Learning Music, Performing Jazz, and Shaping ...

Learning Music, Performing Jazz, and Shaping Society in Portugal José Dias | 2012

Learning Music, Performing Jazz, and Shaping Society in Portugal

José Dias INET-md | Universidade Nova de Lisboa | Portugal

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Presented at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology Durham | UK

2012


ABSTRACT

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.

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01.

Introduction

For the last eight years, I’ve been leading a jazz school in Lisbon – JBJazz. And both as a musician and a jazz teacher I’ve always been interested in the sociological aspects of learning and playing jazz. Throughout my research, the idea that paying is an ongoing learning process has gained more and more strength. Today in Portugal, like in the rest of Europe, jazz education is an emerging phenomenon and, in most cases, a thriving business. Phillip Bohlman, in The Music of European Nationalism, Cultural Identity and Modern History, tells us that Europe is the result of two opposing realities: on one hand, Europe has a common cultural heritage; on the other, Europe is a product of cultural diversity (2002). In a broader scope, I believe that researching jazz in Europe may help us better understand what Europe – a complex cultural, political, economic and social reality – is. Also throughout my research, many jazz students and musicians have stressed the idea that learning and performing music in Europe today is part of the process of learning, building and exercising their European identity. In jazz , like – I would dare to say – in all kinds of music, learning, playing and shaping society are all interlinked parts of one same process, that performance only formalizes. This paper is the result of a research I made on jazz education in Portugal, two years ago, observing several jazz schools in Lisbon, interviewing students, teachers and jazz programmers, together with data I’ve been collecting for my ongoing research on jazz in Europe as a social network and its role in the process of building a European cultural identity, with main emphasis on the one gathered from the 12 Points International Jazz Festival, in Oporto, last February.

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02.

Jazz in Portugal

For a very general idea on the recent Portuguese political and cultural history, we must consider 41 years of a dictatorship that undermined all musical expressions other than the classical European tradition and the national folk music (Martins 2006). With the 1974 revolution and the end of the colonial war, Portugal turned its political and economic attention to Europe, and in 1986 made its entry into the EEC – now European Union (EU). With the help of the EU, Portugal began a process of modernization and cultural investment. In 1998 Lisbon attended the International Exhibit EXPO 98, and in 2001 Oporto was chosen to be the European Capital of Culture. This investment in cultural infrastructures, not only in these two cities but all over the country, allowed jazz venues to reach wider audiences. Jazz, in a way, reflects Portugal’s foreign policies gradual opening over its recent past. Like I mentioned, the Regime’s cultural policy was not very keen in jazz. In 1948 a radio show host – Luís Villas-Boas –, after 15 years of rejection by the authorities, managed to establish a jazz club in Lisbon, with the same name as his radio show – Hot Clube. The sessions at the club were attended by a very small number of young college students and intellectuals. And only in 1971, 3 years before the end of the Regime, the first international jazz festival took place – Cascais Jazz – presenting some historic American jazz legends like Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie. Though an overwhelming audience was attending, very few knew what jazz was, much less who these musicians were. The Cascais Jazz festival served as a way to bring people against the Regime together and eager for some sort of different and liberating cultural experience. In 1979, Hot Clube established the first jazz school. If, until then, jazz was being played by amateur musicians, from that on, the first professional Portuguese jazz musicians emerged. From 2001 until now, 22 new jazz schools were created. 13 are non-graduate jazz schools and 4 universities grant jazz performance undergraduate and graduate programs. 2 Universities develop ethnomusicological jazz studies: Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade de Aveiro. There’s up to 16 annual jazz festivals and 3 Portuguese jazz recording labels. In 2002, the first “Festa do Jazz” took place: this

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venue is an annual competition for national jazz schools. And in 2005, a jazz magazine has been established: “Jazz.pt”. We may consider 3 historical periods: the first one when jazz was not studied and was played by amateur musicians, the second one when the first jazz school was established, and a third one, from 2001 until now, when a jazz scene emerged (Dias 2010).

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Pre, during and post-performance processes

In order to understand how learning music, playing jazz and shaping society are, like I mentioned and believe to be, interlinked parts of very similar pre, during and post-performance processes, I will consider 3 main scopes: jazz education, social network and venues. As we’ll see later, these scopes deal with broader issues such as: identity, networking, cultural policies and the production/reception process.

03.1.

