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Norway's Jazz Identity by © 2019 Ashley Hirt MA Mountain Sound: Norway’s Jazz Identity By © 2019 Ashley Hirt M.A., University of Idaho, 2011 B.A., Pittsburg State University, 2009 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Musicology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Musicology. __________________________ Chair: Dr. Roberta Freund Schwartz __________________________ Dr. Bryan Haaheim __________________________ Dr. Paul Laird __________________________ Dr. Sherrie Tucker __________________________ Dr. Ketty Wong-Cruz The dissertation committee for Ashley Hirt certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: _____________________________ Chair: Date approved: ii Abstract Jazz musicians in Norway have cultivated a distinctive sound, driven by timbral markers and visual album aesthetics that are associated with the cold mountain valleys and fjords of their home country. This jazz dialect was developed in the decade following the Nazi occupation of Norway, when Norwegians utilized jazz as a subtle tool of resistance to Nazi cultural policies. This dialect was further enriched through the Scandinavian residencies of African American free jazz pioneers Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, and George Russell, who tutored Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. Garbarek is credited with codifying the “Nordic sound” in the 1960s and ‘70s through his improvisations on numerous albums released on the ECM label. Throughout this document I will define, describe, and contextualize this sound concept. Today, the Nordic sound is embraced by Norwegian musicians and cultural institutions alike, and has come to form a significant component of modern Norwegian artistic identity. This document explores these dynamics and how they all contribute to a Norwegian jazz scene that continues to grow and flourish, expressing this jazz identity in a world marked by increasing globalization. iii Acknowledgments This work would not exist without the encouragement and kindness of family, friends, and colleagues, who entertained my bottomless curiosity and offered love and support. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Roberta Schwartz, who has supported my research interests from the day I arrived on campus in Lawrence. Dr. Schwartz has been a bastion of patience, wisdom, and humor throughout this painstaking process. Her counsel and perspective guided me towards many achievements, and her quiet faith in my abilities brought comfort in the difficult moments of my degree program. Her exemplary advising and editing stimulated my creativity and kept me honest throughout this process. Dr. Paul Laird has been a champion of my research and writing throughout my studies, and his sense of humor, energetic teaching style, and fierce intelligence are examples I strive to emulate as I work with my own students. Dr. Sherrie Tucker has provided bountiful insights into the social culture of jazz and the importance of alternative perspectives on the music I love, lending me a framework on which I could hang my questions. Her encouragement and enthusiasm about my work has made some of the more frustrating days far more bearable. Dr. Brian Haaheim brought a down-to-earth, practical perspective to my research through his extensive knowledge of the music theory involved and his own performer’s perspective. Dr. Ketty Wong provided me with vast insight into the ethnography of music in culture, providing another lens through which to view the power of jazz. Her perspective enlightened my research and exposed me to the many fascinating facets of human music making. Her assistance with the Fulbright application process was invaluable, and her influence there showed me what was possible with my ideas. I wish to thank my parents, Terri and Jerry, and my siblings, Nate and his wife Emily, for their love and support throughout my academic journey. You always knew I was destined to enrich the world through music, and you never wavered in that belief. Thank you for seeing in me what I struggle to see myself. Additionally, the love and support of Dr. Laura Kenny and Kevin Jackson have been constants throughout this journey, and I am grateful to call them members of my family. My grandmother, Theresa Root, has long been one of my greatest inspirations and without her example of what it means to be a strong, powerful woman who refuses to let iv others define her, I don’t know that I would have had the confidence and fortitude to take on the considerable challenges of a doctoral degree. I dedicate this document to her as the culmination of her unwavering faith in me and my journey. I would also like to express my deepest love and gratitude to Professor Jenny Kellogg, who has selflessly served as a participant in my research and as a sounding board for my ideas and philosophies, keeping me honest and grounded with a jazz performer’s perspective. Her faith in my journey is one of the greatest gifts I have ever been given, and I am deeply honored to call her a friend and a