenido un papel muy importante en este proceso. Entre 2007 y 2009, me encargaron componer música para una serie de 25 cortometrajes de animación, presentados como segmentos de un programa educativo para niños para el canal público portugués, RTP. En este artículo reflexiono sobre mi práctica y cuestiono las nociones establecidas de canonicidad, estética y significado del jazz en la animación. Palabras clave: jazz, improvisación, música para cine, animación, television. Testura, denbora eta esanahia: animazio filmeetarako eta telebistarako musika kon-posizioa inprobisatzaile baten ikuspuntutik Musika funtsezko eta berezko atala da telebistako hezkuntza-saioetan. Jazzak eta musika inprobisatuak oso eginkizun nabarmena hartu du prozesu honetan. 2007 eta 2009 urte bitartean RTP Portugalgo kate publikoan haurrentzat hezkuntza-saio baten atal gisa aurkezten ziren 25 animazio film laburrentzat musika egiteko enkargua jaso nuen. Artikulu honetan nire praktikaren inguruko hausnarketa egin eta animazioan jazzaren kanonizitateak, estetika eta esanahi nozioak zalantzan jartzen ditut. Gako-hitzak: jazza, inprobisazioa, filmentzat musika, animazioa, telebista.
Jazz in Europe is largely shaped by the mobility of its actors, and informed by both the experien... more Jazz in Europe is largely shaped by the mobility of its actors, and informed by both the experiences of actors on the ground and their projection of what European identity is or should be. The mobility provided for European Union Member States by the Schengen Area has exploded the ways in which Europeans perceive and collaborate with each other. Jazz musicians and promoters identify mobility as part of their practices. Contextual factors – such as easier accessibility to communication and mobility –contribute to reshaping the European jazz scene, by creating a new generation of jazz actors who seem more integrated within Europe and who more naturally develop collaborations with their counterparts from different countries. The official discourse of the EU often stresses the notion of 'Europeanness' as a set of fundamental abilities. Promoting mobility of its citizens is a key aspect to ultimately inform the notion of a Pan-European ideal. However, contrasts between European counties, such as geographical and economic peripherality and centrality, and differentiated cultural and education policies, still stand as significant challenges to those who operate in the field. The fact that mobility opportunities for artists across Europe are still irregular raises a number of questions around music practices, identity, aesthetics, and the role of the different actors within the ecology of jazz in Europe.
Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival 1 opens calls for young European artists... more Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival 1 opens calls for young European artists. Although jazz has been peripheral to the official rhetoric of the European Union, the Festival promotes debates with the various jazz sectors around the state of jazz in the context of cultural production in Europe; and while Dublin has been peripheral to the European jazz scene, the festival has grown to stand as a symbol of the Irish will to be at its core. Drawing from my three‐year research experience with 12 Points — from 2011 to 2014 — and with the network of actors around it, I suggest that jazz is created and reinvented in the process of its dissemination and practice, and that jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them. In the narratives around jazz produced by its actors, both jazz and Europe are featured mainly in their ideal interpretations, with common values of cultural diversity, mobility and of a pan‐European reality. 'Jazz' and 'Europe' serve as white canvases where the diversified notions of what both ideals of what jazz and Europe should or could be are projected.
Articles by Jose Dias
First Monday, vol. 19, n. 10 - Napster, 15 years on: Rethinking digital music distribution - Special issue, Oct 6, 2014
Those that create, promote and disseminate jazz are experiencing a period of radical change. The ... more Those that create, promote and disseminate jazz are experiencing a period of radical change. The dwindling interest from the major labels in releasing jazz has led to a mushrooming of both traditionally imagined and virtual independent jazz labels, often musician-led by individuals or collectives. Despite the ‘democratised’ potentials of digital dissemination made possible through third party vendors and streaming services such as iTunes and Spotify, modest or non-existent advertising budgets and lack of coherent marketing strategies often result in independent releases being drowned in the noise of an overcrowded marketplace. Financial returns from limited sales are also modest. The commercial underpinning that in previous times afforded the jazz musician both potential apprenticeship and métier has become fractured through increasing scarcity of record company and private/public funding. Against this black backdrop, musicians have engaged in new ways of disseminating their work. DIY strategies, such as free download netlabels or interactive app-albums, have become increasingly commonplace. Fresh approaches — the need for which are highlighted in this article with reference to the European jazz scene — indicate how musicians are networking informally, often with little or no institutional support. This paper highlights to what extent market realignments have prompted individual and collective creative responses to current difficulties associated with the promotion of jazz music.
In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive... more In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive roles. If the first is an inescapable reference for understanding what Portuguese Cinema Novo (New Cinema) was and what kind of artistic rupture was taking place in the 1960’s in Portugal, the second also marks a breakup from former Portuguese film-making and a rapprochement to broader film audiences. The fact that both films have jazz music as soundtracks comes not just as chance, but as a relevant circumstance. Both films and their music form a wealth of information about Portuguese society and its jazz community at two different times: in the sixties under Salazar’s dictatorial Estado Novo regime; and in the beginning of the 21st century as a full member of the European Union.
Thesis by Jose Dias
[português] Esta dissertação centra-se na análise da relação entre o jazz e a sociedade portugue... more [português]
Esta dissertação centra-se na análise da relação entre o jazz e a sociedade portuguesa, partindo da etnografia de um sistema de ensino na tradição do jazz, enquanto parte de uma realidade que é o jazz em Portugal. Observa-se aqui se o jazz em Portugal constitui uma rede social, de que forma se organiza, de que forma interagem os agentes dessa rede e se esses processos de interacção, em duas escolas de jazz de Lisboa (JBJazz e Curso Superior de Jazz e Música Moderna – Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa), podem constituir uma metáfora válida para o exercício positivo da cidadania.
[English]
This essay is focused on the connection between jazz and the Portuguese society, starting from the ethnography of a jazz tradition teaching system while part of the reality that jazz is in Portugal. It is analysed in this thesis if jazz in Portugal works as a social network, how does it organise itself, in what way do the agents of that network interact and if these processes of interaction in two Lisbon jazz schools (JBJazz and Curso Superior de Jazz e Música Moderna – Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa) can build a valid and significant metaphor for the positive exercise of citizenship within society.
Papers by Jose Dias
Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival opens calls for young European artists. ... more Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival opens calls for young European artists. Although jazz has been peripheral to the official rhetoric of the European Union, the Festival promotes debates with the various jazz sectors around the state of jazz in the context of cultural production in Europe; and while Dublin has been peripheral to the European jazz scene, the festival has grown to stand as a symbol of the Irish will to be at its core. Drawing from my three‐year research experience with 12 Points — from 2011 to 2014 — and with the network of actors around it, I suggest that jazz is created and reinvented in the process of its dissemination and practice, and that jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them. In the narratives around jazz produced by its actors, both jazz and Europe are featured mainly in their ideal interpretations, with common ...
