Professor Tom Perchard

Staff details

Position Professor of Music, Director of Research, Programme Convenor for BMus Popular Music

Department Music

Email t.perchard (@gold.ac.uk)

Phone +44 (0)20 7717 2273

I am Director of Research, convenor of the BMus Popular Music programme, and, with Prof. Keith Negus, co-director of the Popular Music Research Unit. My work centres on the history and historiography of jazz and popular music. My most recent book is After Django: Making Jazz in Postwar France (University of Michigan Press, 2015), and an edited anthology, From Soul to Hip Hop, was published in 2014 as part of Routledge’s Library of Essays on Popular Music. My first monograph was Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture (Equinox, 2006). My research articles appear in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association, American Music, Popular Music, Jazz Perspectives, Popular Music and Society, the Journal of the Society for American Music and Popular Music History.

Teaching

Since 2008, I have designed, delivered or team-led the following modules: Popular Music History; Analytical and Contextual Studies; Approaches to Contemporary Music; Music Study Skills (Level 1); What is Jazz? (Level 2); Topics in African American Music; Music/Modernities; Research Essay; Advanced Popular Music Studies (Level 3); Encounters in African American Music; Popular Music and its Critics (Masters).

Areas of supervision

I am currently primary supervisor for three MPhil/PhD students: Jeremiah Spillane, ‘Identity, Improvisation and Influence: The Stylistic Development and Enduring Legacy of Django Reinhardt; Alex de Lacy, ‘Grime Music: Live Performance and the Creative Process’; Fiamma Mozzetta, ‘The Past in Contemporary Popular Music: Historical Meaning-Making in Creative, Institutional and Commercial Sites’. I have had one PhD completion: Jasmin Taylor, ‘Billie Holiday and the Gendered Politics of Jazz Creativity’ (2017). I have examined four PhDs. Since 2008 I have supervised over 20 Masters students’ dissertations.

Research Interests

My research is focussed on the cultural history of jazz and popular music in the (long) 20^th-century. I welcome enquiries from potential research students.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Perchard, Tom; Graham, Stephen; Rutherford-Johnson, Tim and Rogers, Holly. 2022. Twentieth-Century Music in the West. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108481984

Perchard, Tom. 2015. After Django: Making Jazz in Postwar France. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472072422

Perchard, Tom, ed. 2014. From Soul to Hip Hop (The Library of Essays on Popular Music). Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-2719-3

Perchard, Tom. 2009. Lee Morgan: La vita, la musica e il suo tempo. Bologna: Odoya. ISBN 978-88-6288-014-5

Perchard, Tom. 2006. Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture. London: Equinox. ISBN 1845532058

Edited Journal

Perchard, Tom and Powers, Devon, eds. 2017. Special Issue: The Critical Imperative, Popular Music, 36(1). 0261-1430

Book Section

Perchard, Tom. 2018. The Vocalized Tone. In: Nicholas Gebhardt; Nichole Rustin-Paschal and Tony Whyton, eds. The Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies. Routledge, pp. 197-207. ISBN 9781138231160

Perchard, Tom. 2014. 'Introduction'. In: Tom Perchard, ed. From Soul to Hip Hop. Farnham: Ashgate, xi-xxix. ISBN 978-0-7546-2950-4

Article

Perchard, Tom. 2017. Technology, Listening and Historical Method: Placing Audio in the Post-War British Home. Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 142(2), pp. 367-399. ISSN 0269-0403

Perchard, Tom. 2017. Growing Old Together: Pop Studies and Music Sociology Today. Twentieth-Century Music, 14(2), pp. 335-343. ISSN 1478-5722

Perchard, Tom. 2017. Mid-Century Modern Jazz: Music and Design in the Postwar Home. Popular Music, 36(1), pp. 55-74. ISSN 0261-1430

Powers, Devon and Perchard, Tom. 2017. Introduction: The Critical Imperative. Popular Music, 36(1), pp. 1-5. ISSN 0261-1430

Perchard, Tom. 2015. New Riffs on the Old Mind-Body Blues: “Black Rhythm,” “White Logic,” and Music Theory in the Twenty-First Century. Journal of the Society for American Music, 9(3), pp. 321-348. ISSN 1752-1963

Perchard, Tom. 2013. Doing Musical Fieldwork with James G. Spady. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 37(2), pp. 104-112. ISSN 0197-4327

Perchard, Tom. 2013. Eric Drott, Music and the Elusive Revolution: Cultural Politics and Political Culture in France, 1968-1981 (Book Review). The French journal of popular music studies, 9(2), pp. 150-152.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. Hugues Panassié contra Walter Benjamin: Bodies, masses and the iconic jazz recording in mid-century France. Popular Music and Society, 35(3), pp. 375-398. ISSN 0300-7766

Perchard, Tom. 2011. Thelonious Monk meets the French critics: Art and Entertainment, Improvisation, and its Simulacrum. Jazz Perspectives, 5(1), pp. 61-94. ISSN 1749-4060

