Norwich Jazz Festival: A History of the Jazz Festival, its Origins and Significance
Venue: Norwich University of the Arts, Duke Street Riverside Production Theatre
Saturday 17 May 2025 | 2pm
Title: A History of the Jazz Festival, its Origins and Significance
by Professor George McKay
George McKay is Professor of Media Studies at UEA, where he writes about popular music from punk to jazz, festivals, protest, gardening, and disability in music. Among his books are Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain (2005), and he has also written cultural histories of Glastonbury Festival and the London Jazz Festival. His open access reports include From Glyndebourne to Glastonbury: The Impact of British Music Festivals and From Brass Bands to Buskers: Street Music in the UK. He is a founding member of the groundbreaking EU research projects Rhythm Changes: Jazz in Europe, and Cultural Heritage in Improvised Music Festivals. He was the first ever ‘professor in residence’ at a UK jazz festival, at London Jazz Festival in 2014.
In this illustrated talk, Prof McKay opens with the intriguing proposition that the jazz festival is of European rather than American origin. He explores the significance of jazz as inherently a music of festival and carnival form, he looks at the question of place in this festival of transatlantic and outernational sounds, he looks at a number of key events over the decades, from Nice to … Hampshire, and he tells entertaining stories of beatnik riots and jazz madness. With pictures!
