Category: Uncategorized
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The Problem with “Jazz Theory”
Theory is not just a tool with which to analyze an object, but also an activity that produces its own cultures in the process of being learned and practiced. In this way, the tools we choose to employ are not neutral, but orient us in certain specific directions. Since at least 2007, I’ve been brimming […]
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UPCOMING CONFERENCES
This summer, I’m participating in some conferences that I’m really excited about. If you’re going to be around and want to hang, please get in touch! Likewise, if you’re interested in any of the work I’ll be presenting, I’m happy to share talks in progress. May 26–28 I’ll be at the IASPM conference in Ann […]
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UPTEMPO HEMIOLAS
One interesting way that jazz drummers develop a personal style is in their approach to repetition. For example, Bill Stewart’s comping style employs lots of repeated patterns, often strung together into longer phrases or hemiolas, where the repeated pattern bears some kind of “odd” relationship to time. Regardless of how often one likes to deploy […]
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ELVIN VARIATIONS
At some point during my studies with Joe La Barbera, he handed me a printed-out version of this excellent blog post by Jon McCasslin. As you can see over at that post, it summarizes a few of the coordination exercises that Elvin Jones demonstrated at a clinic. I’ve always loved these ideas, and have returned […]
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GRAD SEMINAR: CRITICAL READINGS IN THE AESTHETICS AND POLITICS OF MUSIC
Being on the academic job market means spending loads of time working on materials for reasons that almost never make themselves apparent. Sometimes that involves designing sample syllabi for courses that one hasn’t taught, an opportunity that is both productive (insofar as it’s really helpful in a lot of ways to have courses ready to […]
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BOOK
I’ve been relatively absent in this space lately, partially because of the year we’ve all just had (and are continuing to have)–and partially because during this year, one of the main things keeping me tethered to any sense of purpose or fulfillment has been the lucky fact that I get to write a book. As […]
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BIG FEELINGS (AGAIN)
Lately, all of my energy has been going into finishing my book. But last year around this time, I was also working on an idea called “Big Feelings”, which is an attempt to think about a particular strain, orientation, or tendency that I hear in indie rock after the 2000s period. I was working on […]
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MY YEAR-END 10 (+)
I do enjoy the ritual of looking back over the year’s best listening. Of the year-end list categories (of which I basically know two: the representative, comprehensive selection vs the reflection of personal listening habits)– this is definitely the latter. As a music scholar, I sometimes have really weird or unbalanced listening habits. For what […]
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CONSPIRACIES AND IDENTITIES
In Cruel Optimism, Lauren Berlant develops their titular concept as a relationship or attachment to something that is non-trivially detrimental to the subject experiencing that attachment, at the same time that participating in it provides a tether to a sense of identity, belonging, or managing that nothing else available can. For months, the back of […]
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RANCIÈRE AND AFFECT
One of the main ways I try to think about the political implications of improvisations is through Rancière. I won’t go into all of it here, but part of what this involves is linking up Rancière’s political thought with affect theory. I do this not only because Rancière’s politics make sense with the kind of […]
Dan DiPiero 