Damian Evans

The second edition of Documenting Jazz took place at Birmingham City University 16–18 January 2020. Below is the chair’s welcome.

The second edition of the Documenting Jazz conferences offered an unparalleled variety of experiences drawn from across the world. It brought together more than one hundred delegates from twenty countries within the academic, archive, library, and museum sectors to explore and discuss documenting jazz. As the programme reflected, there were contributions from individuals of all career stages, from established scholars and practitioners to those just starting their careers, embracing the academic sector and other heritage and cultural organisations.

The conference theme was focused on ways of documenting jazz as visual culture and its distinct representations. The act of documenting jazz embodies ways of documenting that reflect assumptions about the past. As changes in technology, cultures and economies have profoundly influenced and affected our perception of music, and alternative ways of documenting jazz must be considered, explored, and discussed.

Documenting Jazz 2020 consolidate discussions around issues of gender, and the way those have been documented or marginalised in this music history. It also challenged the narratives surrounding jazz as a male-dominated domain. Keynotes speakers, Professors Catherine Tackley and Kristin McGee both represent excellence in jazz scholarship, and I am incredibly grateful to them for accepting my invitation.

The conference would not be possible without the hard work of the conference and programme committee members. I extend my sincere thanks to all involved.

I look forward to meeting you all in the next Documenting Conference or surrounding events.

Pedro Cravinho

Conference Chair

Documenting Jazz took place from 17-19 January 2019 and shone a spotlight on Irish jazz and Irish jazz studies, brought the international jazz studies community to Dublin, hosted important jazz archive meetings, including an Irish Jazz Archive roundtable, and raised the academic profile of TU Dublin, Conservatory of Music and Drama and its jazz programme.
The conference presented 2 keynote speeches, 67 papers, a poster exhibition, 2 research posters, a closing concert and a conference dinner.

While the conference theme of Documenting Jazz left room for a broad and varied range of papers, it also welcomed the archive community which was well represented by the following archives:
Siena Jazz Archive, National Jazz Archive (Britain), Scottish Jazz Archive, The Louis Armstrong House (New York), Russian Jazz Archive, Jazz Heritage Wales, The San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation Collection at Stanford University, Norwegian National Library – Jazz division, Jazz collections of the libraries and the archives of the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.

Leading scholars from the field of jazz studies were present including keynote speakers Krin Gabbard and Gabriel Solis, Professors Catherine Tackley, Tim Hall, Nicholas Gebhardt, and Dana Gooley. Prominent authors Stephanie Crease and John Gennari presented papers and the editor and series editor of The History of European Jazz (Equinox Publishing, 2018), Francesco Martinelli and Alyn Shipton were in attendance. Documenting Jazz drew the attention of Intellect Books, Equinox Publishing and Routledge, all of whom sent a representative to attend.

The conference provided its delegates with healthy and appetising food options and provided for those with allergies and dietary requirements. We communicated with the delegates before their arrival giving them information on travel, transport and information to make their arrival easy. All of these efforts resulted in a strong positive feeling of a community being reported by delegates, many of whom contacted the conference organisers during and after the event to comment positively on the organisation, the breadth and quality of research, the engaging atmosphere and networking opportunities.

I would like to thank the conference committee and the administrative staff at TU Dublin who made the conference possible and Dr Orla McDonagh for giving us the opportunity to fulfil this important and groundbreaking event. Such was the success that Documenting Jazz will continue in the form of a conference in January 2020 at Birmingham City University, one of the world’s leading jazz research centres.

Gabriel Solis, Damian Evans and Krin Gabbard

Press: University of Wales Trinity St. David: https://uwtsd.ac.uk/news/press-releases/press-2019/uwtsd-professor-jen-wilson-founder-of-jazz-heritage-wales-attends-documenting-jazz-2019.html

Allaboutjazz.com: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/documenting-jazz-2019-by-ian-patterson.php