Caribbean Jazz: A Performative Discourse on the Roots, Rhythms, and Reach of Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean Jazz

加勒比爵士乐从20世纪40年代初就开始练习了，可以想象，更早一点。一些人还认为加勒比海对爵士乐的起源有很大的影响（见Jerde， 1990和Miller， 2010）。正如Merna Bradshaw所说，爵士乐“转向加勒比海的节奏，作为与非洲起源重新联系的一种方式”（Bradshaw 2015）。然而，在20世纪早期，许多加勒比海血统的爵士乐大师“经常感到被迫‘淡化’他们的遗产，以避免流行的刻板印象”（Van Pelt, 2008），这些刻板印象是由爵士乐纯粹主义者、非裔美国音乐家和评论家所持有的。这些音乐家认为，他们必须获得爵士证书，并“确立自己作为一个[真正的]爵士演奏家”（Miller, 2010），然后才试图用音乐表达他们的加勒比根源。加勒比爵士一词指的是将爵士和声和即兴创作结合到特定的加勒比节奏中。然而，这种音乐风格主要归因于西班牙语加勒比海地区，不包括英语和法语加勒比海地区。关于拉丁/融合爵士乐的影响已经做了很多研究；然而，从学术和表演的角度来看，尚无一项权威性的研究对源自英语/法语加勒比海地区的爵士风格进行分类。这些风格在很大程度上是未定义的，为不同的解释留下了空间，这些解释主要围绕实践者而不是其音乐结构。加勒比海爵士乐的研究，以实践为基础，以设计为民族志，将通过表演来调查、分析和解释英语和法语加勒比海爵士乐文化的结构方面。它侧重于节奏、时间、旋律结构、即兴风格、合奏乐器以及其他表演特征的元素。通过分析这些元素，本项目将使我们进一步了解英语和法语加勒比地区爵士乐的独特性，有助于加勒比音乐的研究，并提供加勒比爵士流派的初步特征。这项研究的自我民族学性质使我能够与加勒比爵士乐的社会组成部分联系起来，使这种流派的社会文化背景和我的表演实践的研究更加个人化。然后，这种方法不仅成为一种学术努力，而且还允许对加勒比爵士进行全面的表演和书面评论，这种评论可以捕捉到加勒比爵士表演者对爵士乐即兴创作的影响，以及对这一流派的民族志写作的影响。

Caribbean Jazz has been practiced since the early 1940s, and conceivably a bit earlier. Some also argue that the Caribbean had great influence on jazz's inception (see Jerde, 1990 and Miller, 2010). Jazz, as stated by Merna Bradshaw, "turned to the rhythms of the Caribbean as a way of reconnecting with their African origins" (Bradshaw 2015). However, in the early 20th century, many jazz greats of Caribbean ancestry "often felt compelled to 'de-emphasize' their heritage to avoid prevalent stereotypes" (Van Pelt, 2008) held by jazz purists, African American musicians, and critics. These musicians felt that they had to gain jazz credentials and "establish themselves as a [true] jazz player" (Miller, 2010) before attempting to express their Caribbean roots musically.The term Caribbean Jazz refers to the incorporation of jazz harmonies and improvisation onto specific Caribbean rhythms. However, this musical style has mainly been attributed to the hispanophone Caribbean, excluding the anglophone and francophone Caribbean groups. Much research has been done regarding the influence of Latin/Fusion jazz; however, a definitive study has yet to catalogue jazz styles originating from anglophone/francophone Caribbean regions, from both academic and performance perspectives. These styles have been largely undefined, leaving room for varying interpretations which center mainly around the practitioner instead of its musical structure.This study of Caribbean Jazz, practice-based and autoethnographic in design, will investigate, analyze, and interpret the structural aspects of anglophone and francophone Caribbean jazz cultures through performance. It focuses on elements of rhythm, time, melodic structure, improvisational styles, and ensemble instrumentation, as well as other performance characteristics. By analyzing these elements, this project will enable us to further understand the distinctiveness of jazz of the anglophone and francophone Caribbean, contributing to research on Caribbean music, and offering a preliminary characterization of the Caribbean Jazz genre. The study's autoethnographic nature allows me to connect with the social components of Caribbean Jazz, enabling a more personal synthesis of the research on the socio- cultural contexts of this genre and my performance practices. The methodology then becomes not only an academic endeavor, but also allows for a comprehensive performative and written commentary on Caribbean Jazz to emerge, one that captures the influence of the Caribbean Jazz performer upon improvisation within jazz altogether and upon ethnographic writing about the genre.