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---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Jazz behind the Iron Curtain From: "Zugravu Gh." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, February 20, 2008 23:07 To: "oberlist mailing list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conference: Jazz behind the Iron Curtain German Historical Institute Warsaw, Poland 26 - 28 September 2008 DEADLINE: 1 April 2008 Please send your information and suggestions to Dr. Rudiger Ritter at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Conference Aims The music of freedom, democracy and modernity as well as a symbol of the American way of life these are the central elements of a myth that has surrounded jazz since its inception, and which became influential particularly in the state socialist societies of East-Central Europe after 1945. Scene insiders accord jazz an important role in resisting the state socialist order. We need to differentiate here: Forms of targeted political resistance are scarcely to be found in East-Central European jazz. Even at first glance, however, such apolitical phenomena as the simple joy of playing and improvisation or the existence of a jazz scene that was difficult for the regime to control necessarily made this music and its environment a political factor of the first rank, which was also shaped by the connection of jazz to its country of origin. The transfer of U.S. American cultural forms helped to bolster oppositional circles intellectually, which in turn was exploited by U.S. American propaganda officers who made jazz a political weapon in the Cold War. The conference is directed at historians, scholars in the field of cultural studies, sociologists and musicologists who are working on jazz and related music and its social impact in the state socialist societies of Eastern Europe after the Second World War. The aim is to describe the efficacy paradigms of jazz in state socialism. The conference is being organised by a research project on Jazz in the Eastern Bloc based at the Institute for Eastern European Studies of the Free University of Berlin and funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. The project is under the direction of Prof. Gertrud Pickhan (Project coordinator: Dr. Rudiger Ritter). It is intended to inspire more intensive research on the functioning of state socialist societies from a viewpoint that scholars have largely neglected up until now. The immediate aim is thus to take stock of current work on the societal function of jazz as a point of departure for further research. A selection of the contributions will be published. Possible topics (by no means exhaustive): The jazz scene in individual countries (especially Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the GDR, the USSR, the Baltic countries, other eastern bloc states) Jazz as a means of propaganda and counter-propaganda Jazz and film Jazz and the media (radio, TV, photography) Jews and jazz Biographical studies of individual jazz musicians Jazz festivals and jazz organisations (e. g. Jazz Jamboree, Jazz Section in the CSSR) Musicians travels from West to East and vice-versa (Dave Brubeck, Louis Armstrong) Development of national styles in jazz? Jazz as a vehicle for Americanisation Jazz and youth culture Jazz and other musical genres: rock, pop, chanson and modern classical music We encourage suggestions for papers on jazz in an individual country as well as on comparative work about one or more countries of the former eastern bloc; relevant East-West comparisons are also welcome. We are also interested in contributions that discuss methodological issues from both social scientific and musicological perspectives. The conference language will be English. Please email your suggestions (approx. one page) and a brief CV as Word documents by 1 April 2008 to Dr. Rudiger Ritter at [EMAIL PROTECTED] We will inform you of our selections by 1 May 2008. We plan to publish selected papers in a conference volume. Rudiger Ritter Garystr. 55, 14195 Berlin 030 838 54536 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internetauftritt des Projekts http://www.oei.fu-berlin.de/projekte/jazz/index.html _______________________________________________ oberlist mailing list [email protected] http://idash.org/mailman/listinfo/oberlist
