This symposium will host internationally renowned experts, artists and journalists and focus on the diversity of American and European jazz. The participants will discuss topics and questions such as: How is the societal relevance of jazz expressed in the USA and Europe? What are the differences and similarities and what impacts do they have respectively? The question of how political dimensions of a genre that synonymously stood for freedom in the 1960ies can be grasped today will be discoursed infront of the background of the inception of the UNESCO International Jazz-Day this year. The Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA), a multi-disciplinary department at the University of Heidelberg, will discuss and trace these transatlantic connections under the guidance of the sociologist and musicologist Dr Christian Broecking. It will bring together academic interest with the joy of enjoying this music. With this event and in cooperation with the Festival, the HCA would like to establish a representative venue in Germany where transatlantic issues in jazz can be discussed.
Symposium - Lost in Diversity
A transatlantic dialogue on the societal relevance of jazz
A Symposium of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies
Supported by BASF SE
The symposium will be opened with a solo concert by the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock. Archie Shepp und Yusef Lateef will be coming to the Metropolitan region especially during the symposium to perform a joint final concert.
07/10/12 Opening concert Herbie Hancock
08 and 09/10/12 Symposium
10/10/12 Final concert Archie Shepp / Yusef Lateef / Reggie Workman / Hamid Drake / Mulgrew Miller
A symposium by:
Supported by:
Preliminary Program
HCA Symposium: “Lost in Diversity – A Transatlantic Dialogue on the Social Relevance of Jazz”
Thursday, November 8
(HCA)
10:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
10:30 Keynote
Daniel Fischlin (University Research Chair and Full Professor of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph, Guelph)
“The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation”
Session 1, 11:15-12:45: Jazz and Human Rights
Eric Porter (Professor of American Studies, History, and History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz):
"Improvising Social Justice in Post-Katrina New Orleans"
Wolfram Knauer (Director, Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, Darmstadt)
“Social Relevance - Baloney?”
12:45-15:00 Lunch Break
(Aula of the Old University)
Session 2, 15:00-16:30: American Idols – European Identity I
Piano Lecture 1
15:00 Piano Solo: Alexander von Schlippenbach (Berlin)
15:25 Lecture: “The Invention of European Free Jazz”
Piano Lecture 2
15:45 Piano Solo: Vijay Iyer (New York)
16:10 Lecture: “Transcultural Improvisation”
16:30-17:00 : Break
Session 3, 17:00-18:00: Jazz and Politics I
Keynote Yusef Lateef (Amherst, Massachusetts)
“Reflections on the Social Relevance of Black Improvised Music”
Keynote Archie Shepp (Paris)
“Reflections on the Political Power of Black Improvised Music”
(HCA)
18:00-18:30 Reception
Session 4, 18:30-20:00: American Idols – European Identity II
Howard Mandel (President, Jazz Journalists Association, Arts Reporter for National Public Radio and Author, New York)
“Motivations in U.S. Jazz"
Christian Dalgas (Project Manager Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Copenhagen)
“Supporting, Exploring, and Protecting Jazz as a Contemporary Art Form in Denmark”
Thomas Krüger (President, German Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn)
“Free Tunes – the Public Meaning of Jazz in Germany”
Friday, November 9
(HCA)
Session 5, 10:00-11:15: Jazz and Politics II
Mark Terkessidis (Psychologist, Migration Researcher and Author, Berlin)
“The Orchestra, the Session, the Collective: Could Jazz be a Model for Living Together in Multiciplicity?”
Ted Panken (Jazz Journalist and Radio Host, New York)
“All Jazz Is Modern: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Radical
Aesthetics, and the AACM”
Session 6, 11:15-12:30: Jazz and Politics III
Tom Carter (President, Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Member U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, Washington, DC)
“Jazz and Diplomacy"
Rainer Kern (Director, Enjoy Jazz Festival, Heidelberg)
“Jazz and the City”
DJ Lecture, 12:30-13:15
Thomas Meinecke (Author, Musician, and DJ, Berg, Bavaria)
“Jazz - Resistance, Resignification“
13:15-14:15 Lunch Break
Session 7, 14:15-16:00: American Idols – European Identity III
Katja von Schuttenbach (German-American Jazz Historian and Author, Washington, DC)
“Trailblazing Pianist Jutta Hipp: A Life of Jazz and the Pursuit of
Freedom”
Maxi Sickert (Journalist, Jazz Historian and Author, Berlin)
"The Shatter of the American Dream - Hope and the Change of Perspective in the German and European Jazzaesthetic"
Angelika Niescier (Composer and Improviser, Köln)
“The Braxton Experience”
16:00-17:00 Final Remarks
Enjoy Jazz Partner