Jazz in Europe, 2019
Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it ... more Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it happen 'on the ground'? What challenges do they have to face? Jazz is a part of the cultural fabric of many of the European countries. Jazz in Europe: Networking and Negotiating Identities presents jazz in Europe as a complex arena, where the very notions of cultural identity, jazz practices and Europe are continually being negotiated against an ever changing social, cultural, political and economic environment. The book gives voice to musicians, promoters, festival directors, educators and researchers regarding the challenges they are faced with in their everyday practices. Jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them, as if 'Jazz' and 'Europe' were white canvases where diversified notions of what jazz and Europe should or could be are projected.
Musicologia Global Musicologia Local 2013 Isbn 978 84 86878 31 3 Pags 939 948, 2013
Quaderns de Cine, 2014
In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive... more In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive roles. If the first is an inescapable reference for understanding what Portuguese Cinema Novo (New Cinema) was and what kind of artistic rupture was taking place in the 1960's in Portugal, the second also marks a breakup from former Portuguese film-making and a rapprochement to broader film audiences. The fact that both films have jazz music as soundtracks comes not just as chance, but as a relevant circumstance. Both films and their music form a wealth of information about Portuguese society and its jazz community at two different times: in the sixties under Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime; and in the beginning of the 21 st century as a full member of the European Union. Belarmino, released in 1964 1 , is the first feature film by Fernando Lopes, who had previously worked on cinema and TV. 2 The film's narrative explores the life and the imagination of Portuguese former amateur light middleweight boxer Belarmino Fragoso, who became a Lisbon minor celebrity at the late 1950's and early 1960's. Belarmino is a documentary with some fictional ingredients, since the action is based on a verbal testimony from the main character (non-actor), which interprets and re-interprets himself as a boxer. The film is a 'hybrid between documentary and fiction' (Areal, 2012:399) and a good example of how, 'in documentaries, the complex relationship between fiction, nonfiction and documentary as categories overlap' (Ward, 2005:31). More than a biographic tour on the life of a former Portuguese boxer, it takes
Enquadramento teórico e metodológico-Music is a cultural system, an intercontextualized weave of ... more Enquadramento teórico e metodológico-Music is a cultural system, an intercontextualized weave of conceptual representations, actions and reactions, ideas and feelings, sounds and meanings, values and structures.‖ (Kingsbury, 1988: 179) Este estudo parte do pressuposto teórico de que a música é um sistema social. A músicana acepção de Kingsbury, enquanto sistema que congrega uma rede de agentes, conceitos, sons e valoresé, de facto, um sistema social dentro da sociedade lato sensu. Aliás, a abordagem de Kingsbury em Music, Talent, and Performance: a conservatory cultural system a uma escola de músicaa um conservatórioserve aqui como modelo basilar, não só enquanto referente teórico, mas também metodológico, e parte deste ponto: a interacção social é determinante na estruturação deste conceito de música. ‖Musical structures…can be understood as both medium and result of meaningful social interaction.‖ (1988: 108) A própria observação das regras formais que enformam a música pode apenas fazer-se através da análise de como essas regras se manifestam nas suas contínuas negociações nos vários contextos sociais.-Music does have formal rules; however, these rules are not applied formally. Rather, they are negotiated, invoked, and appealed to in various social contexts. Musical forms are continually transmuted by social forms.‖ (1988: 179) Por isso, o estudo da música enquanto sistema social leva à conclusão que os valores que lhe concedem sentido e que a estruturam são valores sociais, porque são produto e produtores de sentido e estrutura social. Para Kingsbury, o significado musical é um significado social.-Social relations are integral to the meaning of musical performance. Musical meaning is both product and producer of structures of social power relationships. Musical performance (including in this the social relations obtaining in performance situation: relations of power), musical meaning, and Playing Outside: Jazz e Sociedade em Portugal na perspectiva duas escolas | José Dias FCSH-UNL | 2010 10 musical structure are linked in a nexus in which each aspect is both product and producer of the others.‖ (1988: 109-110) A música congrega à sua volta um conjunto de pessoas e o acto de fazer músicade produzir somé apenas uma das várias vertentes dessa reunião. Nesta investigação, procurarei averiguar se, nas escolas de jazz observadas, o acto de fazer música pode ser, acima de tudo, um pretexto para o convívio, a promoção social e a realização pessoal dos seus agentes. O significado social da prática musical, na perspectiva de um grande grupo social, é abordado por Ruth Finnegan (1989), em Hidden Musicians: music-making in an English town. A propósito da importância das instituições musicais, a autora testemunha:-In society people make use of the established institutions and symbols in an almost infinite number of directions to suit their own circumstances and aspirations.‖ (1989:238) Neste estudo sobre o jazz em Portugal, questiono os objectivos dos alunos que frequentam as escolas. Não sendo um deles a obtenção de um grau académico, que outros poderão existir? Segundo Finnegan:-Some patterns are especially prominent. One is the element of sociability. This runs trough musical practice. People are moved not just by the love of music but also by the desire to be with their acquaintances, friends, teachers, peers, colleagues, relatives, and enjoy the whole social side of engaging in musical pursuits along with other people and with their approbation. The established musical pathways kept in being by hundreds and thousands of people are vehicles not just for music but for the powerful human desire for social intercourse.‖ (1989: 328) De acordo com Adorno, em Teoria Estética, a música vive da inter-relação entre produção e recepção (1970: 256). No jazz, a fronteira entre produção e recepção esbate-se constantemente, pois, numa jam session 5 , por exemplo, quem assiste é convidado a tocar e quem toca a assistir rotativamente. Da mesma forma, num concerto de jazz, o públicoa sua recepção, as suas palmas ou incentivo a quem solaé determinante para a performance e parte dela. Aliás, segundo Francisco Cruces, o estudo da música urbanacomo é o caso do jazzpressupõe-que ésta constituye una trama de interacciones y diálogos, de oposiciones y exclusiones, de
Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation
This article is a reflection of a collaboration between musicians Anton Hunter and José Dias who,... more This article is a reflection of a collaboration between musicians Anton Hunter and José Dias who, in April 2020, organised a free, biweekly improvisation streaming festival, which ran for three weeks, entitled The Noise Indoors (TNI). Devised as a way of encouraging musicians and fans to stay home by providing the chance to continue experiencing and celebrating improvised music during confinement, TNI gathered twenty-eight artists based in seventeen cities across Europe who filmed solo or duet performances in their homes. As TNI progressed, this festival became a platform for sharing each artist’s intimate music-making, as well as an opportunity for networking and community building. In this article, using an eclectic mix of critical and dialogic writing styles (including field notes and text messages), they reflect on their experiences as researchers, musicians, and curators who organised and participated in TNI, and the potential wider implications of this.
