I really enjoyed the presentation yesterday on the subversive influence of jazz on politics.  There is actually an interesting connection between this presentation and our group's one on sports and jazz.  The communist press, which was advocating for desegregation well before the mainstream press, was instrumental in the desegregation of baseball through their advocacy for the talented Negro League players like Jackie Robinson.  Also, many years later, Jackie Robinson was actually brought before the HUAC to testify against Paul Robeson and its one of the main things people pointed at to criticize him later in his life.  Though he is remembered for criticizing Robeson's communist affiliations, what is forgotten is that he read a statement that was quite damning of institutionalized racism in America.  Robinson regretted his role in the banishment of Robeson for the rest of his life.

I found the section on Mondrian interesting because I believe I saw some animation of his in film school.  I could be mistaken, but I thought he actually tried to create an avant garde animation based on his "Boogie Woogie" paintings that featured rhythmic movement of colors, but no soundtrack.  The syncopated movement of the colors was meant to convey the feeling of boogie woogie jazz music.  I'm almost positive this was Mondrian, but I'm not sure if the group came across this in their research.

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Jazz and Music Therapy

 I must admit, I thought Jazz therapy was far-fetched. After listening to the presentation, I think the idea needs to be explored.  We are having limited success in some aspects of medicine and sometimes we need to think outside the box- and this should be explored further. My main concern is how much access the group would get from doctors.

The Jazz Voice

 I thought this was the most interesting presentation of the day. Our text defined Hymns and gospel as offering a promise of glory in the afterlife and comfort for a hard existence. This group makes  the case that Hymns empower the powerless by giving them voice. this gives us a more complete picture of the power of this music, and makes it more relevant to the lives of the listeners.

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Jazz and Music Therapy

Thank you for your presentation. I thought that you all had a fascinating topic and that t has the potential to do some real good (and for a bargain basement price). I had a few questions and suggestions to share. First, I heard an interesting article on npr last week about the massive number of veterans coming home from this war with traumatic brain injuries. You might be able to partly tailor your project (or a segment of it) to deal with this. I bet it will be a heavily funded are of research and it seems an ideal arena to demonstrate the efficacy of your project. The dually psychological and physical manifestations of the brain injury might be a perfect test for your concept.

I was disappointed but not surprised to find that jazz has been so sorely ignored/shunned (and frankly I was surprised to find that there was such a large field of background literature on musical therapy). Anyway, yours sounds like a great addition.

I wonder if it would not be dangerous to have patients listening to psychoactive music (as you’re hoping it is) without a therapist present. I think you mentioned having a therapist present – that sounds like a great idea. It might be worth having a therapist present in cases of patients suffering from psychological ailments.  

Finally, I wonder about the incorporation of dissonant music into healing. I certainly prefer a certain type of jazz music (I think of Brubeck’s Take Five, the song that I have really continued to listen to regularly) but I wonder if it’s not most conducive to healing to listen to music that you might not like. What if it’s best to listen to music that sets you on edge? It seems counterintuitive but it might be worth accounting for in the experiment. Maybe falling into a musical trance with satisfying music is not most likely to make us better, to make us thing, to cause us to re-imagine the music and the world that produced it. Maybe the reimagining of the world is akin to the reimagining of the disease, which can be brought on by listening to music we don’t like.

Jazz and Sport

Your depth of research was boggling. I feel like you knew the men you spoke about extraordinarily well (the allusion to the MANN law was a fantastic example). I really don’t have much to say by way of suggestion, except that I might be interested in a more close integration of some of the features of sport that mesh with jazz music. I might approach the question through the idea of the event. Integration is something really new, right? The athletes that you discussed made something really new possible (maybe not by jut playing together but in terms of perception). Owning a club, dating a white woman, even the new way to knock people out (music vs. fists) – perhaps this is the point of conversion. Stealing home in the world series might be conceivable as an event. It certainly caught people off guard. Jazz emerged as a new music; it, too, seems to be an event on the musical scene. It had not previously been thinkable.

There is a fascinating tie between fame and notoriety (I think Daryl brought this out in a quote – this might bear more weight).

I wonder if there are any precursors? If so, this might complicate the question of the event. Also, why was there the need to “re-integrate?”

