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

“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.

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

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 20th 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.'

“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

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.

Abstract

Based on the recently published monograph, The Genesis and Structure of the Hungarian Jazz Diaspora, the presentation will explore East European cultural difference through the historical dialectics of racialized conceptualizations of jazz. The analysis informed by 29 in-depth interviews, four-years of ethnographic research and the discourse analysis of historical

The talk will outline the preliminary findings of my MSCA postdoctoral research which focuses on issues of musical socialisation, cultural assimilation, financial strategies and gender inequalities within the jazz scenes of three major European cities: Barcelona, Budapest and Manchester. These three cities are illustrative of fundamental changes in the way that contemporary music scenes in Europe are responding to challenges of globalisation. This is most apparent in the many hybrid musical forms being developed by Europe’s traditional (Jewish/Romani) and current (immigrant diasporas) ‘quintessential Others’ to express cultural identities.

Guest lecture at the Department of Communicaon, Faculty of Humanies, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid – “Research Methodologies for Journalism” BA course, 14th March 2023

Discursos de paz y justicia social en las músicas populares

Israel V. Márquez, Josep Pedro, David Álvarez, Joaquín Cardoso y Adam Havas

Jazz Hungría: Historia Social y la Escena Contemporánea

Adam Havas (CECUPS)

First Spanish language presentation at the Universitat de Barcelona on the social history if jazz in Hungary in the context of my Marie Curie postdoctoral research. 

Based on the recently published monograph, The Genesis and Structure of the Hungarian Jazz Diaspora, the talk will explore various aspects of the tensions between ‘diversity’ and (cultural) ‘difference’ through a semi-peripheral, East European perspective. Based on sociologically informed case studies of Hungarian Jewish and Gypsy/Romani musicians who play(ed) a crucial role in the diasporic reinventions of canonical jazz aesthetics, the talk advocates for a nuanced view on jazz historiography beyond shallow oppositions between US-centric canons and (West)European notions of ‘emancipation.’