Documenting Jazz 2022 Logo

In partnership with Jazz Heritage Wales, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) will host the fourth Documenting Jazz Conference from 9 to 12 November in Swansea, supported by the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) and Brecon Jazz. 

The conference will be held at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, and will focus on the theme of diversity and aims to create an interdisciplinary forum which is both inclusive and wide-ranging for sharpening awareness, sharing studies and experiences, and focusing the debate on distinct aspects of diversity in jazz today. 

Welcome

Conference Chairs

On behalf of the conference committee, we welcome you all to Documenting Jazz 2022. Now in its fourth edition, the Documenting Jazz international conference aims to offer an unparalleled variety of experiences drawn from across the world. We have contributions from individuals of all career stages, from established professionals to those just starting their careers, from academics to independent scholars and practitioners, embracing the education, heritage and cultural sectors.

The act of documenting jazz focused on diversity, intends to reflect on different assumptions about the past and the way this music history has been perceived and documented. We are incredibly grateful to Dr Joan Cartwright and Francesco Martinelli for accepting our challenge of engaging with the conference’s theme, diversity, in their keynotes.

The idea of organising a Documenting Jazz conference in Wales started some years ago in Birmingham during its second edition. We have come a long way to see the materialisation of it, still in a post-pandemic period. This conference would not be possible without the hard work of the conference and programming committees and many more, both within and outside the host institution. We extend our thanks to you all.

We look forward to meeting you throughout the conference and at the surrounding events. Enjoy your stay in Swansea!

Dr Pedro Cravinho, Paula Gardiner and Orphy Robinson MBE

Conference Chairs

Programme

The final programme is available here.

Venue

Dylan Thomas Centre

Download Swansea city centre map and directions here

Registration

Registration here

We are looking forward to seeing you at Documenting Jazz 2022!

Keynotes

Joan Cartwright

Keynote: Who gives voice to diversity in jazz?

Dr Joan Cartwright is a renowned veteran of the Jazz and Blues stage for 40+ years. She is a vocalist, composer, and author of several books, including her memoir with touring and teaching experiences, and was honoured as the first Lady Jazz Master by Black Women in Jazz Awards in Atlanta, GA, in 2014. Her titles include Amazing Musicwomen, So You Want To Be A Singer? and A History of African American Jazz and Blues with interviews of Quincy Jones, Dewey Redman, Lester Bowie, among other jazz musicians and aficionados.

In 2007, she founded Women in Jazz South Florida, Inc., a non-profit organization to promote women musicians. In 2022, the organization released its 8th CD of women composers. Dr Cartwright hosts MUSICWOMAN Radio, featuring women who compose and perform their own music at BlogTalkRadio, has two personal CDs Feelin’ Good and In Pursuit of a Melody, and featured as an actor in Last Man and The Siblings, two sitcoms produced by MJTV Network. In June 2022, she decide to incorporate Musicwoman Archive and Cultural Center in North Carolina to preserve the music of women composers and instrumentalists.

Francesco Martinelli

(Re)examining diversity throughout the jazz historiography

Francesco Martinelli is a jazz promoter, journalist, lecturer, translator and author. He is the author of magazine articles and monographs about Evan Parker, Joëlle Léandre and Mario Schiano. Since 1999 he has taught the history of jazz and related subjects at the Siena Jazz Foundation courses and in other conservatories in Italy. Martinelli has lectured at NYU, Wesleyan and Columbia Universities in the USA, at Bilgi and ITU in Istanbul, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, and many other institutions. His primary research interests include the history of jazz in Italy, jazz relationships with visual arts, traditional musics from the Near East, discography, and the preservation and restoration of sound carriers.

Martinelli is currently a consultant for the Izmir European Jazz Festival and Director of the Arrigo Polillo Center for Jazz Studies in Siena, Italy’s most important jazz archive. He has translated over 10 reference jazz books into Italian and is a contributor to Rough Guide to Turkish Music and recently edited The History of European Jazz The Music, Musicians and Audience in Context (Equinox, 2018).