The present economic downturn has led the European Union to question itself as a viable political... more The present economic downturn has led the European Union to question itself as a viable political, economic and cultural entity. Peripheral countries struggle with the lack of governmental funding. Music, like other art forms, is undercut to favor other priorities. In the midst of this crisis, some jazz musicians are networking and generating new transnational ensembles in order to optimize resources: broader audiences, performing opportunities and EU subsidy. Also, several EU official organizations and independent producers are endorsing jazz venues as a way to promote a common multicultural European identity, and jazz – a non-European music tradition – as a pan-European musical genre.
At the same time, musicians’ websites, P2P music sharing and free download labels are changing the way musicians and audiences relate.
This paper brings two examples: the 12 Points Jazz Festival and Sintoma Records. The first is an Ireland-based production that works as an annual itinerant showcase for 12 ensembles, each one from a different European country. The second is an independent free download label, created by a group of Portuguese jazz musicians. Both cases aim collaboration between musicians and the dissemination of their music beyond national borders.
This research seeks an insight into contemporary Europe through music. It questions how jazz, as a social practices network (Berliner 1994; Monson 2009), may be contributing to cultural production (Bourdieu 1993; Sassatelli 2009). To what extent can jazz be part of a European development, modernity, globalization and culture as structure model (Giddens 1993)? What is the role of jazz music on the delicate balance between local and global (Mayrowitz 1986; Marcus 1995; Appadurai 2001), place and non-place (Augé 1995), and praxis and discourse in Europe (Leitner 2004)?
Is Europe local or global? Throughout the course of my ongoing research on jazz in Europe as soci... more Is Europe local or global? Throughout the course of my ongoing research on jazz in Europe as social and musical network, this question emerges daily. On one hand in order to understand what European jazz really is, one must take Europe as a whole. On the other hand, once we step on such a vast field, it quickly becomes obvious how diverse Europe is. It seems to consist of a paradox: it shares a common cultural heritage, but, at the same time, it has been made of cultural variety (Bohlman 2002).
If Europe has been built as a cultural network, in which cities from various countries stand as its knots (Sassatelli 2009), could those local spaces come to be “non-spaces” (Augé, 1995), in the sense that they lose their local elements and become more and more similar to each other? What really differs between a jazz club in Amsterdam and Barcelona, Dublin or Athens? If people increasingly share information with and about others who live in different localities (Meyrowitz 2005), what is there, in the music they make, of local elements?
This paper debates to what extent “glocality” (Meyrowitz), “multi-sited ethnography (Marcus 1995), “ethnography from below” (Appadurai 2001) and “thick description” (Geertz 1973) can become useful notions and methods before a globalized fieldwork: Europe as an ever changing political, cultural, social and economic space.
In Portugal, almost forty years after the democratic revolution of 1974, there is a recent phenom... more In Portugal, almost forty years after the democratic revolution of 1974, there is a recent phenomenon of flourishing jazz schools throughout the country. These schools offer a new music education system and the possibility, until now restricted for many, to learn music. This development is seen by students and teachers as a democratization of music education. Both learning and performing jazz are perceived as ways to exercise democratic citizenship. At the same time, there’s been an increment of a considerable number of jazz festivals, clubs, record labels, higher education courses, as well as growing audiences and emergent performing musicians.
This paper deals with three intertwined processes of performance: pre, during and post jazz performance in Portugal. As to pre-performance, the focus is on learning music in jazz schools: how the musical discourse can become social and political, how power relations occur within school members, how musical experience can become a more relevant and determinant hierarchy factor than the social background, and how some of the processes of building an individual, national and European musical identity take place. As to during performance, the main emphasis is on performing jazz: how the performance works as a set for affirming individual and group musical identity, what kind of negotiations take place between soloist and ensemble, and between performers and audiences. Finally, as to post-performance, the paper stresses the notion that this proliferation of jazz venues can shape the way promoters, critics and audiences can contemplate Portuguese jazz as a form of national culture, and as a way of integration into Europe as a cultural whole.
"Em 2001, começa a surgir em Portugal um número considerável de escolas de jazz. Se de 1979 até a... more "Em 2001, começa a surgir em Portugal um número considerável de escolas de jazz. Se de 1979 até aí apenas uma escola desenvolveu actividade regular – o Hot Clube de Portugal –, em 2010 o país contava com 22 escolas, 4 das quais superiores. Esta nova oferta veio criar a possibilidade de aprender música fora do modelo de conservatório, revelando-se uma forma privilegiada de experimentar a improvisação musical e, pela sua dinâmica performativa, uma metáfora para o exercício da cidadania democrática (Dias 2010).
Esta comunicação é fruto da investigação levada a cabo entre 2008 e 2010, que culminou na dissertação de mestrado “Playing Outside: jazz e sociedade em Portugal na perspectiva de duas escolas”, na Universidade Nova de Lisboa, e que se debruçou sobre o fenómeno recente e emergente do ensino de jazz pelo país. O estudo questiona em que medida a prática musical pode ser considerada uma prática também social e política (Finnegan 1989), observa como os processos de hierarquização musical podem ser distintos e semelhantes aos de hierarquização social e analisa alguns dos mecanismos de construção de identidade musical, individual e social (Kingsbury 1988).
O trabalho de campo acompanhou o dia-a-dia de duas escolas: a JBJazz e o Curso Superior em Jazz e Música Moderna da Universidade Lusíada. Em ambas as instituições, foi feita uma observação directa das aulas e aplicados questionários a alunos e professores. Em ambos os casos é notória a noção de que o ensino do jazz pode proporcionar uma experiência de cidadania democrática. Na própria génese do jazz estão valores profundamente democráticos, como a partilha e a negociação. A dinâmica rotativa de solos em torno de uma estrutura harmónica flexível serviu, em muitos dos casos observados, como uma metáfora para a partilha e negociação de pontos de vista numa sociedade democratizada (Berliner 1994, Monson 2009).
Da mesma forma, o jazz revelou ser uma forma de aprendizagem da música em que a sociabilização e a noção de pertença a um grupo social de interesses e gostos comuns são relevantes. Mais: a aprendizagem da música tem, na maior parte dos casos, uma função recreativa, para além da formativa e profissionalizante.
O estudo observa um fenómeno emergente na sociedade portuguesa e, de certa forma, traz à luz o desejo de muitos amantes de música de a experimentar e de a tornarem parte da sua vida quotidiana. Advogados, médicos, estudantes universitários e donos de cafés partilham, num mesmo palco, a sua paixão pela música e a sua reverência por nomes míticos do jazz, arrastando famílias e amigos nesse processo.
Passadas mais de três décadas sobre o 25 de Abril, o associativismo na e pela música é um dos reflexos de uma sociedade democratizada que se aproxima, cada vez mais, das dos seus parceiros comunitários europeus, em que a música está presente na vida do cidadão comum (Sassatelli 2009).
