Jazz Interest Group | Society for Music Theory

More about SMT-Jz

The SMT Jazz Interest Group, or SMT-Jz, was inaugurated
at the 1995 meeting of the Society for Music Theory in New York City.
Our primary objective is to promote scholarship in the discipline of
jazz theory.

We have business meetings annually at SMT conferences
to discuss our activities of the past years and to plan ahead. Our efforts
have led to: SMT programs including several jazz papers in special sessions
at SMT meetings, the establishment of an award for jazz scholarship
offered by SMT-Jz, planning and hosting jam sessions at SMT meetings,
and the promotion of greater discussion and dissemination of jazz-theory
topics throughout our society. Our membership has included participants
from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

These are the minutes
from the meeting in Boston 2005.

Join
SMT-Jz

To join the SMT-Jz e-mail list, please send a
message to majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu.
Include in your message:

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smt-jz@lists.uoregon.edu.

The list owner is Steve Larson.

Contact

For more information on SMT-jz, contact Keith Waters, Chair

(watersk @ stripe.colorado.edu).

Current

Projects

Current projects are determined at our annual meeting during the SMT conference. The 2008 meeting project is to discuss the pedagogical applications of jazz repertoire and theory to the university theory classroom. Every participant is asked to bring in one jazz example that has been or could be used to illustrate some aspect of "traditional" theory.

SMT-jz would also like to acknowledge the excellent work by J. Kent Williams and Henry Martin in the creation of the Jazz Theory Bibliography, a searchable database of scholarship in jazz theory.

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SMT-Jz Award for Jazz Scholarship

The
Jazz Special Interest Group of the Society for Music Theory invites nominations
for the SMT-Jz Award for Jazz Scholarship. This award is bestowed occasionally
for a document that, in the judgment of the SMT-Jz Award Committee, makes
an outstanding contribution to the field of jazz theory and analysis.

Eligibility extends to books, chapters from books, articles, delivered
conference papers, dissertations, and theses in English, published, presented,
or defended during the five years preceding the award year (e.g., between
January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2008, inclusive, for a possible 2009
award). All members of the Society for Music Theory are encouraged to
draw to the committee's attention distinctive scholarly works that are
eligible for this award. SMT members may nominate only one work per calendar
year; self-nomination is not permitted; to be eligible, a document must
be nominated by three members of the Society for Music Theory. There was no award given in 2006.

Nominations should include the name of the scholar,
a description of the document (please include complete bibliographic information
where available), and a statement to the effect that the work was published,
presented, or defended during the previous five calendar years. The committee
will contact the nominee for additional material as needed (the nominee
may be asked to submit copies of the nominated document to the evaluating
committee).

Nominations should be sent by January 1 of each year to:
Robert Wason, Chair, SMT-Jazz Award Committee;

rwason at esm.rochester.edu.

The SMT-Jazz Award for Jazz Scholarship will consist
of a citation. The winning document will be selected by the SMT-Jz Award
Committee, whose chair will announce the award at the meeting of SMT-Jz
during national SMT conferences, in whatever years SMT-Jz wishes to make
such award. The award also will be announced in the SMT Newsletter and
on the SMT website under the heading of "news" or "announcements"
from SMT-Jz.

This website is maintained by James
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suggestions for additional items to include on the site.

This page was last updated on September 28, 2008.