“Rituals of Resistance, Trans-Generic Utopias, and the Limits of Free-(idi)oms: TheCultural Politics of Barcelona’s Free Improvisation Scene.”

“Rituals of Resistance, Trans-Generic Utopias, and the Limits of Free- (idi)oms: TheCultural Polics of Barcelona’s Free Improvisaon Scene.”

Sonic Conversations in theWestern Mediterranean Online Lecture Series of the ERC Research Project “Past and Present

The Cultural Politics of Barcelona’s Free Improvisation Scene

'Rituals of Resistance, Trans-Generic Utopias, and the Limits of Free-(idi)oms: The Cultural Politics of Barcelona’s Free Improvisation Scene' Adam Havas (University of Barcelona, Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society, Department of Sociology)

Abstract:

Based on an ongoing research employing (auto)ethnography, qualitative interview technique and comparative historical methods, this talk aims to explore the tensions between non-idiomatic free improvisation performances and radical social activism with particular emphasis on the experiences of diaspora musicians. Following the outline of the theoretical framework informed by postcolonial scholarship, Bourdieusian “field analysis” and cultural studies, I draw on my fieldwork conducted at the small collectivist bookstore “La Social” situated in Barcelona’s Poble Sec district that hosts free improv events on a weekly basis featuring the city’s eclectic and multi-ethnic but marginal (avant-garde) musical community. Profoundly embedded in the city’s loosely connected network of cultural centers that promote a range of grassroot social initiatives, the performance rituals (as some musicians conceptualize these events) manifest controversial aspects of radicalism stemming from the tensions between economic disinterestedness, non-idiomatic aesthetics and egalitarian social / ideological agendas connected to the tangible impact of global capitalism on local communities. Instead of providing an overarching interpretation of these ephemeral acts of resistance, my objective is rather posing the relevant questions concerning the cultural motifs of radical musical experimentation that aims to transcend genre, race-, and place-based boundaries to create an utopistic realm of musical encounters. To challenge the ahistoricism and deconstructionism of contemporary avant-jazz aesthetics, the talk closes by discussing a case study of the ensemble Qiyan, a project that combines Arabic, Jewish and Sephardi musical traditions with free jazz aesthetics.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjp20TrJ3_M

Biography:

Ádám Havas is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Barcelona, Department of Sociology, member of the Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society (CECUPS). His research sits at the intersection of cultural sociology, postcolonial studies and popular music studies. His EU-funded comparative research project aims to explore the cultural politics of musical diasporas in Europe with particular emphasis on of musicians with Afro-Latin, Black British and Gypsy/Romani backgrounds. He was Chair of IASPM-Hungary

Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship

Project number: 101067143

Project name: Improvising Europe: Jazz, Cultural Globalisation and the Reinvention of Multiethnic Identities

https://www.musicalencounters.co.uk/event-details/the-cultural-politics-of-barcelonas-free-improvisation-scene

"Swinging" Cultural Difference in Eastern Europe: Genesis and Structure of Hungarian Jazz Diaspora, 11:30-1pm, April 5, 2023 Seminar Room – Department of Sociology, Davison Hall, Rutgers University, 26 Nichol Ave, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 2023-04-05

Based on his recent Routledge book, Dr Havas will talk about the tensions of cultural globalization as mirrored in changing practices of improvised music throughout the 20^th century. The talk opens a window to issues of race- and class-based formations of national culture, with special emphasis on Jewish assimilation and the crucial impact of Romani musicians on the development of jazz as 'art music' in the state socialist era. The distinctions between bebop and Bartók-oriented free jazz casts new light on Hungary's position between 'East' and 'West.'

Guest Lecture at Rutgers University, Department of Sociology 2023-04-06

Guest lecture on Pierre Bourdieu's constructivist structuralism at Rutgers University, "Sociology of Recent Soci(ologic)al Theory" PhD course.

Guest lecture at the New School's Brown Bag seminar series 2023-04-11

“Swinging” Cultural Difference in Eastern Europe: The Genesis and Structure of the Hungarian Jazz Diaspora

Based on material from Dr Havas’ monograph, The Genesis and Structure of the Hungarian
Jazz Diaspora, (Routledge, 2022) the talk explores one hundred years of jazz in Hungary
from three major aspects:

1. the subversive role of jazz in the redefinition of racialized concepts of “national
culture”,
2. Hungary’s geocultural “swinging” between “East” and “West” and
3. the emergence of a folk music inspired national free jazz movement.

"Jazz en Hungría: Historia Social y la Escena Contemporánea" – Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filología, 19 de abril, 2023 2023-04-19

"Jazz en Hungría: Historia Social y la Escena Contemporánea" – Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filología, 19 de abril, 2023

Replika 125 – Panel discussions on the occasion of Replika journal's 125th issue on "class" and "'race'" 2023-01-04

On the occasion of the 125th issue of Replika, a launch event will be held on 4 January 2023 from 18:00 at the Drei Raben / Három Holló art gallery and restaurant. The evening will feature a discussion with the authors, invited guests and the public on the two main blocks of the issue, "class" and "race". After sixty minutes of moderated discussion, we will "open up" the conversation and take questions from the audience.