Latvian jazz at an international scientific conference

Indriķis Veitners on jazz research tasks, contexts, and future plans

This August, the head of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Music academy jazz department, jazz historian with a doctorate degree, clarinetist and saxophonist Indriķis Veitners attended a scientific conference «Rhythm Changes» that took place in Amsterdam. Dr.Art. Veitners went to the Netherlands to grab some inspiration from his foreign colleagues and music researchers, as well as present his own scientific research about the Latvian jazz festival «Vasaras Ritmi» (Summer Rhythms). The motto of this year’s conference was «Then and Now», so I met Indriķis to talk about «hen» that the music industry experienced throughout the world and «now» that the Latvian jazz research experiences in the world’s context.

Well, tell me all about it!

It was amazing. This is the most important event in Europe regarding jazz research, organized by a bunch of people who think alike, and this is the main thing that makes it different from similar conferences — it is a community here. This is a bunch of people who are very prominent researchers and book authors who mainly work in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Austria. The conference has been postponed twice due to the pandemic, so it was really special this year because we actually met at last.

Just the same as other events worldwide.

Yes. And this conference was dedicated to the widest spectrum of topics possible; this isn’t a narrow musicologist conference — you can see it even from the names [turns the conference booklet pages he brought back home]. The session topics were decolonization, photography, politics, perception, improvisation, history, ideologies, jazz in the times of the pandemic (which was really interesting), gender equality, of course (which is really popular nowadays), musician experiences, performance, and education. They’ve basically put together the most different topics, and one could choose what he likes the most. There were really many different people attending — you can see the program here.

It does look dense.

Exactly. And we’ve met, at last, the researchers from all the Baltics — Heli Reimann from Estonia, who presented her work on Charles Lloyd and Avakian, based on the book she released, Rūta Skudiene from Lithuania, who told about Čiurlionis, and double bassist Vytis Nivinskas from Lithuania who has a Ph.D. thesis on bassist solo recordings throughout the world — he told me he counted 200 recordings worldwide, pure bass solo. And all of us got to present our research at the same time, so we didn’t get to listen to each other. Nevertheless, I feel really inspired; it was really cool. The Baltic moment was important because we met offline for the first time, and there are not too many researchers at all, as you see.

What are the most important findings you brought back home?

There are really interesting observations I’ve made — first of all; it’s pretty clear there’s a very specific group of jazz researchers who are strong and are keeping the commune together. Most of them are British, well-known book authors. The research topics are different; I couldn’t name one direction that dominates. There are really different things happening in various directions, and it shows how well jazz research has developed. It is possible to wisely research some jazz improvisation or how it could be perceived in some groups of society, or in how compositions reflect upon society through musicians. Someone told a story about the beginning of Hungarian jazz in the 1920s — 1940s, something completely different. Then there was Slovak jazz connected to folk music, then there was a Canadian lady who digitalized piano rolls of James P. Johnson, and she was very keen on playing them herself. What was really interesting, and what we discussed with Heli later on, was — for example, if you’re a researcher at Great Britain’s high school, you actually have to research something about Great Britain. Here, in the Baltic states, we do this because we feel like it is a mission, so it seems odd when it’s the other way around. I think our musicologists are a little bit similar — if you’re a researcher, you have to research. In this way, I think we’re quite happy — I already researched what I want because I’m interested in it, and Heli and Rūta do the same.

What was your presentation about?

I was presenting a story about the «Vasaras ritmi» festival. It was interesting because I was put at the same session with one guy from Hungary who was telling his story about a free jazz festival that took place near an Austrian-Hungarian border in the 60ies, and when the iron curtain went off, that festival experienced great problems because one and the same musicians kept playing there — so the guy was talking about survival strategies. Many people presented their PhDs. quite a lot of students were attending, especially the ones from Graz — they just came to listen, and I got quite a lot of interesting talks after my presentation.