O olhar sobre o ensino do jazz em Portugal pode ajudar-nos a compreender, de outra forma, a sociedade portuguesa contemporânea."
In 2001, a considerable number of jazz schools start emerging in Portugal. Until 1979 only one school established activity – the Hot Club of Portugal –, but in 2010 the country already had 22 schools, four of which superiors. This new offering has created the opportunity to learn music outside the conservatory model, and revealing itself as a privileged way to experience musical improvisation and, by its performative dynamics, a metaphor for the exercise of democratic citizenship (Dias 2010).
This communication is the result of a research carried out between 2008 and 2010, culminating in the dissertation "Playing Outside: jazz in Portugal and society from the perspective of two schools," at the Universidade Nova de Lisbon, and which focused on the recent phenomenon of emerging jazz education in the country. The study questions to what extent musical practice can also be considered a social and political practice (Finnegan 1989), notes how the processes of musical hierarchy can be different and similar to social hierarchies and examines some of the mechanisms of musical, individual, and social identity construction (Kingsbury 1988).
The fieldwork followed the day-to-day life of two schools: the JBJazz and the Undergraduate students of Jazz and Modern Music at the Universidade Lusíada, with direct observation of classes and applied questionnaires to students and teachers, in both institutions. In both cases it is evident the notion that the jazz teaching can provide an experience of democratic citizenship. At the genesis of jazz there are profoundly democratic values, such as sharing and negotiating. The rotational dynamics of solos around a flexible harmonic structure served, in many cases, as a metaphor for sharing and negotiation points of views in a democratized society (Berliner 1994, Monson 2009).
Likewise, jazz has proven to be a way of learning music, where socialization and a sense of belonging to a social group of common interests and tastes are relevant. Learning music has, in most cases, a recreational function in addition to professional training.
The study observes an emerging phenomenon in the Portuguese society and, in a way, brings to light the desire of many music lovers to experience it and male it a part of their daily lives. Lawyers, doctors, college students and cafe owners share on the same stage their passion for music and their reverence for mythical jazz heroes, bringing families and friends to that process.
After more than three decades over the 1974 democratic revolution, associating with others by the music is a reflection of a democratized society that keeps pending, more and more, towards its European Community partners (Sassatelli 2009).
Focusing on jazz teaching in Portugal can help us understand the contemporary Portuguese society.
"Em Portugal, quase 40 anos depois da revolução democrática de 1974, assiste-se ao recente fenóme... more "Em Portugal, quase 40 anos depois da revolução democrática de 1974, assiste-se ao recente fenómeno de multiplicação de escolas de jazz por todo o país. Estas escolas oferecem um novo sistema de ensino da música e a possibilidade, até agora restrita para muitos, de aprender música. Este desenvolvimento é visto pelos alunos e professores como uma democratização do ensino de música e a aprendizagem do jazz e a sua performance são entendidos como formas de exercício da cidadania democrática. Ao mesmo tempo, houve o incremento de um número considerável de festivais de jazz, clubes, gravadoras, cursos de educação superior, bem como uma emergência de novos
públicos e de músicos.
Esta comunicação aborda alguns dos processos de pré-performance de jazz em Portugal, focando-se, essencialmente, no ensino de música nas escolas de jazz: questiona de que forma pode o discurso musical tornar-se social e político; observa-se como se podem desenvolver relações de poder entre membros duma escola; argumenta em que medida a experiência musical se pode tornar um factor de hierarquia mais relevante e determinante do que a origem social; e examina como sucedem alguns dos processos de construção de uma identidade musical, individual, nacional e europeia."
"Before its democratic revolution, that took place in April of 1974, Portugal didn’t have a jazz ... more "Before its democratic revolution, that took place in April of 1974, Portugal didn’t have a jazz community. Jazz was reduced to the likes of a small minority, an elite of academic students, that exchange vinyl records and attended to sporadic concerts in a very small room in Lisbon – Hot Clube de Portugal. It was just recently, by the beginnings of the 2000 decade, that a social network around jazz began to emerge.
Today, Portugal has over 22 jazz schools, 4 undergraduate and 2 graduate jazz courses, over 12 jazz festivals, 3 jazz record labels, and an increasing public.
In this paper, I analyze the Portuguese jazz community as part of the young Portuguese democratic society, in the sense that this musical and social network may be, in one hand, the result of a new and larger social structure – a multicultural, dialoging,
constantly questioning, and autonomous society –, and in the other hand, may represent a dynamic drive for exchanging musical, cultural and social practices with other European and World partners. And in that sense, the Portuguese jazz community may be both a contributive and recipient part of a new Portuguese national identity."
Talks by Jose Dias
Jazz is often portrayed as a pantheon of heroes who stand out as extraordinary individual artists... more Jazz is often portrayed as a pantheon of heroes who stand out as extraordinary individual artists. 'Those Who Make it Happen' challenges this traditional concept and observes the phenomenon of Portuguese jazz as the result of a collective effort and commitment that mobilises not only artists, but also promoters, associations, audiences, researchers and a multitude of different agents. Without them – without all those who make it happen – jazz would not exist.
The short documentary film captures a turning point in Portuguese jazz, where the boundaries of personal, national and pan-European identities are being questioned.
Shot in Lisbon in early 2016, 'Those Who Make it Happen' features the testimonies of musicians, promoters and researchers who think about jazz in Portugal in its artistic, pedagogical, performative, social and political dimensions.
Rethinking the Music Business: Music Contexts, Rights, Data, and COVID-19, 2022
This chapter considers how four festivals across the UK—Brecon Jazz Festival, Brilliant Corners i... more This chapter considers how four festivals across the UK—Brecon Jazz Festival, Brilliant Corners in Belfast, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, and Manchester Jazz Festival—have adapted their processes and practices in order to reimagine the jazz festival during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the emerging post-pandemic period. We explore challenges and opportunities through the virtual live music experience; the longevity of economic models developed during COVID-19; relationships with audiences, musicians and funders; and changes in the role of festivals and their teams. Building on our previous work, we maintain that the jazz scene is a particularly fragile and fragmentary element within the wider UK music industries. In the absence of certain useful infrastructure—such as agents and touring networks—many jazz musicians rely upon the festival circuit. This reliance became increasingly apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic when the cancellation of music festivals removed a large seasonal component of musicians’ annual income. We argue that the insights explored through this genre-specific example will offer general lessons for the UK music industries as they look towards a post-pandemic future.
