Since its arrival on the public scene in the early 20th century, jazz has been characterised by a remarkable ability to cross musical, social and cultural borderlines. In terms of musical style and character, jazz has often crossed genre categories and undergone through radical changes. In terms of geographical and cultural boundaries, one of the most notable developments in jazz has been the internationalisation of its sound. Furthermore, jazz has also been able to ‘travel in time’. The explicit sense of traditions characterises jazz history: jazz music speaks to the past and is informed by what has been before.

What are these crossings really like? How have they changed during the history of jazz?

Organisers of The Jazz Chameleon: The 9th Nordic Jazz Conference welcome presentations on generical, geographical, historical and other (e.g. theoretical, aesthetic, educational) crossings in jazz. The main emphasis of the presentations will be on Nordic countries and their histories but we warmly welcome other aspects as well.

Proposals for presentations and work groups should be submitted as abstracts of up to 200 words by April 1, 2010 to Janne Mäkelä. Please include the name of the speaker(s), email, affiliation, and the title of the paper or workshop group. At the moment we are planning to publish a refereed collection from the proceedings.

The invited keynote speakers are professor Bruce Johnson (Universities of Turku, Glasgow, UK and Macquarie, Australia) and adjunct professor Pekka Gronow (University of Helsinki). Furthermore, the conference will feature discussion on the collaboration between the members of Nordic jazz archives as well as performances by Finnish jazz musicians.

There will be a small participation fee. The main organiser of the conference is the Finnish Jazz & Pop Archive.

On behalf of the organisers,
Janne Mäkelä, Director
The Finnish Jazz & Pop Archive