Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium 2015

Guelph, Ontario – September 16-18, 2015

Among the People: Arts, Improvisation, and Well-Being

All the 2015 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium events took take place at 3 downtown venues: Heritage Hall, Musagetes, and Silence. View our custom map showing the three locations.

(H): Heritage Hall
(M): Musagetes
(S): Silence

The Schedule

Wednesday September 16th

8:30-9:00 Coffee and Refreshments (M)

9:00 Welcome and Introductory Remarks (M)

9:15-10:15 Plenary Panel: Arts-Based Community Making (M)
Featuring a range of academics, artists, and community partners, to be announced.

10:30-12:00 Panel Showcase: Regina Improvisation Studies Centre: Improvisation, Community, Indigeneity (S)

  • Rebecca Caines (University of Regina), Jo-Ann Episkenew (IPHRC / First Nations University of Canada), Erin Goodpipe (University of Regina), “Acting Out! But in a Good Way!”
  • Rick Kotowich (Native Health Services, Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region), “Improvising with iPads: Using Improv Games and Music Making to Affirm Aboriginal Cultural Expression, Build Community, and Foster Creativity to Enhance Well-being in Healthcare Settings”
  • Charity Marsh (University of Regina), “‘Ignite the Future/ Joined by the Past’: Global Youth Empowerment through Hip Hop Improvisations”

12:00-1:00 Lunch (H)

1:15-2:45 Panel 1A: Listening at the Edges of Music (S)

  • Kevin McNeilly (University of British Columbia), “Edgy Listening: Evan Parker and Jean-Luc Nancy”
  • Sara Ramshaw (University of Exeter), “Just Listening: Improvisation for the Health and Well-Being of Law”
  • Kimber Sider (University of Guelph), “Playing in Silence, Speaking through Resonance, Moving Meaning”

1:15-2:45 Panel 1B: Improvisation, Tradition, Memory (M)

  • Douglas Clarke (York University), “Death comes a-Creeping in the Room: Funerals with Music and Improvisation”
  • Brian Lefresne (University of Guelph), “[AA(CM)2]: Masculinity, Memory, and the AACM, 1965-2015”
  • Gabriel Levine (Concordia University), “Message to our Folks: Tradition, Improvisation, and the AACM’s ‘Mobility of Practice’”

3:00-3:45 Workshop: Georgia Simms (Guelph, ON): Communicating and Connecting through Dance (M)

4:00-4:45 Workshop: Battle Trance (H)

 Thursday September 17th

8:30-9:00 Coffee and Refreshments (M)

9:00-10:00 Keynote Presentation: Douglas Ewart, Interviewed by Ajay Heble

10:15-12:00 Panel 2A: Musical Practice and Personal Transformation (H)

  • Kathe Gray (York University), “Don’t Worry That It’s Not Good Enough for Anyone Else to Hear”: Finding Voice through Vocal Improvisation”
  • Kathryn Ladano (Wilfrid Laurier University), “The Pedagogical Benefits of Practicing Free Improvisation”
  • Travis Laplante, “Wisdom, Love, and Vitality: The Aspects of the Great Improviser”
  • Brent Rowan (Wilfrid Laurier University), “The Impact of a Jazz Improvisation Experience on an Amateur Adult Musician’s Mind, Body, and Spirit”

10:15-12:00 Panel 2B: Community Arts and Place-Making (M)

  • Lisa Hirmer (Guelph, ON) & Elizabeth Jackson (International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation), “Stopgaps, Beasts, + Other Strategies of Being in Public Space”
  • Marian Jago (York University), “Improvised Music as a Means of Place Making”
  • Rii Numata (Kawasaki University of Medical Welfare), “The Otoasobi Project: Musical Improvisation to Create New
  • Kim Wide (Take A Part, UK), “Improvising to Change: Community Embedded Art and Improvisational Practice”

12:00-1:00 Lunch (H)

1:00-2:00 Workshop: Tony Wilson and a Day’s Life Band (S)

2:15-2:45 Presentation: Josslyn Luckett (University of Pennsylvania): “Koto Strings and Peyote Chants that Swing: Toward A Wider Rebellion in Jazz Documentary” (M)

3:00-3:30 Presentation: Rene Meshake, “The Gift of the Red-Tailed Hawk Flute” (M)

Friday September 18th

8:30-9:00 Coffee and Refreshments (M)

9:00-10:00 Roundtable Discussion: The Practice of Improvisation, the Freedom of Discipline: A Workshop and Roundtable Discussion on Practicing Musical Improvisation, Individual Health, and Community Well-Being

  • Alex W. Rodriguez (University of California, Los Angeles)
  • Joe Sorbara (University of Guelph)
  • Rob Wallace (Bowling Green State University)

10:15-12:00 Panel 3A: In These Times: Music, Resilience, and Community Engagement (S)

  • Jeff Albert (Loyala University New Orleans), “Improvising Community: A Participant’s Account of the Improvised Music Community in New Orleans Since 2005”
  • Brian Jones (University of Richmond / College of William and Mary), “Scott Clark’s Bury My Heart: Considering the Sonics of Aesthetic Resistance”
  • Matthew Neil (University of California, Riverside), “Jazz is Dead: Popular (Mis)conceptions of the Health of the Genre”
  • Marcel Swiboda (University of Leeds), “Technological Tales of the Unexpected, Or What Happens When the Timelines of Musical Improvisation and Digital Culture Converge”

10:30-12:00 Panel 3B: Conflcit, Creativity, Capacity: Pursuing Well-Being through Improvisation (M)

  • Arthur Bull (Halifax, NS), “Creating Alternative Spaces: Conflict Resolution and Improvised Music”
  • David Lee (University of Guelph) – Moderator and Respondant
  • Lauren Levesque (Saint Paul University), “‘Stirring People’s Minds and Hearts’: The Role(s) of Improvisation and Spirituality in Pursuits of Well-Being and Peace”
  • Laurel Ralston (Ottawa, ON), “Rehearsing the Unknown”

12:00-1:00: Lunch (H)

1:00-2:00 Workshop: Morning Music (S)

2:15-3:15 Keynote Presentation: Evan Parker, Interviewed by Kevin McNeilly (M)

3:30-4:30 Keynote Presentation: Matana Roberts (M)

 The 2015 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium was generously sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation, the Chawkers Foundation, the SOCAN Foundation, Canadian Heritage/Patrimoine canadien, an anonymous private donor, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice-President (Research), the Office of the Associate Vice-President (Student Affairs), the School of English and Theatre Studies, the School of Fine Art and Music, the School of Languages and Literatures, and the Central Student Association at the University of Guelph.