Today, jazz history is dominated by iconic figures who have taken on an almost God-like status. From Satchmo to Duke, Bird to Trane, these legendary jazzmen form the backbone of the jazz tradition. Jazz icons not only provide musicians... more
Today, jazz history is dominated by iconic figures who have taken on an almost God-like status. From Satchmo to Duke, Bird to Trane, these legendary jazzmen form the backbone of the jazz tradition. Jazz icons not only provide musicians and audiences with figureheads to revere but have also come to stand for a number of values and beliefs that shape our view of the music itself. Jazz Icons explores the growing significance of icons in jazz and discusses the reasons why the music’s history is increasingly dependent on the legacies of ‘great men’. Using a series of individual case studies, Whyton examines the influence of jazz icons through different forms of historical mediation, including the recording, language, image and myth. The book encourages readers to take a fresh look at their relationship with iconic figures of the past and challenges many of the dominant narratives in jazz today.
Read Andrew Blake's review of Jazz Icons published in the Times Higher:
Welch, Graham and Duffy, Celia and Whyton, Tony and Potter, John (2008) Investigating Musical Performance [IMP]: Comparative Studies in Advanced Musical Learning. Project Report. Teaching and Learning Research Programme, Economic and... more
Welch, Graham and Duffy, Celia and Whyton, Tony and Potter, John (2008) Investigating Musical Performance [IMP]: Comparative Studies in Advanced Musical Learning. Project Report. Teaching and Learning Research Programme, Economic and Social Research Council, London.
The jazz volume of the Library of Essays on Popular Music is a valuable resource for researchers, enthusiasts, teachers and students. The featured articles in this volume provide an overview of jazz studies writings from the 1990s to the... more
The jazz volume of the Library of Essays on Popular Music is a valuable resource for researchers, enthusiasts, teachers and students. The featured articles in this volume provide an overview of jazz studies writings from the 1990s to the present day, and each text engages with issues that are central to the changing discourse of jazz in popular culture. The volume includes studies of specific scenes, artists and periods from jazz history, and also comments on broader aspects of musical discourse, from ontological considerations to the politics of canon formation, from issues of representation to international perspectives. The collection encourages readers to engage in comparative thinking and analysis, and contributions touch on a range of themes that will be of interest to scholars who situate jazz at the heart of popular music studies.
This book examines the symbolic importance of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in relation to the formation of an authoritative jazz canon. The book explores how the iconic album has come to fulfil a quasi-religious role in jazz and... more
This book examines the symbolic importance of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in relation to the formation of an authoritative jazz canon. The book explores how the iconic album has come to fulfil a quasi-religious role in jazz and explores the role that seminal jazz recordings play in the everyday lives of both musicians and audiences.
Research in higher education has established a relationship between student approaches to learning and their perceptions of the learning environment. This study aims to make a contribution to music education literature by investigating... more
Research in higher education has established a relationship between student approaches to learning and their perceptions of the learning environment. This study aims to make a contribution to music education literature by investigating undergraduate music students' perceptions of the learning context and their attitudes towards learning and performance. The research design included a large questionnaire survey followed up by 13 case study interviews and six focus groups. Survey participants were 170 undergraduate musicians ...
Educational and psychological research suggests that gender and musical genre can influence musical learning and the development of musical identities, particularly during adolescence. However, there is a relative paucity of educational... more
Educational and psychological research suggests that gender and musical genre can influence musical learning and the development of musical identities, particularly during adolescence. However, there is a relative paucity of educational studies in higher education (HE) concerning the possible impact on musical learning of gender and musical genre, either individually or collectively. As part of a two‐year comparative study funded under the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) that is focused on musical learning in HE, we investigated the effect of musicians’ gender and chosen musical performance genre (embracing Western classical, jazz, popular, and Scottish traditional music) on undergraduate and postgraduate (career‐based) learning. Data were gathered through a web‐based survey of participants (n=244) drawn from four HE institutions (HEIs) in Glasgow, York, Leeds and London and the wider workplace, supplemented by semi‐structured case study interview data from a sub‐set (n=27) of these participants. Statistical and qualitative analyses indicate that gender and genre can impact individually on some aspects of participants’ psychological and socio‐psychological make‐up and in their attitudes to learning. However, there was no evidence statistically or qualitatively of any major interaction between the variables of genre and gender in the data from the chosen measures. Furthermore, irrespective of musical genre, skilled musicians had many aspects in common in terms of their core musical identities and behaviours, implying that the requirements for highly skilled musical performance can transcend particular group characteristics.
This paper, following on from our previous paper focusing on findings regarding students’ approaches to learning, explores students’ approaches to performance with particular focus on musical self-efficacy beliefs and experiences of... more
This paper, following on from our previous paper focusing on findings regarding students’ approaches to learning, explores students’ approaches to performance with particular focus on musical self-efficacy beliefs and experiences of performance anxiety in solo and group performances. The research design included a large questionnaire survey followed up by 13 case study interviews and six focus groups. Survey participants were 170 undergraduate musicians studying in three distinctively different higher education institutions, encompassing classical, popular, jazz and Scottish traditional music genres. Findings suggest that the context of music performance learning and the prevailing institutional culture relate to students’ approaches to performance. By statistically controlling for gender and genre biases across the three institutions, we were able to observe both similarities and differences between students’ self-reported self-efficacy beliefs, as well as experiences, perceived causes and strategies used to cope with performance anxiety. Implications of findings from the two ‘institutional culture and learning’ papers for learners and educators in higher education are discussed.