Jazz education – pre-performance

When I started investigating jazz education in Portugal, I took the field with two major notions in mind. The first, by Ruth Finnegan in Hidden Musicians, is the idea that musical practice is always social and political (1989). The second, by Henry Kingsbury in Music, Talent, and Performance, is the concept of building musical identity is a process that involves building individual and social identity (1988). In the interviews I made to Portuguese jazz students, most of them stressed the idea that being in a jazz school, unlike the conservatory system, is a democratic citizenship experience, because making music together involved debating and sharing ideas openly. At the same time, a large number of them said they felt like they belonged to a group of people that shares music tastes, relationships, interests and social practices. This led me to social networks.

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03.2.

Social networks – during performance

Both Paul Berliner, in Thinkin’ in Jazz, and Ingrid Monson, in the preface of The Other Side of Nowhere, present jazz as a social practices network (1994; 2009). And Travis Jackson considers a jazz scene to be a socially constructed arena, a social network (1998). For jazz students, among the more appealing aspects of performing live was the fact that making music was part of their everyday life, and that experience was amplified by the challenge of negotiating different musical and aesthetic choices on stage in front of everyone: their friends, family members, fellow students and teachers. Some of them also emphasized the importance of these concerts in promoting cultural habits. This directed me to jazz venues, with two different concepts in mind.

03.3.

Shaping society – post-performance 6 The first, from Scott DeVeaux’s article Constructing the Jazz Tradition, where

he supports the notion that when playing in a jazz club, either in a jam session or in a professional gig, both recreational and vocational components of the musical life are being practiced (1991). The second one, from Monica Sassatelli’s research on European cultural policies, Becoming Europeans, where she concludes that music venues co-produced by EU partners are major contributions for building a common European cultural identity (2009). Many of the teachers and professional jazz musicians I’ve interviewed expressed their optimism with the recent development of jazz schools, competitions and other venues alike. They believe this represents a long needed investment in cultural action in Portugal. At the same time, most of the interviewed cultural programmers stated their conviction that jazz venues would bring Portugal closer to other European cultural scenes.


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A broader scope

In a broader scope, studying jazz, performing it and increasing audiences are pre, during and post-performance processes that deal with broader issues such as identity, networking, cultural policies and production/reception. Last February I attended the 12 Points International Jazz Festival, in Casa da Música, Oporto. This event is promoted by Culture Ireland and the EU. It is a 4 day event, where 12 new jazz musicians and bands from 12 European countries play. I’ve interviewed some of the musicians, the promoters and audience members.

04.1.

Identity

“This is a kind of music where the musician has to find himself. Each one has to find his voice. It’s something that exists inside of you. And this process cannot be replaced by anything else. Listening for music for twenty years and then choose what you like and you don’t cannot be replaced by any University semester. It’s a lifetime process. They’re all life experiences. It’s impossible to convert all of that into textbooks.” Hugo Carvalhais, upright bass player, Interview – 17/02/2012, Casa da Música, Oporto

What Hugo Carvalhais is saying is that building his music identity involves building his individual and social identity. Later on the interview he would talk about being a Portuguese jazz musician, and how that implies today, as never before, to be a European jazz musician. He advocates that European jazz is freer from tradition than the American jazz. He would say that jazz “because it isn’t ours, we can do with it whatever we want to – and make it our own.”

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04.2.

Networking

“I’ve recently been to Spain, playing my music with musicians from Barcelona. I sent them an email asking if they would play some gigs with me and they accepted. I really enjoyed the experience. I’m always welcomed there. I’ve also been to Holland. I have a trio there with a Portuguese bass player and a Canadian drummer, who live in Rotterdam. I met them when I was doing my Masters in Rotterdam, and they invited me to form a trio. Meanwhile we recorded a CD for Cleanfeed (Portuguese jazz label). After that I’ve been to Italy, performing with an Italian bass player, who I met once when he came to perform in Oporto. I’m also a member of the European Movement Jazz Orchestra, and I’m forming a quartet with Kaja Draksler, the Orchestra’s pianist, and Herbert Pinker, an Austrian drummer. I met many people around Europe, and I’m always in touch with them.” Susana Santos Silva, trumpet player, Interview – 16/02/2012, Casa da Música, Oporto

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Fig.1


Susana Santos Silva is probably one of the most international young Portuguese jazz musicians. Fig.1 shows my very rough sketch of Susana’s network from the entire interview. The knots of this network go from family members and friends to European festivals and the media. What I think worthy emphasizing here is that nowadays jazz schools can be considered as an important part of this kind of network. And jazz education and performance also. Being from a peripheral country, Susana developed her network, and that can be seen as making cultural policy.

04.3.

