Oral Histories is a showcase of interviews, performances, and articles by and about improvising musicians, artists, writers and scholars. This new monthly feature offers an intimate look inside the minds and practices of some of the many dynamic, innovative people whose energy and ideas make improvisation studies such a vibrant field of inquiry. The Oral Histories project provides a space for improvising artists to be heard in their own words, often in dialogue with other improvisers, scholars and practitioners.
In 2012 we heard Oral Histories from Jane Bunnett, Patricia Nicholson Parker and William Parker, Matana Roberts, Cecil Foster, Tracey Nicholls, George Elliott Clarke, and Bob Ostertag. 2013 has already brought exciting interviews with Andrew Cyrille, Wasanti Paranjape, Dave Clark, Eugene Martynec, and Miya Masaoka. Over the coming year, witness additional conversations with musicians including Tanya Tagaq, William Parker and Amiri Baraka, d’bi young, Wayde Compton, and scholars from fields as diverse as legal studies and musicology. The conversations and performances of this diverse group, drawn from ICASP’s online Research Collection in Improvisation Studies, are sure to inspire and to enlighten.
Read ICASP student Paul Watkins’ reflective piece on the relationship between orality and improvised musical practices in our Research Collection, here [link to research collection].
View Monthly Oral Histories Features
2014
January 2014: Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Roscoe Mitchelle
February 2014: Fresh Kils
March 2014: Wayde Compton
April 2014: d’bi.young antiafrika
May 2014: Roger Dean, Tracey Nicholls, and Rebecca Caines
June 2014: Linda Hutcheon
August 2014: Dong-Won Kim
September 2014: William Parker and Amiri Baraka
Forthcoming:
October 2014: Ben Grossman
November 2014: David Lee
2013
January 2013: Andrew Cyrille
March 2013: Wasanti Paranjape
April 2013: Dave Clark
June 2013: Eugene Martynec
July 2013: Miya Masaoka
August 2013: Brad Muirhead
October 2013: Tanya Tagaq
November 2013: Thomas King
2012
January 2012: Jane Bunnett
February 2012: Patricia Nicholson and William Parker
March 2012: Matana Roberts
June 2012: Cecil Foster
August 2012: Tracey Nicholls
September 2012: George Elliott Clarke
November 2012: Bob Ostertag