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News Release

September 01, 2006

U of G to Host Annual Jazz Colloquium

The University of Guelph is hosting a free jazz colloquium Sept. 6 to 8 at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre to coincide with the 13th annual Guelph Jazz Festival. Keynote speaker is widely acclaimed cultural critic Greg Tate.

“The Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium is the only event of its kind attached to a major jazz festival in Canada,” said Ajay Heble, a U of G English professor and artistic director of the festival. “It brings together diverse communities of interest by providing a scholarly forum for dialogue among researchers, creative practitioners, arts presenters, journalists and members of the general public.”

The colloquium has fostered two scholarly books and numerous published articles and has given rise to a recently launched journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation.

This year’s colloquium, titled "Sounds of Hope, Sounds of Change: Improvisation, Pedagogy, Imagination," will feature panel discussions and performances that provide an overview of issues associated with improvisation and pedagogy. More than 20 speakers will address topics ranging from "Free Improvisation in Theory and Practice” to “Community as a Site of Jazz Pedagogy: Exploring Toronto’s Jam Sessions From 1956 to 1962.”

Tate will deliver the keynote address on “The End of Black Musical History – Jazz and the Digital Age” at 9 a.m. Sept. 7. Tate is an essayist, founding member of the Black Rock Coalition, author and longtime staff writer for The Village Voice. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Washington Post. His books include Flyboy in the Buttermilk, Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience and Everything but the Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture.

Program:
Sept. 6
• 9:15 a.m. Panel: "Improvisation as Pedagogy (1): Expression, Embodiment and the Enactment of Communities"
• 10:45 a.m. Panel: "Improvisation as Pedagogy (2): Four Case Studies"
• 1 p.m. Concert: Marilyn Lerner
• 2:15 p.m. Panel: “Artists and Social Responsibility”
• 3:30 p.m. Panel: "Improvisation, Education and Activism”
• 5 p.m. Workshop: “Canadian Improvisers in Dialogue”

Sept. 7
• 9 a.m. Keynote speaker: Greg Tate
• 10:30 a.m. Workshop: "The Revolution Continues"
• 1 p.m. Concert: Robert Marcel Lepage, Pee Wee et Moi
• 2:15 p.m. Panel: "Improvising the Social: Representation, Community and Identity"
• 3:45 p.m. Panel: "Teaching (as) Improvisation: Activism in the Classroom and Community
• 5 p.m. Concert: Jerry Granelli’s Sandhill’s Reunion

Sept. 8
• 9 a.m. Panel: “Elements of One: Steve Coleman, Improvisation and Intercultural Collaboration
• 10:30 a.m. Workshop: "Percussion Discussion"
• 1 p.m. Concert: Tanya Tagaq Gillis, Oliver Schroer and Ravi Naimpally
• 3 p.m. Workshop: Montreal Meets Chicago

The colloquium is sponsored by the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation, the SOCAN Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage/Patrimoine Canadien, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the University's research and student affairs offices, 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.