The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives ─ This Is Our Music

Jazz history is most often portrayed as a site for individual expression and revolves around the celebration of iconic figures, while the networks and collaborations that enable the music to maintain and sustain its cultural status are surprisingly under-investigated. This collection explores the growth and development of musician-led collectives and the ways in which they offer a powerful model of understanding jazz practice in the post-war period, and includes studies of groups including the New York Musicians Organization, Sweden’s Ett minne for livet, Wonderbrass from South Wales, and Austria‘s JazzWerkstatt. With an international list of contributors and examples from around the world, these twelve essays and case studies examine issues of shared aesthetic vision, socioeconomic and cultural factors, local education, and the relationships between collective, audience, and music industry.

Nicholas Gebhardt leads the jazz research programme at Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom. His research interests include popular music in the United States, the entertainment industry, and jazz history, and his most recent book is Music Is Our Business: Popular Music, Vaudeville and Entertainment in American Culture, 1870-1929, published by the University of Chicago Press.

Tony Whyton is Director of the Salford Music Research Centre at the University of Salford in the United Kingdom. He is co-editor of the Jazz Research Journal and has championed new jazz studies research through the development of international research projects and events, including the HERA-funded Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities project – the largest research project ever funded for a study of jazz in Europe. His book about John Coltrane, Beyond A Love Supreme: John Coltrane and the Legacy of an Album, is published by Oxford University Press.