ZIAF Fellowship Lecture: Afropolitan Sonic Loops – Notes on Jazz Atlantic in and out of Lagos

Am 15. Mai um 12.15 Uhr hält Dr. Oladele Ayorinde einen Vortrag zu „Afropolitan Sonic Loops: Notes on Jazz Atlantic in and out of Lagos“ in Raum SH 2.106 (Seminarhaus, Campus Westend).

Oladele Ayorinde ist Research Fellow am Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation (AOI) der Stellenbosch University (Südafrika) und Visiting Scholar am  Department of Music, Mountain Top University, Ibafo (Nigeria). Seine Forschung liegt im Bereich Ethnomusicology/Musicology, Sound Studies, African and African Diasporic Studies, und Anthropology. Er beschäftigt sich mit politischer Ökonomie und Musik sowie Musik im Alltag von afrikanischen und Black-Diaspora-Gemeinschaften. Im Mai 2024 ist er als ZIAF-Fellow von Prof. Dr. Barbara Alge zu Gast am Institut für Musikwissenschaft.

Abstract: The manifestations of jazz and issues surrounding its history have been at the forefront of race and identity discourse, particularly in the interdisciplinary fields of ethnomusicology, musicology, anthropology, literary studies, and African/Black studies. The dialectics of this discourse have not only promoted exclusive ideas of jazz but also normalized narratives that have been used to frame an artistic, creative, and academic understanding of jazz. While this discourse is not unproblematic, it is relevant as it constitutes an entry into broader conversations about postcoloniality, decoloniality, modernity, and Black identities across the Atlantic. What might an exploration of jazz practices and social contexts in Lagos, a relatively unexplored area, mean for an inclusive understanding of Jazz Atlantic? What might manifestations of jazz in Lagos mean for understanding cultural flows across the Atlantic? How do these flows constantly challenge the exclusive understanding of Black identities in Africa and its diasporas? In this presentation, I use the term ‘Afropolitan sonic loops’ to explore various ways jazz and the sonic landscape of Lagos highlight complexities and interconnectedness of global African identities, cultural exchange, and creative innovation that are at odds with the nativist conception of African/Black identity. The Afropolitan sonic loops are rooted in African cosmologies of distributive agency and reference transformations of global Black cultures and identities mediated by globalization and multi-layered cosmopolitanisms. Drawing reference from music genres like Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, contemporary jazz fusion, and Fuji, I map the ways  Afropolitan sonic loops reveal complex flows of culture and creative exchanges that produce and sustain jazz Atlantic in and out of Lagos.

15. Mai 2024 um 12.15 Uhr

Raum SH 2.106 (Seminarhaus, Campus Westend)