Cultural policies

“We have musicians from 12 different countries for our festival. And we thought we would try to take the Portuguese artists and put them on the same night as the Irish artists, and then maybe we would find some Greek artists and maybe some Icelandic artists. And we could send a big message to Frankfurt and Washington and Brussels that people in those countries still know how to have a good time.” Gerry Godley, 12 Points International Festival director, presenting the event on stage – 16/02/2012, Casa da Música, Oporto

The Festival’s director, Irish producer Gerry Godley, jokes about the lineup as he introduces the event onstage to the audience. Although he humors about it, Gerry was actually making a political statement. In a previous interview, he would tell me that being Irish he felt he should join resources from other peripheral European countries. The 12 Points Festival is funded by a governmental institution – Culture Ireland. And the EU has, in the past recent years, invested in jazz venues and organizations. The Spanish presidency of the EU, in 2010, stated in its official webpage:

“The Spanish Presidency of the EU is making a real effort regarding cultural events. One of the most remarkable is the Eurojazz Festival, which aim is to relate the language of jazz with the cultural identity of Europe. (…) this festival highlights the uniqueness of this musical genre that is nourished by meetings and exchanges, ebbs and flows, just like the people of Europe.” http://www.whattoseeinmadrid.com/eurojazz-festival-madrid/

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04.4.

Production/reception

So, where do jazz education stand? What is its role in all this process? On the first day of 12 Points, a debate was held about these questions, between jazz promoters, musicians, students and teachers.

“Education has become very democratic over the last 20 years. It’s been part of the democratic process: to create more educational opportunity. And jazz has kind of ridden that wave a lot. So, jazz education keeps growing exponentially, because if there is demand for education, somebody will provide it, because it’s a service and it’s a profitable service. At the same time, when I talk to my professional colleagues, many of us are very critical about what’s happening in the pedagogy of the schools, and what’s happening around aesthetic considerations and philosophical considerations around music. But my point is that over the last 20 years we have this huge investment in education infrastructure which has not been matched by an investment in performance infrastructure. Actually, what happens is that the opportunities to play are diminishing. We look at a place like the Bimhuis at the Netherlands and it’s amazing. The Bimhuis is amazing! But the question we really need to be asking is there should be a Bimhuis in every major city in Europe. So this is a question about where the music is taking place and how and to whom.” Gerry Godley, 12 Points International Festival director, debate on jazz education – 16/02/2012, Casa da Música, Oporto

This came to be a very interesting debate, where oddly enough, the promoters seemed to be the ones more concerned about jazz education. They generally stressed the notion that music education today has to consider itself part of a large reality. And that, in jazz, each musician has to concern himself with such issues as audiences’ response, different performing contexts or its economic scope.

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05.

Conclusions

In conclusion, learning music faces new demands today. The increasing of jazz schools requires new skills from students and teachers. They’re not just developing technical abilities. Teachers, students, promoters and musicians appear to recognize that the musical negotiation that’s taking place while performing can be a metaphor to other negotiations: individual, social, political, and even economic. Performing jazz embodies new challenges today. A jazz musician builds his own network as a relevant part of his musical activity. He now moves in a much broader geographic space than before, and in a much more complex and diverse reality. Aesthetic options may be his primary concern, but he seems to be more and more aware of the importance of communicating with the media, with other musicians from other European nationalities, and so on. Shaping society meant – for instance in Portugal, in the 1970’s – listening to jazz and playing it against the Regime, and against the colonial war. Today shaping society may be learning music, playing jazz and making part of that process of building a new national and European identity.

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References: BERLINER, Paul F., (1994), Thinkin’ in jazz, The infinite art of improvisation, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago BOHLMAN, Philip V. 2002. The Music of European Nationalism, Cultural Identity and Modern History. California: ABC-CLIO DEVEAUX, Scott (1991), «Constructing the Jazz Tradition», in O’Meally (ed.) (1998) The Jazz Cadence of American Culture. 485-514. Columbia University Press, New York. DIAS, José. 2010. Playing Outside: Jazz e Sociedade em Portugal na perspectiva de duas escolas. FCSH-UNL, Lisboa MARTINS, Hélder Bruno. 2006. Jazz em Portugal 1920-1956. Almedina, Coimbra MONSON, Ingrid. 2009. «Jazz as Political and Social Practice», in Gabriel Solis & Bruno Nettl (eds.), Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society. 21-37. University of Illinois Press SASSATELLI, Monica. 2009. Becoming Europeans, Cultural Identity and Cultural Policies. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

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