Jazz-Hitz, 2020
Texture, time, and meaning: composing music for animation film and television through an improvis... more Texture, time, and meaning: composing music for animation film and television through an improviser's perspective Music is an essential and intrinsic part of educational television programmes. Jazz and improvised music have taken a very significant role in this process. Between 2007 and 2009, I was commissioned to compose music for a series of twenty-five short animation films, featured as segments of a children's educational programme for the Portuguese public channel, RTP. In this article I reflect upon my practice and challenge established notions of jazz canonicity, aesthetics and meaning in animation. Textura, tiempo y el significado: la composición de música para películas de anima-ción y televisión a través de la perspectiva de un improvisador La música es una parte esencial e intrínseca de los programas educativos de televisión. El jazz y la música improvisada han tenido un papel muy importante en este proceso. Entre 2007 y 2009, me encargaron componer música para una serie de 25 cortometrajes de animación, presentados como segmentos de un programa educativo para niños para el canal público portugués, RTP. En este artículo reflexiono sobre mi práctica y cuestiono las nociones establecidas de canonicidad, estética y significado del jazz en la animación. Palabras clave: jazz, improvisación, música para cine, animación, television. Testura, denbora eta esanahia: animazio filmeetarako eta telebistarako musika kon-posizioa inprobisatzaile baten ikuspuntutik Musika funtsezko eta berezko atala da telebistako hezkuntza-saioetan. Jazzak eta musika inprobisatuak oso eginkizun nabarmena hartu du prozesu honetan. 2007 eta 2009 urte bitartean RTP Portugalgo kate publikoan haurrentzat hezkuntza-saio baten atal gisa aurkezten ziren 25 animazio film laburrentzat musika egiteko enkargua jaso nuen. Artikulu honetan nire praktikaren inguruko hausnarketa egin eta animazioan jazzaren kanonizitateak, estetika eta esanahi nozioak zalantzan jartzen ditut. Gako-hitzak: jazza, inprobisazioa, filmentzat musika, animazioa, telebista.
Jazz in Europe is largely shaped by the mobility of its actors, and informed by both the experien... more Jazz in Europe is largely shaped by the mobility of its actors, and informed by both the experiences of actors on the ground and their projection of what European identity is or should be. The mobility provided for European Union Member States by the Schengen Area has exploded the ways in which Europeans perceive and collaborate with each other. Jazz musicians and promoters identify mobility as part of their practices. Contextual factors – such as easier accessibility to communication and mobility –contribute to reshaping the European jazz scene, by creating a new generation of jazz actors who seem more integrated within Europe and who more naturally develop collaborations with their counterparts from different countries. The official discourse of the EU often stresses the notion of 'Europeanness' as a set of fundamental abilities. Promoting mobility of its citizens is a key aspect to ultimately inform the notion of a Pan-European ideal. However, contrasts between European counties, such as geographical and economic peripherality and centrality, and differentiated cultural and education policies, still stand as significant challenges to those who operate in the field. The fact that mobility opportunities for artists across Europe are still irregular raises a number of questions around music practices, identity, aesthetics, and the role of the different actors within the ecology of jazz in Europe.
Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival 1 opens calls for young European artists... more Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival 1 opens calls for young European artists. Although jazz has been peripheral to the official rhetoric of the European Union, the Festival promotes debates with the various jazz sectors around the state of jazz in the context of cultural production in Europe; and while Dublin has been peripheral to the European jazz scene, the festival has grown to stand as a symbol of the Irish will to be at its core. Drawing from my three‐year research experience with 12 Points — from 2011 to 2014 — and with the network of actors around it, I suggest that jazz is created and reinvented in the process of its dissemination and practice, and that jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them. In the narratives around jazz produced by its actors, both jazz and Europe are featured mainly in their ideal interpretations, with common values of cultural diversity, mobility and of a pan‐European reality. 'Jazz' and 'Europe' serve as white canvases where the diversified notions of what both ideals of what jazz and Europe should or could be are projected.
First Monday, vol. 19, n. 10 - Napster, 15 years on: Rethinking digital music distribution - Special issue, Oct 6, 2014
Those that create, promote and disseminate jazz are experiencing a period of radical change. The ... more Those that create, promote and disseminate jazz are experiencing a period of radical change. The dwindling interest from the major labels in releasing jazz has led to a mushrooming of both traditionally imagined and virtual independent jazz labels, often musician-led by individuals or collectives. Despite the ‘democratised’ potentials of digital dissemination made possible through third party vendors and streaming services such as iTunes and Spotify, modest or non-existent advertising budgets and lack of coherent marketing strategies often result in independent releases being drowned in the noise of an overcrowded marketplace. Financial returns from limited sales are also modest. The commercial underpinning that in previous times afforded the jazz musician both potential apprenticeship and métier has become fractured through increasing scarcity of record company and private/public funding. Against this black backdrop, musicians have engaged in new ways of disseminating their work. DIY strategies, such as free download netlabels or interactive app-albums, have become increasingly commonplace. Fresh approaches — the need for which are highlighted in this article with reference to the European jazz scene — indicate how musicians are networking informally, often with little or no institutional support. This paper highlights to what extent market realignments have prompted individual and collective creative responses to current difficulties associated with the promotion of jazz music.
In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive... more In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive roles. If the first is an inescapable reference for understanding what Portuguese Cinema Novo (New Cinema) was and what kind of artistic rupture was taking place in the 1960’s in Portugal, the second also marks a breakup from former Portuguese film-making and a rapprochement to broader film audiences. The fact that both films have jazz music as soundtracks comes not just as chance, but as a relevant circumstance. Both films and their music form a wealth of information about Portuguese society and its jazz community at two different times: in the sixties under Salazar’s dictatorial Estado Novo regime; and in the beginning of the 21st century as a full member of the European Union.
[português] Esta dissertação centra-se na análise da relação entre o jazz e a sociedade portugue... more [português]
Esta dissertação centra-se na análise da relação entre o jazz e a sociedade portuguesa, partindo da etnografia de um sistema de ensino na tradição do jazz, enquanto parte de uma realidade que é o jazz em Portugal. Observa-se aqui se o jazz em Portugal constitui uma rede social, de que forma se organiza, de que forma interagem os agentes dessa rede e se esses processos de interacção, em duas escolas de jazz de Lisboa (JBJazz e Curso Superior de Jazz e Música Moderna – Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa), podem constituir uma metáfora válida para o exercício positivo da cidadania.
[English]
This essay is focused on the connection between jazz and the Portuguese society, starting from the ethnography of a jazz tradition teaching system while part of the reality that jazz is in Portugal. It is analysed in this thesis if jazz in Portugal works as a social network, how does it organise itself, in what way do the agents of that network interact and if these processes of interaction in two Lisbon jazz schools (JBJazz and Curso Superior de Jazz e Música Moderna – Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa) can build a valid and significant metaphor for the positive exercise of citizenship within society.
Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival opens calls for young European artists. ... more Each year, Dublin based 12 Points European Jazz Festival opens calls for young European artists. Although jazz has been peripheral to the official rhetoric of the European Union, the Festival promotes debates with the various jazz sectors around the state of jazz in the context of cultural production in Europe; and while Dublin has been peripheral to the European jazz scene, the festival has grown to stand as a symbol of the Irish will to be at its core. Drawing from my three‐year research experience with 12 Points — from 2011 to 2014 — and with the network of actors around it, I suggest that jazz is created and reinvented in the process of its dissemination and practice, and that jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them. In the narratives around jazz produced by its actors, both jazz and Europe are featured mainly in their ideal interpretations, with common ...
Jazz in Europe, 2019
Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it ... more Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it happen 'on the ground'? What challenges do they have to face? Jazz is a part of the cultural fabric of many of the European countries. Jazz in Europe: Networking and Negotiating Identities presents jazz in Europe as a complex arena, where the very notions of cultural identity, jazz practices and Europe are continually being negotiated against an ever changing social, cultural, political and economic environment. The book gives voice to musicians, promoters, festival directors, educators and researchers regarding the challenges they are faced with in their everyday practices. Jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them, as if 'Jazz' and 'Europe' were white canvases where diversified notions of what jazz and Europe should or could be are projected.
Musicologia Global Musicologia Local 2013 Isbn 978 84 86878 31 3 Pags 939 948, 2013
Quaderns de Cine, 2014
In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive... more In a wide perspective over the history of Portuguese film, both Belarmino and Alice play decisive roles. If the first is an inescapable reference for understanding what Portuguese Cinema Novo (New Cinema) was and what kind of artistic rupture was taking place in the 1960's in Portugal, the second also marks a breakup from former Portuguese film-making and a rapprochement to broader film audiences. The fact that both films have jazz music as soundtracks comes not just as chance, but as a relevant circumstance. Both films and their music form a wealth of information about Portuguese society and its jazz community at two different times: in the sixties under Salazar's dictatorial Estado Novo regime; and in the beginning of the 21 st century as a full member of the European Union. Belarmino, released in 1964 1 , is the first feature film by Fernando Lopes, who had previously worked on cinema and TV. 2 The film's narrative explores the life and the imagination of Portuguese former amateur light middleweight boxer Belarmino Fragoso, who became a Lisbon minor celebrity at the late 1950's and early 1960's. Belarmino is a documentary with some fictional ingredients, since the action is based on a verbal testimony from the main character (non-actor), which interprets and re-interprets himself as a boxer. The film is a 'hybrid between documentary and fiction' (Areal, 2012:399) and a good example of how, 'in documentaries, the complex relationship between fiction, nonfiction and documentary as categories overlap' (Ward, 2005:31). More than a biographic tour on the life of a former Portuguese boxer, it takes
Enquadramento teórico e metodológico-Music is a cultural system, an intercontextualized weave of ... more Enquadramento teórico e metodológico-Music is a cultural system, an intercontextualized weave of conceptual representations, actions and reactions, ideas and feelings, sounds and meanings, values and structures.‖ (Kingsbury, 1988: 179) Este estudo parte do pressuposto teórico de que a música é um sistema social. A músicana acepção de Kingsbury, enquanto sistema que congrega uma rede de agentes, conceitos, sons e valoresé, de facto, um sistema social dentro da sociedade lato sensu. Aliás, a abordagem de Kingsbury em Music, Talent, and Performance: a conservatory cultural system a uma escola de músicaa um conservatórioserve aqui como modelo basilar, não só enquanto referente teórico, mas também metodológico, e parte deste ponto: a interacção social é determinante na estruturação deste conceito de música. ‖Musical structures…can be understood as both medium and result of meaningful social interaction.‖ (1988: 108) A própria observação das regras formais que enformam a música pode apenas fazer-se através da análise de como essas regras se manifestam nas suas contínuas negociações nos vários contextos sociais.-Music does have formal rules; however, these rules are not applied formally. Rather, they are negotiated, invoked, and appealed to in various social contexts. Musical forms are continually transmuted by social forms.‖ (1988: 179) Por isso, o estudo da música enquanto sistema social leva à conclusão que os valores que lhe concedem sentido e que a estruturam são valores sociais, porque são produto e produtores de sentido e estrutura social. Para Kingsbury, o significado musical é um significado social.-Social relations are integral to the meaning of musical performance. Musical meaning is both product and producer of structures of social power relationships. Musical performance (including in this the social relations obtaining in performance situation: relations of power), musical meaning, and Playing Outside: Jazz e Sociedade em Portugal na perspectiva duas escolas | José Dias FCSH-UNL | 2010 10 musical structure are linked in a nexus in which each aspect is both product and producer of the others.‖ (1988: 109-110) A música congrega à sua volta um conjunto de pessoas e o acto de fazer músicade produzir somé apenas uma das várias vertentes dessa reunião. Nesta investigação, procurarei averiguar se, nas escolas de jazz observadas, o acto de fazer música pode ser, acima de tudo, um pretexto para o convívio, a promoção social e a realização pessoal dos seus agentes. O significado social da prática musical, na perspectiva de um grande grupo social, é abordado por Ruth Finnegan (1989), em Hidden Musicians: music-making in an English town. A propósito da importância das instituições musicais, a autora testemunha:-In society people make use of the established institutions and symbols in an almost infinite number of directions to suit their own circumstances and aspirations.‖ (1989:238) Neste estudo sobre o jazz em Portugal, questiono os objectivos dos alunos que frequentam as escolas. Não sendo um deles a obtenção de um grau académico, que outros poderão existir? Segundo Finnegan:-Some patterns are especially prominent. One is the element of sociability. This runs trough musical practice. People are moved not just by the love of music but also by the desire to be with their acquaintances, friends, teachers, peers, colleagues, relatives, and enjoy the whole social side of engaging in musical pursuits along with other people and with their approbation. The established musical pathways kept in being by hundreds and thousands of people are vehicles not just for music but for the powerful human desire for social intercourse.‖ (1989: 328) De acordo com Adorno, em Teoria Estética, a música vive da inter-relação entre produção e recepção (1970: 256). No jazz, a fronteira entre produção e recepção esbate-se constantemente, pois, numa jam session 5 , por exemplo, quem assiste é convidado a tocar e quem toca a assistir rotativamente. Da mesma forma, num concerto de jazz, o públicoa sua recepção, as suas palmas ou incentivo a quem solaé determinante para a performance e parte dela. Aliás, segundo Francisco Cruces, o estudo da música urbanacomo é o caso do jazzpressupõe-que ésta constituye una trama de interacciones y diálogos, de oposiciones y exclusiones, de
Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation
This article is a reflection of a collaboration between musicians Anton Hunter and José Dias who,... more This article is a reflection of a collaboration between musicians Anton Hunter and José Dias who, in April 2020, organised a free, biweekly improvisation streaming festival, which ran for three weeks, entitled The Noise Indoors (TNI). Devised as a way of encouraging musicians and fans to stay home by providing the chance to continue experiencing and celebrating improvised music during confinement, TNI gathered twenty-eight artists based in seventeen cities across Europe who filmed solo or duet performances in their homes. As TNI progressed, this festival became a platform for sharing each artist’s intimate music-making, as well as an opportunity for networking and community building. In this article, using an eclectic mix of critical and dialogic writing styles (including field notes and text messages), they reflect on their experiences as researchers, musicians, and curators who organised and participated in TNI, and the potential wider implications of this.
