Table Of ContentREMIXING EUROPEAN
JAZZ CULTURE
Remixing European Jazz Culture examines a jazz culture that emerged in the 1990s
in cosmopolitan cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berlin, London, and Oslo –
energised by the introduction of studio technologies into the live performance
space, which has since developed into internationally recognised, eclectic, hybrid
jazz styles. This book explores these oft- overlooked musicians and their forms that
have nonetheless expanded the plane of jazz’s continued prosperity, popularity, and
revitalisation in the twenty- first century – one where remix is no longer the sole
domain of studio producers.
Seeking to update the orthodoxies of the field of jazz studies, Remixing Euro-
pean Jazz Culture:
• incorporates electronic and digital performance, recording, and distribution
practices that have transformed the culture since the 1980s;
• provides a more diverse and multifaceted cultural representation of
European jazz and the contributions of a variety of performers; and
• offers an encompassing picture of the depth of jazz practice that has erupted
through Northern Europe since 1989.
With an expansion of international networks and a disintegration of artistic
boundaries, the collaborative, performative, and real- time improvisational pro-
cess of remixing has stimulated a merging of the music’s past and present within
European jazz culture.
Kristin McGee is Associate Professor in Popular Music in the Arts, Culture, and
Media Department at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
Transnational Studies in Jazz
Series Editors
Tony Whyton,
Birmingham City University, UK, and
Nicholas Gebhardt,
Birmingham City University, UK
Transnational Studies in Jazz presents cross- disciplinary and global perspectives on
the development and history of jazz and explores its many social, political, and
cultural meanings.
The Cultural Politics of Jazz Collectives
This is Our Music
Edited by Nicholas Gebhardt and Tony Whyton
Jazz Sells
Music, Marketing, and Meaning
Mark Laver
Austral Jazz
The Localisation of a Global Music Form in Sydney
Andrew Robson
Jazz Diaspora
New Approaches to Music and Globalisation
Bruce Johnson
Voices Found
Free Jazz and Singing
Chris Tonelli
Remixing European Jazz Culture
Kristin McGee
For more information, please visit: www.routledge.com/music/series/TSJ
REMIXING EUROPEAN
JAZZ CULTURE
Kristin McGee
First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kristin McGee to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: McGee, Kristin A., author.
Title: Remixing European jazz culture / Kristin McGee.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Transnational studies in
jazz | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019038522 (print) | LCCN 2019038523 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781138585485 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138585492 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780429505232 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Jazz– Europe–History and criticism. | Jazz–Social
aspects–Europe.
Classification: LCC ML3509.E9 M35 2020 (print) | LCC ML3509.E9
(ebook) | DDC 781.65094–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038522
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038523
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 58548- 5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 58549- 2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 50523- 2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
For Wiebe
CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
Series Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xii
Introduction: Remixing European Jazz Culture –
Historical Precedents, Methodological Approaches, and
Theoretical Interventions 1
1 Jazz in Post- War Europe: From Free Collectives
to Electronic Jazz 21
2 Wicked Jazz Sounds and Blue Note Trips: Dance
Tourists and Musical Migrants in Amsterdam’s
Crossover Jazz Scene 35
3 DJs and PLOs in Berlin’s Electronic Jazz
Scene: The Hybrid Production Aesthetics
of Jazzanova 61
4 Oslo’s Jazzland Recordings: Finding Home
in a New Conception of Jazz 89
5 Part One: The ‘Revival of the Revival’ or a Swing
Dance Continuum? Mediascapes, Time Machines,
and Intercultural Encounters at the Herräng
Dance Camp 118
viii Contents
5 Part Two: Jazz Records, Dance Media, and Survival
Technologies within Herräng’s Professional Jazz
Dance Network 144
6 Part One: Configuring Crisis and Sampling Swing
in Vintage Festivals and Electro Swing 171
6 Part Two: (Re)Generating the Jazz Past in the
Vintage Remix of Caravan Palace and Caro Emerald 198
Epilogue 227
Bibliography 237
Index 253
FIGURES
2.1 DJ Maestro record cover, Birds Beats, Blue Note Trip
Series (2008) 37
2.2 Wicked Jazz Sounds at the Sugar Factory, 2018 47
2.3 The Melkweg, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
photograph courtesy of the Melkweg 48
2.4 Jazz saxophonist Susanne Alt 50
3.1 Jazzanova in their studio, Prenzlauerberg, Berlin 68
3.2 Jazzanova record cover, In Between (Ropeadope
Records 2002) 74
4.1 Blå Music Hall and Café 97
4.2 Bugge Wesseltoft record cover, New Conception in
Jazz (Jazzland Recordings 1996) 103
4.3 Beady Belle record cover, On My Own (Jazzland
Recordings 2016) 115
5.1 Herräng’s Daily Meeting Chorus Line, July 2015,
Herräng Dance Camp, Sweden. Dancers from front
to back and left to right: Larisa Vivas Kurbatova, Vassia
Panayiotou, Matty Phelan Miller, Hanna N’diaye, Elin
Rhodiner, Frida Häggström Gerdt, Marie N’diaye
(creator, choreographer, producer, and artistic director),
Alexandra Alhimovich 136
5.2 Bianca Locatelli and Nils Andrén, 2017, Herräng
Dance Camp, Sweden 155
5.3 Marie Nahnfeldt and Hasse Mattsson 157
