Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr Tom Perchard

Dr Tom Perchard developed a strong interest in music just in time for hip-hop's so-called ‘golden age’, following which he began exploring the African American music tradition in retrograde, becoming fascinated at first by soul and then by jazz. His interests have subsequently expanded to include various European art musics. Tom took his BMus, MMus and PhD degrees at Goldsmiths, his thesis being a critical and biographical study of the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan. After completion of his PhD he taught and was programme director at the University of Westminster, before returning to Goldsmiths to take up the post of lecturer in 2008. His first book, Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture, was published in 2006 by Equinox (London) and was widely reviewed and acclaimed. With Professor Keith Negus, Tom is co-director of the Popular Music Research Unit.

Teaching

Popular Music: History, Style, Technique; Analytical and Contextual Studies; Approaches to Contemporary Music (all Level 1); Topics in African American Music; Research Essay (both Level 3); Popular Music: Listening, Analysis and Interpretation (M level).

Areas of supervision

Jasmin Taylor: Billie Holiday
Richard Ekins: Aspects of Authenticity in New Orleans Jazz Revivalism.

Grants & awards

AHRC Fellowship (Early Career). ‘Jazz in France, 1934-75: Contesting the Politics of Nation, Art and World through Music’. (January-September 2012). £64,000.

Goldsmiths Peake Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (2010).

Professional activities

Editorial Board member, Jazz Research Journal

Regular referee, Popular Music.

Contributor, The Wire, 2001-2007. Monthly reviews and articles on hip-hop, jazz and improvisation, contemporary composition, electronica and experimental work; also reviews of concerts and scholarly books.

Radio

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Barney Wilen. Transmitted 24 September 2011.

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Clifford Brown. Transmitted 30 October 2010.

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Booker Little. Transmitted 13 June 2009.

Programme guest, BBC Radio 3. Jazz Library: Lee Morgan. Transmitted 11 July 2008.

Writer and presenter, Resonance FM. Memoir City: Oral histories of Londoners’ musical lives. Transmitted January-March 2006.

Papers presented

‘Ideologies of Improvisation: Miles Davis’ music for Ascenseur pour l’échafaud’. Invited seminar, University of York. November 2011.

‘Thelonious Monk Meets the French Critics: Art and Entertainment, Improvisation, and its Simulacrum’. Invited reading and discussion of published work, Salford Jazz Research Seminar, University of Salford. September 2011.

‘Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memory and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s’. Invited seminar, Institute of Musical Research ‘Directions in Musical Research’ Series, School of Advanced Study. June 2011.           

‘Four Histories of 20^th-Century Music’. One day course given at Cabaret Voltaire / GBS University, St. Gallen, Switzerland. May 2011.

‘Re-reading Primitivism in Hugues Panassié’s Writing on Jazz’. Paper given at Jazz and Race, Past and Present conference, Open University. November 2010.

‘Hugues Panassié and Readings of Primitivism in Early French Jazz Criticism’. Invited seminar, University of Sheffield. December 2009.

‘Thelonious Monk Meets the French Critics: Improvisation and its Simulacra’. Paper given at Mediating Jazz Conference, University of Salford. November 2009.

‘Too Clean to be Messed With’. Paper given at International Leeds Jazz Conference, Leeds College of Music. March 2005.

‘Eddie Prévost’s Friday Night Workshops’. Paper given at Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, University of Guelph, Canada. September 2001.

Research interests

Tom’s current research is focussed on these areas: the French reception of jazz in the 20^th-century; jazz and European theories of modernity; music and race, especially as construed and constructed by European commentators on jazz; jazz and popular music historiography. Tom welcomes enquiries from potential research students in these areas.

Selected publications

Article. ‘Hugues Panassié Contra Walter Benjamin: Bodies, Masses and the Iconic Jazz Recording in Mid-Century France’. Popular Music and Society. In press (Winter 2012).

Article. ‘Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memory and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s’. American Music. 29/3 (2011). 277-307.

Article. ‘Thelonious Monk meets the French critics: Art and Entertainment, Improvisation, and its Simulacrum’. Jazz Perspectives. 5/1 (2011). 61-94.

Article. ‘Tradition, Modernity and the Supernatural Swing: Re-Reading “Primitivism” in Hugues Panassié’s Writing on Jazz’. Popular Music. 30/1 (2011). 25-45.

Book review. ‘Robin D. G. Kelley, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original’. Jazz Research Journal. 3/2 (2009). 212-9.

Book in translation: Lee Morgan: La vita, la musica e il suo tempo (Bologna, 2009: Odoya).

Article. ‘Writing Jazz Biography: Race, Research and Narrative Representation’. Popular Music History. 2/2 (2007). 119-145.

Book. Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture (London, 2006: Equinox).

Book review. ‘Eithne Quinn, Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap’. Popular Music. 24/3 (2005). 459-462.