So I was talking about our legendary festival — big research I did this year, and it was connected to a research program at the academy. I had a chance to attend this conference and present the research results. I talked about how it began at the beginning of the 70ies, told the stories about how jazz clubs in Riga evolved, and how the festival ended alongside regaining independence, although the development was wide and loud. There were many people who listened, and many questions afterward, so I’m happy about it. The questions were about the personalities; people asked if the contacts kept going, why the materials couldn’t be preserved, about politics of that time, and jazz fans. That jazz fan movement actually was a phenomenon of Soviet times — a bunch of people who perceived jazz almost as a religion and created a festival using different opportunities and contacts that clashed with the reality of that time. This dedication was almost at the level of religion. This was a protest or even escapism, running away from reality because the reality to them was jazz music. And probably this was the main reason why the festival ended up — the motivation wasn’t there anymore, there was no need, and jazz simply became a genre. This was a sociological phenomenon, and jazz was an example of that time — the real reason was oppressing reality.

How will this conference experience continue?

After 18 months, there’s another conference! [laughs] It won’t take place at an Amsterdam conservatory, because of the exams taking place in spring — so it will happen at some other place. Although this definitely is an unbelievably important meeting of jazz researchers from all over the world — it’s very important to be there, and I’m really happy I could make it this year.

Is it worth attending the conference even if you’re not a researcher?

Of course! This is a scientific conference, so there’s a standard in which things get presented there, as well as the content and level of difficulty — this isn’t a popular thing, so you have to be prepared to go there. But, of course, unbelievably interesting things take place — many panel discussions and presentations about jazz pedagogy, for example.

What are your nearest plans regarding jazz research?

I have to keep on researching empty spots in Latvian jazz history. I’m trying to cover the fields that were empty until now — for example, my previous work with a funk period in Latvian jazz music that I personally found very useful. It is important to understand the logic of that time. There are people whom you could actually ask about it, people who are still alive, so you talk to witnesses who know that time, and you have to some extent, witnessed it yourself. Looking back, of course, it seemed really important to me to research «Vasaras ritmi» because this festival was a great happening and practically no information is publicly available about it, so my task was to gather the materials and systematize them.

There are many other empty spots as well, where you cannot actually understand what was going on — one of them is the sixties because the Latvian jazz history is between REO (Riga Estrada Orchestra) founded in 1958 and Radio big band founded in 1968. In between, there was also a jazz festival, «KIKOK» followed by quite massive repressions, and this field as a whole isn’t well-researched. Different movements took place, and the result of it was founded the Radio big band and the Jazz club, too. And I have to begin researching it. Even an emptier period is the one right after the Second World war — the 40ies and the first part of the 50ies, and there’s no information about it at all. This will be a large challenging task because jazz was in quite prohibited status — it means that I have to research in a very specific way, and there will be no information. Meanwhile, nobody has written anything proper about REO, as well as no information about the old Radio big band is available. There’s plenty to research.

Will someone help you with that?

I really hope that Artūrs Sebris will continue his research about «Melodia»’s jazz recordings because this is one of the really important moments that could be continued in a great way. There’s a lot to do and a lot to research. While talking to colleagues, I’ve realized that there are quite a lot of different parallels of that time — in the Soviet era while thinking about Latvian jazz, it is important to keep the context with the Lithuanians — for example, I was shocked when I found out that the first big band in Lithuania was founded in the 1958 — the same year, when the REO was founded. Why was it the same year? There should be a link. Heli was writing about the famous Tallinn jazz festival, and «Vasaras ritmi» was, in a way, the continuation of it — so there’s also a link. And I believe more and more interesting parallels could be found.

Actually, I also had an idea about organizing the Baltic jazz researchers meeting — it would definitely be worth it even because we’re well acquainted with each other, we have a lot in common, and it would push forward jazz research in all three countries. One of the future goals could be to try to create a mutual circle of communication that would help students and inspire them to create more research about it. It has to be us who keep doing things — nobody else will do it instead of us.

Good luck to you and the others!