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The Jazz Voice: A Hymnic Projection

As I commented in class, I find this project very interesting. Looking at the aesthetic and political influence of hymnal music on Jazz oozes cultural studies to me. The period of time this project examines is one of great political instability and thus this approach seems perfectly appropriate. To again repeat my comments in class, I feel like examining the two political doctrines of imminence and transcendence would yield fantastic results particularly in reading songs like “The Comforter Has Come.” I was pleased with the close readings this group did and feel this is an excellent way to demonstrate their thesis. I will be greatly interested to see if this group’s project gets funded particularly because I am curious to see what findings their trip will uncover. I really like this project and feel it would make a valuable addition to the scholarship of jazz and American history.

Jazz and Pain Therapy

This is another group that is looking at what jazz does. I think it is important to look at the long history of music in religion and medicine as this group did, going all the way back to Ancient Egypt and Greece. I was shocked to hear that medicine had ignored the therapeutic value of jazz (less so about blues which seems to be by definition melancholy). It makes perfect sense to me that jazz (any music really) can stimulate the brain and that understanding this simple relationship could be valuable to both music and medicine scholarship. Jazz does seem to be particularly suited for therapy because it is a rather cerebral genre. This group noticed, even before they performed their tests, that subject position will effect the results of the study. Simple insights like this are a lesson for us all to think about the direct we are heading before we depart and can help to save considerable time. Great job. 

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The Jazz Voice: A Hymnic Projection

I found this topic very interesting.  The group showed a complete analysis of some songs in the beginning of this century and its connection with religious. We notice nowadays that all churches incorporated different music styles in their hymns which attract a lot of people. I also found interested the analysis of the songs in the 19^th century and its lyrics. Good job! I liked this topic since I play the guitar and bass in a Catholic Prayer Group since 1992, and I might to start listen more of the jazz songs and try to incorporate some of this rhythms in our repertory.

Jazz and Integration of sports:

The connection of Jazz and sports showed us some interest facts such as some athletes inspired the jazz musicians to compose some songs. I was not aware of the fact the Mile Davis was inspired by Jack Johnson. All members made a profound research and were very secure about their findings. During the Olympic games I noticed that Michael Phelps was always listening some songs before the competition and I was wondering if he was listening some of the jazz songs.

Overall, I wish success for all of you in your journey towards to the PhD and it was an honor to be part of this class. Dr. Martin, Scott and Tyler did an excellent job and I liked to see your motivation for the success of this course.

Regards,

Leandro.

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“The Jazz Voice-A Hymnic Projection”

Being a student of theology, I naturally found this project quite intriguing.  I appreciated the depth of research which is seemingly already underway.  Knowing our own library houses many of the archives for this project makes it a realistic endeavor as far as grant success is concerned.  I was very interested to see the group’s discussion of the progression of hymns into jazz music, and the you-tube clip was fantastic, because it showed the integration or syncretism of jazz into hymnal music.  The base interpretations, which were to highlight themes of death and the afterlife, and giving voice to the voiceless is critical to the jazz culture, and therefore an extremely relevant project for this class. 

“Jazz and Music Therapy”

This particular project in many ways is over my head.  I was lost in most of the psychological research methodology, and therapy-diction.  However, the things which made sense to me were poignant.  The thesis which claims from the beginning, jazz has been therapeutic resonated with my own understandings of the significance of jazz and its subversive political functions.  Slave songs were therapeutic for slaves, singing on the plantations: there were messages of hope, salvation, in those songs.  So, I feel this is a riveting project and I was also surprised to hear that jazz had not been more utilized in the field of music therapy?  The fact also that youngest and oldest subjects responded most positively was interesting as well.  The project seems to have a lot of potential for further case studies and research.

Jazz and the Integration of Sports

This is a unique topic, certainly.  I’m not much of a sports fan so I knew little to nothing about both Jackie Robinson and Jack Johnson, and like most of the class I had no idea that jazz was already so integrated into the stories of their lives.  The comparison which was discussed between Jackie Robinson and Luis Armstrong was enlightening.  It highlighted the devaluation of passive resistance in our culture, making the additional MLK reference relevant.  Additionally, the role Jack Johnson had in club-owning and hosting various benefits demonstrated the deep integration of sports and music, which I think still exists today primarily in the hip-hop culture.  The music which was played for the class was excellent.  Something I had never heard before. 

