Research

My current project focuses on historical recreation in jazz and popular music, particularly in how it impacts a performer’s creative agency. I aim to investigate how historical repertoire is used to reflect specific societal, cultural, and musical changes from the perspective of the performer, with a particular focus on cultural values such as (self-)identity, authenticity, and tradition. This will be done through a multimodal analysis of historically informed performances of repertoire by two of the most influential and historicized artists in popular music, composer and big band leader Duke Ellington (1899–1974) and the Beatles (1962–1970). The research’s interdisciplinary approach is designed to engage multiple perspectives (historical, artistic), levels (aural, visual, written), and stakeholders (professionals, students, amateurs). While this research is ongoing, I have thus far written and presented on a recreated historical recording session of Ellington (an experimental session with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and myself on string bass), and on Beatles tribute bands, in particular the Analogues.

In 2018, I defended my Ph.D., resulting in a dissertation that I am currently transforming into a book on the life and music of Jimmie Blanton. In the meantime, you can satisfy your interest in Blanton, Duke Ellington, and 1930s and 1940s jazz bass playing by visiting my blog on Blanton, Pitter Panther Chatter. 

For my postdoctoral fellowship  for the Research Foundation – Flanders at the University of Antwerp (2019–21), I examined how cultural values are being (re)produced and mediated in international jazz competitions. Finally, I have a profound interest in Belgian jazz history. Although Belgium is a tiny country, its jazz history, which dates back to ca. 1920, is vibrant and multi-faceted, worthy of further academic scrutiny. Thus far, I have looked at certain key events and people of the Interwar period, such as Félix-Robert Faecq, the Jazz Club de Belgique, and the series of jazz competitions they organised since 1932. Some of my writing is available in my publication list, but more will appear in the future in Walter van de Leur’s Oxford History of Jazz in Europe, for which I have been commissioned to write the chapters covering Belgium.


Selective list of publications:


Selective list of presentations: