Jazz” and Composing Beyond Genre

“A LOT OF DIFFERENT STREAMS”: QUESTIONING “JAZZ” AND COMPOSING BEYOND GENRE BY JASMINE LOVELL-SMITH A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts Victoria University of Wellington 2021 ABSTRACT “A Lot of Different Streams”: Questioning “Jazz” and Composing Beyond Genre Many composers currently prominent in the jazz world draw upon multiple musical traditions or genres to create their work. The varied compositional activities of composers Nicole Mitchell, Tyshawn Sorey and Wayne Horvitz problematize attempts to classify their work as belonging to a single genre. Drawing on my interviews with these three composers and my analysis of selected works, I seek to understand how they conceptualize their compositional work and its relationship to the various musical traditions that have influenced them. Using Fabian Holt’s genre framework and George E. Lewis’s concept of the Afrological as critical tools, I propose that the work of these composers prioritizes spontaneity and agency, foregrounding process and transformation instead of a more fixed work concept, and claiming a mobility of practice that connects them strongly to the legacy of the AACM. I also use these concepts as ways to reflect on my own creative work developed throughout the DMA, and my relationship to the genre label of jazz. The creative portfolio developed as part of this research incorporates influences from multiple streams of music-making, particularly the traditions of jazz, creative music and Western classical music. The submitted works include Cerulean Haze, for jazz octet and 5-piece chamber ensemble (13:00); Sanctuary, a suite in three movements for 11-piece ensemble (18:49); “Noche Oscura” for 10-piece ensemble (6:48); “Moorings (Titahi Bay)” for chordless jazz quartet (6:00); “Jimmy,” “Nuevo Azul,” “Neither Here nor There” and “Metamorphosis” for improvising quartet. These works explore extended jazz and modal harmonic language; strategies for extending songform- derived compositional forms into larger, through-composed works; and varying degrees of notational specificity. The inclusion of improvisation is prioritized in each work. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research project would not have been possible without the help and support of many people. I would first like to thank my supervisors, Dave Wilson and John Psathas, for their generous and insightful guidance and mentorship. Thank you Dave for supporting the development of my scholarly voice, for challenging me to grow as a researcher and academic, and for asking the right questions. And thank you John for always being encouraging about my compositions, and for challenging me to dig deeper, and to make music that I love. Many thanks are also due to composers Nicole Mitchell, Tyshawn Sorey and Wayne Horvitz for contributing their time and their voices to be interviewed for this project. It was a pleasure to meet you all, and I learned so much from our conversations. I would also like to thank the musicians and friends who performed the works in this creative portfolio: the Noveltones, Stroma, the Jac, the CODE Quartet, and the Arthur Street Loft Orchestra. Thanks also to Michael Norris and the NZSM Composition department (including my co- working companion Simon Eastwood), and to Inge van Rij for introducing me to the discourse of the work concept. Thank you to RNZ Concert, SOUNZ, Thomas Voyce and Michael Sutherland for recording and documenting the works included in this portfolio. Thanks to the Wellington Jazz Festival for commissioning “Moorings (Titahi Bay)” and the Susan Rhind Award for commissioning Cerulean Haze. Thanks also to the Creative New Zealand Edwin Carr Foundation Scholarship and the Lankhuyzen/Whetu-Kairangi Masonic Trust, for supporting my residency at the Atlantic Center of the Arts with Nicole Mitchell. Last (but certainly not least!) thank you to my family and friends for all of their support over the past three and a half years, especially Amelia, Roshan and Olivia. And the biggest thanks of all to my husband and fellow doctoral student Cristohper. Your love and support makes everything possible. Te amo! ii CONTENTS ABSTRACT I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II CONTENTS III CHAPTER 1: CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY 1 INTRODUCTION 1 PERSONAL CONTEXT 1 INTERVIEW METHODOLOGY 3 INTERPRETATION 6 STREAMS OF MUSIC-MAKING 7 QUESTIONING JAZZ 7 WESTERN CLASSICAL MUSIC AND NEW MUSIC 10 CREATIVE MUSIC 11 INTERSECTING STREAMS: PRECEDENTS TO THE WORK OF MITCHELL, SOREY AND HORVITZ 12 THIRD STREAM 13 THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CREATIVE MUSICIANS (AACM) 15 THE DOWNTOWN SCENE (OR DOWNTOWN 2) 17 STRUCTURE OF THE EXEGESIS 19 CHAPTER 2: COMPOSING BEYOND GENRE: TRANSCENDING, IGNORING, OR IN- BETWEEN 21 GENRE IN POPULAR AND ART MUSIC 23 THE “SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE” OF GENRE 23 FABIAN HOLT’S GENRE FRAMEWORK 24 NETWORKS 25 CONVENTIONS (CODES, VALUES AND PRACTICES) 26 iii MUSIC BETWEEN GENRES, AND “AESTHETIC DENSENESS” 27 CONCLUSIONS: GENRE IN THE WORK OF SOREY, MITCHELL, AND HORVITZ 28 CHAPTER 3: DISCOURSES ABOUT JAZZ AND GENRE 30 DISCOURSES ABOUT JAZZ AND GENRE 31 AFROLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DISCOURSE 38 PERSONALITY 38 AGENCY 40 SOCIAL INSTRUMENTALITY 