Journal of Jazz Studies

07/11/2024

New issue of the Journal of Jazz Studies is out with contributions from David Brackett, Marc T. Gaspard Bolin, Darren Mueller, Judith Tick, Adriana P. Cuervo, Hannah Krall, Jayson Davis, and Alex W. Rodriguez. It was an absolute pleasure working with old friends and new on this issue!

Listening to Electric Miles: Creativity, Authorship, and Identity in the Jack Johnson Sessions David Brackett 1-38 PDF HTML

02/25/2024

For all my jazz/popular music/historian folk out there (professional or otherwise), come on out to hear what promises to be a fascinating discussion between Journal of Jazz Studies board members Judith Tick and Darren Mueller, along with John Schreiber (current NJPAC CEO).

Author Judith Tick on her new Ella Fitzgerald biography, with John Schreiber and Darren Mueller

01/12/2024

Call for Proposals
Journal of Jazz Studies Special Issue
State of the Field: Jazz & Gender
Kelsey Klotz, Guest Editor

Description
The Journal of Jazz Studies invites proposals for articles, essays, interviews, book/media reviews, artwork, and poetry for its special issue on jazz and gender, planned for publication in Spring 2025. This issue will focus on systems of patriarchy, feminism, sexism, and power in jazz history, historiography, and pedagogy. Audio/visual submissions and/or supplemental materials will be considered for this issue (copyright/permissions/fair use dependent).

The format for potential contributions is flexible both in terms of product and length (ideally in the range of 2,000-6,000 words). While a wide range of traditional, non-traditional, and creative submissions will be considered, of greatest interest are submissions that contribute approaches to intersectional and inclusive jazz education and/or music studies. These may include, but are not limited to essays exploring a particular pedagogical focus/approach and potentially assignable research articles written in undergraduate-friendly, non-expert-level language.

Proposals
Interested authors should write a 400-500 word abstract discussing the intended submission, including how the work relates to the theme and how the author envisions it being used in support of jazz education and/or jazz history classes. Graduate students and early-career scholars are warmly encouraged to submit. Contact guest editor Kelsey Koltz ([email protected]) if you have questions.

Timeline
Proposals should be emailed to JJS managing editor Sean Lorre ([email protected]) by April 1, 2024. Decisions will be made by May 30. Full submissions due September 15. All essays and articles will be blind peer-reviewed, with editorial feedback given by December 1. Final submissions to the manuscript must be edited and resubmitted by February 1, 2025.

11/07/2023

Journal of Jazz Studies issue 14.2 is now available! https://jjs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jjs/issue/view/18

This issue features Eirik Jacobsen and Anne Danielsen’s "'Hard' or 'Soft': Shaping Microtiming through Sonic Features in Jazz-Related Groove Performance; Lonnie Liston Smith, in discussion with Scott Douglass, recounting 80 years of American music history, from swing to sampling, doo-wop to hip hop; a critical contextualization of the IJS's Victoria Spivey Collection paired with a supplementary bibliography of the singer's jazz criticism by Lawrence Davies; and Emma Beachy's review of The Sonic Gaze: Jazz, Whiteness, and Racialized Listening by T. Storm Heter.

“Hard” or “Soft”: Shaping Microtiming through Sonic Features in Jazz-Related Groove Performance Eirik Jacobsen, Anne Danielsen 153-185 PDF HTML

05/30/2023

The editors of the Journal of Jazz Studies and the Institute of Jazz Studies are pleased to announce the publication of the Spring 2023 issue of JJS (Vol. 14, No. 1). https://jjs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/jjs/issue/view/17

This issue opens with a call to revisit Kenneth Gorelick, the most commercially successful artist in the history of jazz. Featuring contributions from Brian F. Wright, Kelsey Klotz, Charles D. Carson, and Adrianne Honnold, our colloquy, appropriately titled “Revisiting Kenny G,” treats the saxophonist as the subject of serious scholarly consideration, offering fresh perspectives that situate him, his career, and his reception within the wider context of jazz studies.

Luca Bragalini reexamines a very different topic of debate with his thoughtful and detailed analysis of “the” Buddy Bolden photo, offering solutions to the myriad, unanswered riddles associated with the photograph. In their contributions, Paul Mock and Brian E. Jones address the careers of Mary Halvorson and John D’earth, respectively, with an eye toward these artists’ approaches to improvisation, creativity, and impact of mentorship. In our “From the Archives” section, IJS Archivist Elizabeth Surles reports on the acquisition, conservation, and processing of the Count Basie family papers and artifacts. The issue concludes with a pair of reviews from Jasmine A. Henry (Robery O’Meally’s Antagonistic Cooperation) and Jeff Sultanof (Sasha Jenkin’s Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues), both of which engage with Louis Armstrong’s complex relationship with issues of race in American popular culture.

Issue 14.1 fully and joyfully embraces the far-reaching range of topics and disciplinary approaches housed under the big tent of jazz studies, engaging with subjects ranging from the controversial (Buddy Bolden and Kenny G) to the canonical (Louis Armstrong and Count Basie). Throughout, we call on readers to expand their understanding of what jazz scholarship can look like, and perhaps their understanding of what can and should count as jazz.

Revisiting Kenny G (Colloquy): Introduction - What Kenny G Can Teach Us About Jazz Brian F. Wright 1-19 COLLOQUY PDF HTML