colleague. The entire Kellogg family, including Mari, Jackie, Amanda Greene, and Toni Brownlow, have lifted me up as one of their own and I only hope I can repay that love in time. In addition, I wish to acknowledge Dr. Christy Miller, Dr. Elizabeth Sallinger, Dr. Alicia Levin, Dr. Jane Ellsworth, Dr. Jody Graves, Danny Troop, Paul Taylor, and my students at the University of Kansas and Eastern Washington University for the positive and encouraging role they have each played in my life and work. v Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv-v Chapter One 2 Introduction: Setting the European Jazz Table Chapter Two 16 Occupation and Resistance Chapter Three 49 Sounding Modernism Chapter Four 62 (Re)defining Jazz Chapter Five 73 Free Jazz: Collective Controversy Chapter Six 99 Timbre Chapter Seven 113 ECM and the Sonic Palette Chapter Eight 134 Folk Identities Chapter Nine 158 The Jazz Education Model in Norway: A Brief Case Study Chapter Ten 167 The Norwegian Jazz Economy Chapter Eleven 175 Nu Jazz: Jaga Jazzist Conclusion 189 Appendix: Selected Recordings 195 Bibliography 199 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Poster advertising Nazi Entartete Musik exhibition of 1938 34 Figure 2: Original design for cover of Jonny spielt auf piano score 34 Figure 3: LP cover of Keynote Recordings’ Fighting Men of Norway 46 Figure 4: Chart of arts funding in Europe and U.S. 173 Figure 5: Cover art for One-Armed Bandit 179 Figure 6: Bass clarinet ostinato transcribed from “One-Armed Bandit” 183 Figures 7-9: Primary melody transcribed from “One-Armed Bandit” 184 Figure 10: Countermelody transcribed from “One-Armed Bandit” 185 Chapter One: Introduction This document is an examination of the development of jazz and the “Nordic sound” in Norway. Jazz was imported from American recordings and mimicked by Norwegian musicians at the height of the swing era, but was suppressed by the Nazi occupation. After the war, Norwegian artists forged a new jazz style heavily influenced by the American avant-garde. A distinctive element of Norwegian identity is constructed around the country’s idiosyncratic jazz dialect, which is oriented around a handful of specific sonic and aesthetic markers and yet, paradoxically, favors a populist, genre- defying approach. Norwegian musicians borrow a vast array of historical styles and genres, particularly avant-garde, fusion, and other post-bop conventions, and reinterpret them as an expression of this Norwegian musical identity. In the forthcoming chapters, I explore the historical context for the development of a Norwegian dialect in jazz that began in earnest during the 1940s. As a Nazi-occupied nation, Norway and its people were subjected to various prohibitions and bans of media, including newspapers, radio, and certain styles of music that the Nazis deemed “degenerate.” The first portion of this document explores these social factors and their influence on the earliest Norwegian jazz musicians. Chapter Two surveys the existing literature on civilian Norwegian resistance activities and the place of jazz within those activities and provide a brief chronology of the first Norwegian explorations of swing music and how it flexed and reacted to the Nazi decrees of the time. Chapter Three examines how the jazz avant-garde of the late 1950s made inroads in Scandinavia, particularly Norway and Sweden, thanks to the work of George Russell, Don Cherry, and Ornette Coleman. I survey some existing literature about the activities 2 of these three men in Europe, their students and protégés, and their notions of culture and African American music. Russell and Cherry particularly influenced tenor saxophonist Jan Garbarek, and it is Garbarek who is credited, along with several influential Norwegian sidemen, with codifying the Norwegian dialect within the broader avant- garde scene. I consider existing research into Garbarek’s career, media interviews with Garbarek, and analysis of his improvised music on two notable recordings in Chapter Seven. Chapters Four and Five explore the social dynamics of jazz, the ever-present debate over the word itself, and models of investigation for free jazz practices and European improvisational aesthetics. Within Chapter Five, an examination of the role of African American free jazz practitioners in the cultivation of the Nordic sound illuminates the later work of Jan Garbarek, particularly his forays into folk music. Chapter Six discusses the timbral characteristics exhibited by Garbarek and his sidemen on ECM albums beginning in the late 1960s. I include a timbral outline of Garbarek’s wide-ranging improvisation as recorded on 1970’s Afric Pepperbird. Chapter Seven investigates the theoretical methodologies that are useful for analyzing free jazz practices, particularly collective free improvisation, where musicians rely on gestural markers and shifts of rhythm and timbre as improvisational cues instead of chord changes or cyclical forms. I then apply portions of these methodologies to Jan Garbarek’s quartet and their recorded output.
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