When you listen to music coming from the schools and universities, it’s like they’re all speaking the same language because they’ve all been taught like we’re in a Ford factory or something. That is really not the way for music to be perpetuated.
[...]
And if I stand up here and tell you what the sound should be or how to do this or that, or that “jazz” is so-and-so, or how to move from this chord to that chord, or if somebody tells you how to do something and you don’t really know how to do it yourself, then there’s something wrong. You’re doing what they told you to do when in reality you have to figure every thing out for yourself.
-Henry Threadgill in conversation with Daniel Fischlin. Read the full interview here.

Henry Threadgill, (born February 15, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist who came to prominence in the 1970s, leading ensembles with unique instrumentation and often incorporating a range of non-jazz genres. Last year he performed with his Zooid at the 2010 Guelph Jazz Festival.

Guelph Graduate, ICASP researcher, and Jazz Festival Mainstay Wins Juno!

University of Guelph graduate Jesse Stewart has won a Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year with his band the Stretch Orchestra. The annual honours were handed out Sunday night in Ottawa.

Stewart, an accomplished jazz percussionist, composer and artist, is a two-time U of G graduate, who completed a BA in 1993 and a PhD in literature/theatre studies in 2008. He also has two master’s degrees from York University.

“This is a richly deserved honour for a dear friend who will always hold a special place in the University of Guelph community,” said English professor Ajay Heble, who was Stewart’s PhD adviser. “Jesse’s remarkable work as both a creative practitioner and a scholar continues to be a tremendous source of inspiration for me.”

Heble and Stewart produced a CD together called Different Windows, a percussion-piano duo, and worked together on the Guelph Jazz Festival, which Heble founded in 1994. Stewart was the festival’s assistant artistic director for many years and has performed numerous times at the festival.

He is currently a professor in the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University.

See the full news announcement here: Juno winner

“Improvisation is Something We Live”

Synopsis by Mark Onderwater
 
Bringing together scholars, dancers, turntableists, MPC beat performers and MCs, “Improvisation is Something We Live” was a place where hip-hop culture, co-opted and negotiated by performers improvising in real time, was reconnected as both a "new" and "old" phenomenon. This productive reconnection to both "old" and "new" ways of performing hip-hop happened not only among the performers and presenters, but also among the audience who collectively set the scene for a daylong conversation on culture, and the performing arts. The scholarly presentations thickened the sense of community, tackling social issues and sharing ideas on education initiatives. Charity Marsh’s talk gave insight into the value of musical expression for children, youth, and adults alike. Marsh’s efforts and research with children, rooted in the hip-hop aesthetic, gave the genre and its improvisational themes a strong case for social progress. Battle performance, in its competitive yet comical character, was brought to the discussion by several of the day’s performers. Embodying the humour of the hip-hop battle, Fresh Kils showed us how to make a sampler a riot to watch with his highly animated and exuberant musical gestures.


While the day saw dance, freestyle rapping, and other aspects of the hip-hop genre, closing the conversation and typifying the improvisational aesthetic was turntable artist, SlowPitch. Using a collection of DJ and music production tools, SlowPitch pulled records from his crates, letting each record inspire the directions of a real-time soundscape performance – and doing so with big beats! “Improvisation is Something We Live,” was a symposium that reminded its attendees how important community is for music to thrive, and how much art and intellect can come from hip-hop culture.


Photos by Mark Laver

About ICASP

The international Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice research project explores musical improvisation as a model for social change. The project plays a leading role in defining a new field of interdisciplinary research to shape political, cultural, and ethical dialogue and action.

As a form of musical practice, improvisation embodies real-time creative decision-making, risk-taking, and collaboration. Improvisation must be considered not simply as a musical form, but as a complex social phenomenon that mediates transcultural inter-artistic exchanges that produce new conceptions of identity, community, history, and the body. This project focuses primarily on jazz and creative improvised music. The dominant theoretical issues emerging from this music have vital social implications.

Check out our diverse research collection.