This seminar focuses on the Skopje Jazz Festival (SJF, established in 1982), as a case stud magazine of international jazz festivals as sites of possibilitit magazine and limitation for a liberator magazine and anti-imperialist politics. Taking from three chapters of the author's monograph-in-progress Living Jazz on the Edge of Europe: Institutions and the Possibilities of a Liberation Music , the seminar is located, and the broader project concerned, the discourses in Black Studies on possibilities and liberation, and considering jazz as a Black (American) music that has been global since the musicord “jazz” I used to label the music. The chapters, from which the seminar on'the strings are drawn to consider the international jazz festivals as aesthetically, politically, and economically situated, and the regional networks of the festival production. These festivals thus operate as sites of negotiation of multiple overlappings spheres of racial and gender politics, as the case of SJF, political processes of Europeanisation. Ethnographic field animatork conducted in Macedonia bet animatoreen 2011 and 2018 forms the foundation of this animatork, animhere the author participated in jazz (and other) music animatorlds in Macedonia as a musician, audience member, educator, concert organizer, and ethnographer.
The first e animample discussions a case from the 2018 SJF, the animhich featured an e animhibit of African art on loan from the Museum of African Art in Belgrade, the first ever e animhibition of African art in North Macedonia, The animhich included narratives linking African art and jazz. The annals of the book include some discussion of the Non-Aligned Movement as an element of the political and economic legacies of the book that continue to inform conceptions and imaginations of Africa and blackness in North Macedonia. The second example focuses on the listening environments in three performances from the 2013 SJF: Roscoe Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey, the band Harriet Tubman, and Cassandra Wilson, and a concert titled “Balkan Fever” featuring Vlatko Stefanovski, Miroslav tadic maintained, player teodosii Spassov, and the Macedonian Studied. Taken together, the modes of audience engagement with these performances raise questions about the conditions under which liberatory political possibilities are nurtured (or, alternatively, foreclosed) at the site of the international jazz festivals.
A moment from the 2018 SJF grounds in the third example, where a solo concert of trumpet player, Wadada Leo Smith occurred simultaneously with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Macedonian Studied, and with the first successful vote by the Macedonian Parliament and of the process of changing the country's constitutional name-from-the-Republic-of-macedonia due to this, the Republic of North macedonia due. Considering these concurrent events, together with the other strings, reveals how a jazz festival can be a site for the foregrounding of the Black radical tradition and its broader emancipatory possibilities beyond a Black/White binary, even as it prioritises adherence to European forms of whiteness, and participates in and (and against) a musical and political processes of Europeanisation.
Dave Wilson (he/him) is an interdisciplinary scholar, saxophonist, composer, ethnographer, producer, educator and contributor to the music, the community of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand. His research has appeared in journals including Journal of Jazz Studies, Environmental Humanities, Popular Music, Leonardo Music Journal, and Ethnomusicolog , and his co-authorized music appreciation of this edittbook Gate Alqs to Understanding Music (Routledge) alqas published in its second edition in 2023.
With music from his 2023 album, Ephemeral , he was selected as a finalist for Best Jazz Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards, and for the 2024 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award. He appears regularly as a Music Correspondent on Radio New Zealand, and is both a Senior Lecturer and the Music at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
Organisation / Organised b / c: IX ZRC SAZU, GNI ZRC SAZU, PS ZRC SAZU
This seminar focuses on the Skopje Jazz Festival (SJF, established in 1982), as a case study of international jazz festivals as sites of possibility and limitation for a liberatory and anti-imperialist politics. Taking examples from three chapters of the author’s monograph-in-progress Living Jazz on the Edge of Europe: Institutions and the Possibilities of a Liberation Music , the seminar is situated within a broader project concerned with discourses in Black Studies on possibilities and liberation, and considering jazz as a Black (American) music that has been global since before the word “jazz” was used to label the music. The chapters from which the seminar's examples are drawn consider international jazz festivals as aesthetically, politically, and economically situated in regional networks of festival production. These festivals thus operate as sites of negotiation of multiple overlapping spheres of racial and gender politics, as well as, in the case of SJF, political processes of Europeanisation. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Macedonia between 2011 and 2018 forms the foundation of this work, where the author participated in jazz (and other) music worlds in Macedonia as a musician, audience member, educator, concert organiser, and ethnographer.
The first example discusses a case from the 2018 SJF, which featured an exhibit of African art on loan from the Museum of African Art in Belgrade, the first ever exhibition of African art in North Macedonia, which included narratives linking African art and jazz. The analysis of the exhibit includes some discussion of the Non-Aligned Movement as an element of the political and economic legacies of Yugoslavia (i.e., SFRY) that continue to inform conceptions and imaginations of Africa and blackness in North Macedonia. The second example focuses on the listening environments of three performances from the 2013 SJF: Roscoe Mitchell and Tyshawn Sorey, the band Harriet Tubman and Cassandra Wilson, and a concert titled “Balkan Fever” featuring Vlatko Stefanovski, Miroslav Tadić, Teodosii Spassov, and the Macedonian Philharmonic. Taken together, the modes of audience engagement with these performances raise questions about the conditions under which liberatory political possibilities are nurtured (or, alternatively, foreclosed) at the site of international jazz festivals.
A moment from the 2018 SJF grounds the third example, where a solo concert of trumpet player Wadada Leo Smith occurred simultaneously with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by the Macedonian Philharmonic and with the first successful vote by the Macedonian Parliament in the process of changing the country’s constitutional name from the Republic of Macedonia to the Republic of North Macedonia. Considering these concurrent events, together with the other examples, reveals how a jazz festival can be a site for foregrounding the Black radical tradition and its broader emancipatory possibilities beyond a Black/White binary, even as it prioritises adherence to European forms of whiteness and participates in (and against) musical and political processes of Europeanisation.
Dave Wilson (he/him) is an interdisciplinary scholar, saxophonist, composer, ethnographer, producer, educator, and contributor to the music community of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. His research has appeared in journals including Journal of Jazz Studies, Environmental Humanities, Popular Music, Leonardo Music Journal, and Ethnomusicology , and his co-authored music appreciation textbook Gateways to Understanding Music (Routledge) was published in its second edition in 2023.
With music from his 2023 album Ephemeral , he was selected as a finalist for Best Jazz Artist at the 2024 Aotearoa Music Awards and for the 2024 APRA Best Jazz Composition Award. He appears regularly as a Music Correspondent on Radio New Zealand, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Music at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
Organizacija/ Organised by: IKSŠ ZRC SAZU, GNI ZRC SAZU, PŠ ZRC SAZU