Perchard, Tom. 2011. Tradition, modernity and the supernatural swing: re-reading ‘primitivism’ in Hugues Panassié’s writing on jazz. Popular Music, 30(1), pp. 25-45. ISSN 0261-1430

Perchard, Tom. 2011. Hip hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memory and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s. American Music, 29(3), pp. 277-307. ISSN 0734-4392

Perchard, Tom. 2009. Robin D. G. Kelley, 'Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original’ (Book Review). Jazz Research Journal, 3(2), pp. 212-219. ISSN 1753-8637

Perchard, Tom. 2007. Writing Jazz Biography: Race, Research and Narrative Representation. Popular Music History, 2(2), pp. 119-145. ISSN ISSN: 1740-7133

Perchard, Tom. 2005. Eithne Quinn, 'Nuthin’ but a “G” Thang: The Culture and Commerce of Gangsta Rap’ (Book Review). Popular Music, 24(3), pp. 459-462.

Conference or Workshop Item

Perchard, Tom. 2018. 'Hearing, Seeing, Talking, Touching: Pop Music Experiences in the Postwar British Home'. In: 8th William A. Kern Conference in Visual Communication. Rochester Institute of Technology, United States.

Perchard, Tom. 2018. 'Towards a History of Pop Music in the 20th-Century Home'. In: Research Symposium. Kunstuniversität Graz, Austria.

Perchard, Tom. 2017. 'Reimagining Popular Music History'. In: Research Colloquium. University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2017. 'Historiography and Popular Music'. In: 53rd Royal Music Association annual conference. University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2017. 'Experiments in Critical Music Writing'. In: Experimental Approaches to Writing Research symposium. Birmingham City University, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2017. 'What Next for the History of Popular Music?'. In: 19th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. Kassel, Germany.

Perchard, Tom. 2016. 'Towards a History of Pop Music in the British Home'. In: Research symposium. University of York, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2016. 'Utopia in the Living Room'. In: Jazz Utopia. Birmingham City University, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2016. 'The Look of Listening: Audio Technology and the British Home, 1955-70'. In: Research Symposium. Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Thomas. 2015. 'Roundtable contributor'. In: ‘New Directions in Jazz Studies’ symposium.. Senate House, University of London, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2014. 'Panel respondent, Voice, Memory, Song symposium, University of Oxford. November 2014.'. In: Voice, Memory, Song symposium, University of Oxford. University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2014. '‘New Riffs on the Old Mind-Body Blues: “Black Rhythm,” “White Logic” and Music Theory in the 21st-Century’.'. In: Invited seminar, Royal Holloway, University of London. Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2014. '‘“A Good Jazzman is a Dead Jazzman”: the History, Memory and Materiality of a French Jazz Past’'. In: Musical Materialities in the Digital Age. University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. 'Going Cold on Cool: Miles Davis and Ascenseur pour l’échafaud’'. In: Invited research seminar. King’s College London.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. '“We must expand the domain of jazz so we never have to leave it”: André Hodeir and the search for a European jazz art'. In: Invited research seminar. University of Edinburgh.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. 'Miles Davis’s Music for Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1958): Improvisation, Realism and Ideology'. In: Perspectives on Musical Improvisation. University of Oxford.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. 'Jazz Trumpet and the Semiotics of Vulnerability'. In: 19th International Congress of the International Musicological Society. Rome, Italy.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. 'Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memory and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s'. In: Unofficial Histories. Bishopsgate Institute, London.

Perchard, Tom. 2012. 'Monk Meets the French Critics'. In: Piacenza Jazz Fest study day. Piacenza, Italy.

Perchard, Tom. 2011. 'Ideologies of Improvisation: Miles Davis’ music for Ascenseur pour l’échafaud'. In: Invited research seminar. University of York.

Perchard, Tom. 2011. 'Re-reading Primitivism in Hugues Panassié’s Writing on Jazz'. In: Jazz and Race, Past and Present. Open University.

Perchard, Tom. 2011. 'Thelonious Monk Meets the French Critics: Art and Entertainment, Improvisation, and its Simulacrum'. In: Salford Jazz Research Seminar. University of Salford.

Perchard, Tom. 2011. 'Hip Hop Samples Jazz: Dynamics of Cultural Memory and Musical Tradition in the African American 1990s'. In: Invited research seminar, ‘Directions in Musical Research’ series.. Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Study.

Perchard, Tom. 2011. 'Four Histories of 20th-Century Music.'. In: Cabaret Voltaire art foundation course. GBS University, St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Perchard, Tom. 2009. 'Hugues Panassié and Readings of Primitivism in Early French Jazz Criticism'. In: Invited research seminar. University of Sheffield.

Perchard, Tom. 2009. 'Thelonious Monk Meets the French Critics: Improvisation and its Simulacra'. In: Mediating Jazz. University of Salford.