AHRC Beyond Text project asks "What is Black British Jazz?"

The ‘Black British Jazz’ project (BBJ) explores the emergence of a distinct tradition within British music. BBJ melds reggae, hiphop, African music and US jazz into a rich, and constantly developing set of sounds. In documenting this musical hybrid, the project touches on important issues for the study of music – the transmission of cultural values, the social context of musical forms, and frameworks of ownership that impact on musical communities.

The research takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together researchers with specialism’s in sociology, music psychology and (ethno) musicolology. It integrates a range of methods, from detailed analysis of performance through to ethnographic and historical investigation.

The project approaches BBJ via three research strands:

• Routes
• Ownership
• Performance

These strands act as guides for our work. But as the project develops we will also be looking for ways of integrating them and highlighting common themes.

In terms of audience the project reaches out, beyond academia, to a broad constituency through film, a radio series/podcast, an end-of- project concert and more. What Is Black British Jazz runs from January 2009 through to July 2011 and is supported through the AHRC’s Beyond Text programme.

The Open University project team are:

• Dr Jason Toynbee (Principal Investigator), Dept of Sociology,
• Dr Mark Doffman (Research Fellow), Dept of Sociology,
• Dr Catherine Tackley (Co-Investigator), Dept of Music,
• Dr Byron Dueck (Co-Investigator), Dept of Music,
• Mark Banks (Co-Investigator), Dept of Sociology,

The project aims are:

• To trace the historical and geographical routes along which black British jazz (BBJ) has developed.
• To examine the role of memory and cultural transmission in the emergence of new musical forms (also to contribute to their preservation through audio-visual recordings).
• To investigate ownership of BBJ in relation to entrepreneurship, creativity and cultural policy.
• To analyse aesthetics, embodied practice and participation in BBJ performance.
  Research questions

The main research question, 'What is Black British Jazz?', is broken down as follows:

• What is the cultural identity of the genre?
• How did it emerge?
• Who owns it, how is it owned and what is the impact of cultural policy on ownership?
• What are the defining themes in its performance? How do musicians use grooves, voices and improvised scripts in its delivery?
• In political and aesthetic terms, why and how does BBJ matter?

Outputs
Research outputs from the project include conventional academic forms such as books, journal articles and conference papers. But the project team also aim to make the results of their work available to a broader public. A film (in collaboration with Metal Dog Productions), a short series of radio programmes/podcasts and a concert will take the project to non-academic audiences. Project data drawn from performances, interviews and documents will also be available as a) archive material held by the British Library and the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago and b) a resource for jazz education.

For more information see: http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/blackbritishjazz/ and http://projects.beyondtext.ac.uk/blackbritishjazz/blog.html