41 SPONTANEITY AND COLLECTIVITY 42 NETWORKS AND INFLUENCES 44 HEARING CONNECTIONS ACROSS GENRE BOUNDARIES 47 INFLUENCE ACROSS GENRE WORLDS 48 CONCLUSIONS 50 CHAPTER 4: ONTOLOGY AND FORM: WORKS IN PROCESS 52 THE WORK CONCEPT IN JAZZ AND CREATIVE MUSIC 52 FORMING IMPROVISATION, IMPROVISING FORMS 55 ANALYSIS OF SELECTED WORKS: FORMS IN PROCESS 58 WAYNE HORVITZ’S “BERLIN 1914”: “…CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH…” 59 NICOLE MITCHELL’S “EGOES WAR”: “…COLLIDING DUALITIES…” 62 TYSHAWN SOREY’S THE INNER SPECTRUM OF VARIABLES: “…A HIGHLY FLEXIBLE SCORE…” 65 CONCLUSIONS: PROCESSUAL FORM 72 CHAPTER 5: BEYOND THE PAGE: REALIZING WORKS IN PERFORMANCE 76 BANDLEADING AS COMPOSITION: CHOOSING COLLABORATORS 76 ENSEMBLE DYNAMICS: COMPOSITIONAL STRATEGIES TO ALLOW FOR PERFORMER AGENCY 80 WAY OUT EAST 81 THE INNER SPECTRUM OF VARIABLES 83 MANDORLA AWAKENING 85 iv WRITING FOR NEW MUSIC AND WESTERN CLASSICAL ENSEMBLES: THE “COMPOSER” MODEL 88 FUNDING AND SYSTEMIC CONSTRAINTS 91 CONCLUSIONS: THE SPECTRUM OF VARIABLES 93 CHAPTER 6: REFLECTIONS ON THE CREATIVE PORTFOLIO 95 COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS 97 PORTFOLIO OVERVIEW 99 FINDING COMMUNITY AND COLLABORATORS 100 THE NOVELTONES 101 “METAMORPHOSIS” 103 CERULEAN HAZE 104 THE ARTHUR STREET LOFT ORCHESTRA 108 CONCLUSIONS 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY 114 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW WITH TYSHAWN SOREY 122 SKYPE INTERVIEW, JUNE 2, 2018 122 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE HORVITZ 136 SKYPE INTERVIEW, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018 136 APPENDIX C: 1ST INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE MITCHELL 163 SKYPE INTERVIEW, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 163 APPENDIX D: 2ND INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE MITCHELL 174 IN-PERSON INTERVIEW, NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL JULY 10, 2019 174 v CHAPTER 1: CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY Introduction In this exegesis, I focus on the work and discourses of three currently active composer/improvisers, Nicole Mitchell (b. 1967), Tyshawn Sorey (b. 1980) and Wayne Horvitz (b. 1955), and upon the broader themes of musical genre, ontology, and Afrological musical traditions. Mitchell, Sorey and Horvitz are all well known within the jazz world, yet do not identify primarily (or in some cases at all) as jazz musicians. They each compose for a wide variety of ensemble formations ranging from improvising ensembles to orchestral and chamber ensembles, and their works are programmed in jazz festivals and in concert halls. They explore various points of the spectrum from composed to improvised music, showing a diversity and mobility that is not typical of jazz practice. These composers are not members of a single movement, generation or scene, and though they do share some common aspects of their musical lineages, they offer three distinct perspectives on contemporary music-making that is not constrained by preconceived ideas about musical genre. This exegesis also reflects on my own compositional work created during the course of this doctorate. During the time that I have been researching, listening to and engaging in discourse with these three artists, I have also been composing and performing new music for a variety of ensemble formations, and navigating experiences in the art worlds of jazz and new music in Wellington, New Zealand. My discourse with Mitchell, Sorey and Horvitz has served as a catalyst for reflection upon my own aesthetics and musical values, and my relationship to the various musical traditions that have influenced me. Personal context In the years since I began my journey towards the elusive career of “jazz musician” in 2001 at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, my sense of my musical identity and of what kind of music I want to make has been gradually changing. Over the past nineteen years I have inhabited music scenes in Wellington; New York City; Middletown, Connecticut; and Morelia, Mexico. Along the way I have encountered a wide variety of jazz scenes and practices, and I have also participated in other genre worlds including free improvisation, creative music and new music. My 1 CHAPTER 1: Context and methodology sense of who I am as a musician has shifted from feeling uncomplicatedly like a jazz saxophonist and composer, to feeling less interest in some aspects of mainstream jazz practice and more of a desire to be a “composer” without the jazz qualifier. It was this impulse that led me to pursue graduate studies in composition, initially in the Master of Arts program at Wesleyan University, where I worked with Anthony Braxton and Paula Matthusen, and currently in my doctoral studies in composition at the New Zealand School of Music–Te Kōkī. During my doctoral studies, I have focused on composing music that integrates composition and improvisation for ensembles that combine instrumentation commonly used in jazz with that more strongly associated with the Western classical music tradition. I chose to study with John Psathas – a classically-trained composer also influenced by jazz, rock and world music – with the goal of writing chamber and orchestral works.

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