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When Jazz Was Foreign: Rethinking Jazz History

This essay forms part of the overall output for the three-year HERA-funded research project: “Rhythm Changes: Jazz Cultures and European Identities.” Alongside colleague Andrew Dubber, this project involves scholars from the Universities of Salford, Amsterdam, Stavanger, Graz, and Copenhagen, and focuses on the role of national identity in the conceptualization and international spread of jazz cultures within Europe. The aim of the project is to reframe the subject of jazz history from a transnational or global perspective, and its impact is evident from the large number of papers presented at project-led research events that develop this perspective and cite research by members of the project team. Aspects of this research have been presented at conferences in the UK (2010, 2011), Sweden (2011), Norway (2011) and the Netherlands (2011). A large part of this project involves knowledge transfer in a series of public events—European-wide jazz festivals, music industry events, policy papers, and cultural symposia. The research was carried out at the British Library, the Columbia University Library, New York, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The larger aim of the article, and the HERA project as a whole, is to act as a catalyst for new paradigms of jazz historiography and analysis and to provide an important point of reference for reconceptualising jazz studies. The volume of Jazzforschung in which it is included features other essays by Rhythm Changes project team members. Furthermore, the article will form the basis for the opening chapter in a forthcoming monograph for Routledge USA as part of their new transnational studies in jazz series.