Improvisation

A video recording of a multimedia performative ethnography. Ah Raza! The Making of an American Artist.

Dr. Milford Graves discusses his theories regarding musical orthodoxies and the connections between music and the biological body

Dr. Robin Kelley discusses the defiance of form that characterized Thelonious Monk’s music, and argues that even if Monk viewed his own music as apolitical, it still inspired political action by exemplifying an ethos of freedom that applies directly to the social world.

Dr. Deborah Wong discusses improvised solos in Japanese American drumming and their relationship to ideas about tradition and hybrid cultural identities. Gender is also a focal point of the talk, and numerous video examples of taiko performances are presented.

While examining the presence of improvisatory practices in opera over the course of history, the Hutcheons discuss the ongoing hybridization of opera with other art forms, and how racial identities have been represented in opera.

Dr. George Lipsitz discusses transcultural understanding and improvisation in the context of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of New Orleans in 2005.

A profile of a collaborative outreach project conducted throughout the summer of 2008 for youth with disabilities involving ICASP, KidsAbility, and the Guelph Jazz Festival.

Anthony Braxton gave the keynote address at the 2007 Guelph Jazz Festival and kindly let us video record it. Here we offer an edited transcription. Professor Braxton has also provided three supplementary charts, included as appendices, that help to explain his terminology and his system.

Wayde Compton is a Black Canadian writer/poet, DJ, and historian, born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Compton has published two books of poetry: 49th Parallel Psalm, and Performance Bond. He has also edited an anthology, Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature, and recently a collection of essays entitled, After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region.

George Elliott Clarke is one of Canada’s most prolific poets. He is also a renowned essayist, scholar, playwright, and, in many ways, a songwriter. His work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the black Canadian community of Nova Scotia, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as “Africadia.” Clarke was born in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1960, near the Black Loyalist community of Three Mile Plains, as a seventh-generation Canadian of African American and Mi’Kmaq Amerindian heritage.