The present economic downturn has led the European Union to question itself as a viable political... more The present economic downturn has led the European Union to question itself as a viable political, economic and cultural entity. Peripheral countries struggle with the lack of governmental funding. Music, like other art forms, is undercut to favor other priorities. In the midst of this crisis, some jazz musicians are networking and generating new transnational ensembles in order to optimize resources: broader audiences, performing opportunities and EU subsidy. Also, several EU official organizations and independent producers are endorsing jazz venues as a way to promote a common multicultural European identity, and jazz – a non-European music tradition – as a pan-European musical genre.
At the same time, musicians’ websites, P2P music sharing and free download labels are changing the way musicians and audiences relate.
This paper brings two examples: the 12 Points Jazz Festival and Sintoma Records. The first is an Ireland-based production that works as an annual itinerant showcase for 12 ensembles, each one from a different European country. The second is an independent free download label, created by a group of Portuguese jazz musicians. Both cases aim collaboration between musicians and the dissemination of their music beyond national borders.
This research seeks an insight into contemporary Europe through music. It questions how jazz, as a social practices network (Berliner 1994; Monson 2009), may be contributing to cultural production (Bourdieu 1993; Sassatelli 2009). To what extent can jazz be part of a European development, modernity, globalization and culture as structure model (Giddens 1993)? What is the role of jazz music on the delicate balance between local and global (Mayrowitz 1986; Marcus 1995; Appadurai 2001), place and non-place (Augé 1995), and praxis and discourse in Europe (Leitner 2004)?
Is Europe local or global? Throughout the course of my ongoing research on jazz in Europe as soci... more Is Europe local or global? Throughout the course of my ongoing research on jazz in Europe as social and musical network, this question emerges daily. On one hand in order to understand what European jazz really is, one must take Europe as a whole. On the other hand, once we step on such a vast field, it quickly becomes obvious how diverse Europe is. It seems to consist of a paradox: it shares a common cultural heritage, but, at the same time, it has been made of cultural variety (Bohlman 2002).
If Europe has been built as a cultural network, in which cities from various countries stand as its knots (Sassatelli 2009), could those local spaces come to be “non-spaces” (Augé, 1995), in the sense that they lose their local elements and become more and more similar to each other? What really differs between a jazz club in Amsterdam and Barcelona, Dublin or Athens? If people increasingly share information with and about others who live in different localities (Meyrowitz 2005), what is there, in the music they make, of local elements?
This paper debates to what extent “glocality” (Meyrowitz), “multi-sited ethnography (Marcus 1995), “ethnography from below” (Appadurai 2001) and “thick description” (Geertz 1973) can become useful notions and methods before a globalized fieldwork: Europe as an ever changing political, cultural, social and economic space.
In Portugal, almost forty years after the democratic revolution of 1974, there is a recent phenom... more In Portugal, almost forty years after the democratic revolution of 1974, there is a recent phenomenon of flourishing jazz schools throughout the country. These schools offer a new music education system and the possibility, until now restricted for many, to learn music. This development is seen by students and teachers as a democratization of music education. Both learning and performing jazz are perceived as ways to exercise democratic citizenship. At the same time, there’s been an increment of a considerable number of jazz festivals, clubs, record labels, higher education courses, as well as growing audiences and emergent performing musicians.
This paper deals with three intertwined processes of performance: pre, during and post jazz performance in Portugal. As to pre-performance, the focus is on learning music in jazz schools: how the musical discourse can become social and political, how power relations occur within school members, how musical experience can become a more relevant and determinant hierarchy factor than the social background, and how some of the processes of building an individual, national and European musical identity take place. As to during performance, the main emphasis is on performing jazz: how the performance works as a set for affirming individual and group musical identity, what kind of negotiations take place between soloist and ensemble, and between performers and audiences. Finally, as to post-performance, the paper stresses the notion that this proliferation of jazz venues can shape the way promoters, critics and audiences can contemplate Portuguese jazz as a form of national culture, and as a way of integration into Europe as a cultural whole.
"Em 2001, começa a surgir em Portugal um número considerável de escolas de jazz. Se de 1979 até a... more "Em 2001, começa a surgir em Portugal um número considerável de escolas de jazz. Se de 1979 até aí apenas uma escola desenvolveu actividade regular – o Hot Clube de Portugal –, em 2010 o país contava com 22 escolas, 4 das quais superiores. Esta nova oferta veio criar a possibilidade de aprender música fora do modelo de conservatório, revelando-se uma forma privilegiada de experimentar a improvisação musical e, pela sua dinâmica performativa, uma metáfora para o exercício da cidadania democrática (Dias 2010).
Esta comunicação é fruto da investigação levada a cabo entre 2008 e 2010, que culminou na dissertação de mestrado “Playing Outside: jazz e sociedade em Portugal na perspectiva de duas escolas”, na Universidade Nova de Lisboa, e que se debruçou sobre o fenómeno recente e emergente do ensino de jazz pelo país. O estudo questiona em que medida a prática musical pode ser considerada uma prática também social e política (Finnegan 1989), observa como os processos de hierarquização musical podem ser distintos e semelhantes aos de hierarquização social e analisa alguns dos mecanismos de construção de identidade musical, individual e social (Kingsbury 1988).
O trabalho de campo acompanhou o dia-a-dia de duas escolas: a JBJazz e o Curso Superior em Jazz e Música Moderna da Universidade Lusíada. Em ambas as instituições, foi feita uma observação directa das aulas e aplicados questionários a alunos e professores. Em ambos os casos é notória a noção de que o ensino do jazz pode proporcionar uma experiência de cidadania democrática. Na própria génese do jazz estão valores profundamente democráticos, como a partilha e a negociação. A dinâmica rotativa de solos em torno de uma estrutura harmónica flexível serviu, em muitos dos casos observados, como uma metáfora para a partilha e negociação de pontos de vista numa sociedade democratizada (Berliner 1994, Monson 2009).
Da mesma forma, o jazz revelou ser uma forma de aprendizagem da música em que a sociabilização e a noção de pertença a um grupo social de interesses e gostos comuns são relevantes. Mais: a aprendizagem da música tem, na maior parte dos casos, uma função recreativa, para além da formativa e profissionalizante.
O estudo observa um fenómeno emergente na sociedade portuguesa e, de certa forma, traz à luz o desejo de muitos amantes de música de a experimentar e de a tornarem parte da sua vida quotidiana. Advogados, médicos, estudantes universitários e donos de cafés partilham, num mesmo palco, a sua paixão pela música e a sua reverência por nomes míticos do jazz, arrastando famílias e amigos nesse processo.
