The Jazzcampus talk series advances and enhances the current discourse on cultural, social and scientific topics with lectures, workshops and other events, and explores them from the perspective of music education and musical practice.
Each talk is followed by a Q&A session with the guest speaker(s).
Supporting literature for the Out of the Box talk series will be available from the Jazzcampus library.
Organisation: Johanna Jellici
A working band is on one hand the most inspiring musical organism to work with creatively: a dedicated group of independent people shares ideas, working spirit and musical energy.
On the other hand it is almost impossible to find a social, aesthetical and economical balance in a band over a long period. The inner and outer challenges are too big.
What is relevant to create a good balance in a band? How can we stay connected to the band and at the same time capable of acting as band members and/or band leaders?
From time to time we meet artists who explicitly emphasize that democratic decision-making processes disrupt the production of art. This opinion is based on the assumption that the purity, energy and impact of an artist’s clear vision and plan of action might be hindered by the influence of other people. Too many cooks spoil the broth. A popular picture: the artist works on his/her ideas in ivory-tower solitude. The creative output is then presented as unadulterated, pure, strong art – a heroic act.
This is a curious cliché and a fundamental misunderstanding of processes that underlie production and the invention of art in our society.
To assume a contradiction between clear individual vision and cooperative results is a fallacy. It is in fact a fruitful paradox, which demands intelligent differentiation and constant, complex work on social balance in societies, communities, groups and bands – and on inner balance.
What can we all do to make space for women in music? Patsy Gilbert will discuss some of the key areas that make it difficult for women to progress in the industry, as well as some of the more complex issues surrounding what ‘progress’ really means. The second half of this talk will focus on some practical strategies to make change in our own artistic practices and how this work has begun at Leeds Conservatoire (Formerly Leeds College of Music).