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The presentations this week were very interesting, and had such a high level of scholarship.  And I'm not even talking about my group ;-)

The Jazz Voice: A Hymnic Projection
I know very little about the history of hymns, so I found this presentation quite fascinating.  The group clearly had done a great deal of research because they had so much information on the subject, but still convincingly argued the need for further study.  I thought it was really interesting how some of the hymns had notes like "sing with expression".  Clearly these songs were written with the hopes of being interpreted in different ways.

Jazz Music for Chronic Pain
I thought this presentation was also great.  Not that I have experienced chronic pain myself, but I love music, and I would just assume that it has some degree of healing power.  The fact that there is not significant scholarship already on the healing power of jazz is shocking to me, and I really hope this group gets to continue with this project because I think it is essential.  I had one little suggestion if they do get the opportunity to pursue their research further: Look into using medical schools and/or nursing schools for assistance.  Medical students and residents are often looking for research projects to pad their resumes with, and help you out with your larger project would be win-win for everyone.  Also, there are professional palliative care organizations for doctors and nurses who work in this field and they may be able to provide resources and possibly even funding.  Good luck!!

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The Jazz Voice: A Hymnic Projection

(This is my group – we were awesome!  )

Jazz and Medicine Group

This group’s discussion of music therapy in the early modern period and beyond was very enlightening for me.  Lately, probably primarily because of this class, I’ve begun to seriously feel that music isn’t something that any person invented or created; rather music is something that is a part of nature and the world.  I suppose it begins with the first thing we hear, our own heartbeats and the heartbeat of our mothers.  For me it makes sense that luxuriating in music when a person is sick can bring health.  I’m excited that this group has found a gap in musical therapy, particularly lacking is jazz and blues.  I especially loved the part when they talked about Jazz’s “roots in the domain of shared suffering.”  If Jazz is an escape from suffering in its roots, it makes sense that Jazz could help others to relieve their own suffering.

Jazz and the Integration of Sport – Garrett, Andrew and Darryl

Again, with this proposal, I find myself excited by the idea of bringing scholarship to a new and unexplored topic.  I can really see a book on the integration of Jazz and sport which focuses on Jack Johnson and Jackie Robinson, complete with large photos and first person accounts of the athletes and the artists who played about them.  But I also love this idea of a conference/concert (those two don’t go together nearly often enough), and of the online wiki cite which would encourage all of those interested in this topic to share their ideas.

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The Jazz Voice: A Hymnic Projection--The attempt to tap into previously unused resources is great, as are the points abotu hte influence of the jazz voice as giving individuals the power to speak out, reach out, act and situation of power in the individual actor.

Jazz Music Therapy--This was a very interesting presentation. I highly enjoyed the discussion of previous studies in music therapy and was suprised that there had not been more done in the area. It seems you have simplified a highly expansive and large study, keeping the budget almost rediculously reasonable. If you wanted to pursue this I could not imagine how you would be unable to find funding.

Jazz and Sports Integration: I was surprised by the connections between sports and jazz that you pointed out, particularly what you said about how baseball is like jazz improvisation. I particularly like the idea of the collection of oral histories which seem to be devalued in our society, but represent a significant and untapped part of scholarship.

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Jazz and Identity:

I thought you had a great start. I have a few questions that might be helpful to answer for your proposal: How much involvement do you see from the advisor? Can an advisor take a role in identity development? How exactly does this work? Should they? Is it possible to develop identity with the instruction of an advisor?

I’m curious about the selection of five years as a grouping point for musicians. It seems that you’d want to allow that a new musician and a musician with four years experience could be in a different group. How about asking the participants to select a proficiency level and grouping them accordingly.  

Does/can music constitute identity or must it necessarily flow from or in dialogue with an extant identity?

Women and Jazz:

Your presentation was excellent and the field seems desperately in need of more research. It might be a really nice addendum to collect and record musical performances if you can find some – particularly if you can make them accessible to the rest of us.

I think I heard you say at one point that the perception was that women performed for men, underneath males. The body in a sense became a currency for the jazzwoman seeking to play in a role perceived as masculine. I think this area might also be able to use some theoretical development. It’s a great kernel to start. I also wonder if there’s a difference in the perception of commodification between America and Europe during the period.

Jazz in education:

Your approach sounds innovative. I wish my musical class had looked like that – when I learned to play the recorder, I think I learned Mary Had a Little Lamb. Scat could have made the class a lot more fun.

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