Passadas mais de três décadas sobre o 25 de Abril, o associativismo na e pela música é um dos reflexos de uma sociedade democratizada que se aproxima, cada vez mais, das dos seus parceiros comunitários europeus, em que a música está presente na vida do cidadão comum (Sassatelli 2009).
O olhar sobre o ensino do jazz em Portugal pode ajudar-nos a compreender, de outra forma, a sociedade portuguesa contemporânea."
In 2001, a considerable number of jazz schools start emerging in Portugal. Until 1979 only one school established activity – the Hot Club of Portugal –, but in 2010 the country already had 22 schools, four of which superiors. This new offering has created the opportunity to learn music outside the conservatory model, and revealing itself as a privileged way to experience musical improvisation and, by its performative dynamics, a metaphor for the exercise of democratic citizenship (Dias 2010).
This communication is the result of a research carried out between 2008 and 2010, culminating in the dissertation "Playing Outside: jazz in Portugal and society from the perspective of two schools," at the Universidade Nova de Lisbon, and which focused on the recent phenomenon of emerging jazz education in the country. The study questions to what extent musical practice can also be considered a social and political practice (Finnegan 1989), notes how the processes of musical hierarchy can be different and similar to social hierarchies and examines some of the mechanisms of musical, individual, and social identity construction (Kingsbury 1988).
The fieldwork followed the day-to-day life of two schools: the JBJazz and the Undergraduate students of Jazz and Modern Music at the Universidade Lusíada, with direct observation of classes and applied questionnaires to students and teachers, in both institutions. In both cases it is evident the notion that the jazz teaching can provide an experience of democratic citizenship. At the genesis of jazz there are profoundly democratic values, such as sharing and negotiating. The rotational dynamics of solos around a flexible harmonic structure served, in many cases, as a metaphor for sharing and negotiation points of views in a democratized society (Berliner 1994, Monson 2009).
Likewise, jazz has proven to be a way of learning music, where socialization and a sense of belonging to a social group of common interests and tastes are relevant. Learning music has, in most cases, a recreational function in addition to professional training.
The study observes an emerging phenomenon in the Portuguese society and, in a way, brings to light the desire of many music lovers to experience it and male it a part of their daily lives. Lawyers, doctors, college students and cafe owners share on the same stage their passion for music and their reverence for mythical jazz heroes, bringing families and friends to that process.
After more than three decades over the 1974 democratic revolution, associating with others by the music is a reflection of a democratized society that keeps pending, more and more, towards its European Community partners (Sassatelli 2009).
Focusing on jazz teaching in Portugal can help us understand the contemporary Portuguese society.
"Em Portugal, quase 40 anos depois da revolução democrática de 1974, assiste-se ao recente fenóme... more "Em Portugal, quase 40 anos depois da revolução democrática de 1974, assiste-se ao recente fenómeno de multiplicação de escolas de jazz por todo o país. Estas escolas oferecem um novo sistema de ensino da música e a possibilidade, até agora restrita para muitos, de aprender música. Este desenvolvimento é visto pelos alunos e professores como uma democratização do ensino de música e a aprendizagem do jazz e a sua performance são entendidos como formas de exercício da cidadania democrática. Ao mesmo tempo, houve o incremento de um número considerável de festivais de jazz, clubes, gravadoras, cursos de educação superior, bem como uma emergência de novos
públicos e de músicos.
Esta comunicação aborda alguns dos processos de pré-performance de jazz em Portugal, focando-se, essencialmente, no ensino de música nas escolas de jazz: questiona de que forma pode o discurso musical tornar-se social e político; observa-se como se podem desenvolver relações de poder entre membros duma escola; argumenta em que medida a experiência musical se pode tornar um factor de hierarquia mais relevante e determinante do que a origem social; e examina como sucedem alguns dos processos de construção de uma identidade musical, individual, nacional e europeia."
"Before its democratic revolution, that took place in April of 1974, Portugal didn’t have a jazz ... more "Before its democratic revolution, that took place in April of 1974, Portugal didn’t have a jazz community. Jazz was reduced to the likes of a small minority, an elite of academic students, that exchange vinyl records and attended to sporadic concerts in a very small room in Lisbon – Hot Clube de Portugal. It was just recently, by the beginnings of the 2000 decade, that a social network around jazz began to emerge.
Today, Portugal has over 22 jazz schools, 4 undergraduate and 2 graduate jazz courses, over 12 jazz festivals, 3 jazz record labels, and an increasing public.
In this paper, I analyze the Portuguese jazz community as part of the young Portuguese democratic society, in the sense that this musical and social network may be, in one hand, the result of a new and larger social structure – a multicultural, dialoging,
constantly questioning, and autonomous society –, and in the other hand, may represent a dynamic drive for exchanging musical, cultural and social practices with other European and World partners. And in that sense, the Portuguese jazz community may be both a contributive and recipient part of a new Portuguese national identity."
Jazz is often portrayed as a pantheon of heroes who stand out as extraordinary individual artists... more Jazz is often portrayed as a pantheon of heroes who stand out as extraordinary individual artists. 'Those Who Make it Happen' challenges this traditional concept and observes the phenomenon of Portuguese jazz as the result of a collective effort and commitment that mobilises not only artists, but also promoters, associations, audiences, researchers and a multitude of different agents. Without them – without all those who make it happen – jazz would not exist.
The short documentary film captures a turning point in Portuguese jazz, where the boundaries of personal, national and pan-European identities are being questioned.
Shot in Lisbon in early 2016, 'Those Who Make it Happen' features the testimonies of musicians, promoters and researchers who think about jazz in Portugal in its artistic, pedagogical, performative, social and political dimensions.
Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it ... more Should we talk of European jazz or jazz in Europe? What kinds of networks link those who make it happen 'on the ground'? What challenges do they have to face?
Jazz is a part of the cultural fabric of many of the European countries. Jazz in Europe: Networking and Negotiating Identities presents jazz in Europe as a complex arena, where the very notions of cultural identity, jazz practices and Europe are continually being negotiated against an ever changing social, cultural, political and economic environment. The book gives voice to musicians, promoters, festival directors, educators and researchers regarding the challenges they are faced with in their everyday practices. Jazz identities in Europe result from the negotiation between discourse and practice and in the interstices between the formal and informal networks that support them, as if 'Jazz' and 'Europe' were blank canvases where diversified notions of what jazz and Europe should or could be are projected.
![Research paper thumbnail of [Journal article] Pedro Cravinho y José Dias "Jazz on Portuguese Film (1964) and Alice (2005) - Two Milestones" in Kiko Mora (ed) Quaderns de Cine. Cine y músicas populares urbanas 9: 43-50](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/64634252/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](ISSN - 18884571, Sep 2014