Call for Papers Closed

The CfP for Documenting Jazz 2022 is now closed.

We are looking forward to seeing you at Documenting Jazz 2022!

NB: Given some ongoing uncertainty because of Covid-19 as well as to reduce the conference’s carbon footprint, the conference committee is planning that the event will be fully hybrid. We welcome you all to Swansea in November, but online engagement for those unable to attend will be supported.

Conference Committee:

Dr David Bird (University of Wales Trinity St David)

Dr Roger Cannon (Brecon Jazz)

Deborah Checkland (Jazz Heritage Wales)

Dr Pedro Cravinho (Birmingham City University)

Nicola Dowdle (University of Wales Trinity St David)

Paula Gardiner (Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama)

Dr Lynne Gornall (Brecon Jazz)

Catherine Hammerton (University of Wales Trinity St David)

Alison Harding (University of Wales Trinity St David)

Christopher Holtom (University of Wales Trinity St David)

Dr Marian Jago (University of Edinburgh)

Orphy Robinson MBE (London Performing Academy of Music)

Professor Ian Walsh (University of Wales Trinity St David)

Jen Wilson (Jazz Heritage Wales)

Call For Papers (Closed)

Documenting Jazz seeks to draw together colleagues with an interest in jazz studies from a diverse array of backgrounds and welcomes contributions from scholars of all career stages, independent and non-academically affiliated scholars and researchers, critics, archivists, librarians and practitioners to foster an atmosphere of rich interdisciplinary discussion and debate. 

This year’s conference will focus on the theme of diversity and will therefore create an interdisciplinary forum which is both inclusive and wide-ranging for sharpening awareness, sharing studies and experiences, and focusing the debate on the many aspects of diversity in jazz today raising the following questions:

  • Who gives voice to diversity in the jazz world? 
  • What does diversity mean in Jazz Studies in particular? 
  • Does jazz as musical and social practice contribute to intercultural dialogue? 
  • Has jazz transcended boundaries beyond its sub-cultures? 
  • Are diversity and inclusion problematic within mainstream education and research, programmes, perspectives, ethics and methodologies? 
  • What can we say about jazz practice, its histories and communities?

As with previous conference editions, in Dublin (2019), Birmingham (2020) and Edinburgh (2021), while in no way limited to these, the conference committee encourages individual/joint papers and panels which address the theme of diversity and offers the following points of departure: 

  • Jazz on/in Film & Television        
  • Jazz as Social Practice                  
  • Jazz and Technology                     
  • Jazz and Gender                            
  • Jazz and Sexuality                         
  • Jazz and Politics                            
  • • Jazz and Aesthetics                     
  • Jazz and Visual Culture                 
  • Jazz and Disability                        
  • Jazz and Improvisation
  • Jazz and the Environment/Ecology
  • Jazz and the virtual world/AI
  • Jazz and Wellbeing
  • Jazz Performance Practice
  • Jazz in the Popular Imagination
  • Jazz as Discourse
  • Jazz and its Heritage Legacy
  • Jazz and its Emerging Communities

Call for Papers

We invited proposals to the following formats: 

  • Individual papers (20 mins duration plus 10 mins Q&A, 250-word abstract). 
  • Joint papers (max 2 speakers, same format as above). 
  • Themed sessions (3 papers totalling 90 mins, up to 250-word abstract per paper plus 250 words outlining the rationale for the session). 
  • Round-table discussions (90 mins, max. 6 speakers. 750-word abstract outlining the format, content and rationale for the session). 
  • Lecture recitals or other forms of practice-based content (500-word abstract outlining the format, content, and rationale for the session). 
  • Posters (250-word abstract). 

Proposals should include: 

  • Title for the paper and/or session. 
  • Name, contact details and affiliation of the speaker(s). In the case of themed sessions and round-table sessions, the panel convenor. 
  • A brief biography of the speaker(s) (100 words per speaker). 

NB: Please note that while presentations that make some use of film or video within the time limits are welcome as always, there it is not possible for the conference to consider the inclusion of entire movies.