Professor of Jazz and Improvised Music

Dr. Van de Leur is the first Professor of Jazz and Improvised Music in the Netherlands. Because of his dual position at the University of Amsterdam and Conservatory of Amsterdam, he is deeply involved with interdisciplinary and practice-based research. Van de Leur's research partly focuses on the critical reading of archival jazz sources. He is an internationally recognized expert on the music of Duke Ellington and his collaborator Billy Strayhorn. His publications (Oxford UP 2002, Cambridge UP [forthcoming], Princeton UP [forthcoming]) address among others questions of representation, and in general seek to challenge perceived jazz myths. He is guest-editor of the Duke Ellington Special Edition of the peer-reviewed Jazz Perspectives (March 2012).

Van de Leur also specializes in jazz in the Netherlands, and here his research deals with jazz criticism (Amsterdam UP 2009, Jazz Bulletin [in press]), representation and identity (ARCC paper 2011). While he works in international academic circles (e.g., as editor for the Jazz Series at University of Michigan Press, for the peer-reviewed journals Jazz Perspectives , and Music and Practice ), his work branches out to cultural practitioners as well. He was the initiator and sole researcher for six groundbreaking recording projects that evolved around newly discovered jazz works of Strayhorn, Mary Lou Williams, Gil Evans and others ( http://www.dutchjazz.nl/ ), and is the initiator and editor in chief for the NL Real Book , an ongoing publication series of jazz compositions from the Netherlands ( http://www.muziekcentrumnederland.nl/en/publisher/projects/nl-real-book/about-nl-real-book/ ).

He is regularly invited to speak about jazz and jazz research, for a wide variety of audiences, from students at the Technical University of Eindhoven (October 2011) to concertgoers at the Amsterdam Jazzfest (November 2011), and from music industry professionals at the Dutch Jazz and World Meeting (December 2010) to jazz musicians at the Jazzdag (June 2011).

As of 2010, he is Principal Investigator and Senior Researcher for Rhythm Changes , a project funded by HERA. In that capacity he organized and headed the international Jazz and Identities Conference in Amsterdam, September 2011 (with close to 100 participants the largest of its kind ever organized). This showed his ability to lead and collaborate with international partners, both in and outside of academia.

Publications

Books

·       NL Real Book , Vol. 2. Editor in Chief. Amsterdam: MCN (forthcoming 2012)

·       NL Real Book , Vol. 1. Editor in Chief. Amsterdam: MCN 2011

·       Jazz behind the dikes: Vijfentachtig jaar schrijven over jazz in Nederland . Oratiereeks Amsterdam University Press, 2009

·       Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn . New York: Oxford University Press, 2002

Winner of the  2003 Irving Lowens Book Award (Society of American Music) and the  2003 Award for Best Research in Recorded Jazz Music (Association of Recorded SoundCollections)

Articles in Books

·       "Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington." In: Ed Green, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Duke Ellington . New York: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)

·       "Duke Ellington's script for Black, Brown and Beige ." In: John Howland, ed. Duke Ellington , Princeton UP ( With Prof. Lisa Barg, forthcoming)

·       Entries for Gil Evans, Boyd Raeburn, Billy Strayhorn, and Claude Thornhill in: Charles Hiroshi Garrett (ed.). The Grove Dictionary of American Music. New York: Oxford University Press (forthcoming)

·       "'People Wrap Their Lunches in Them': Duke Ellington and His Written Music Manuscripts". In: John Howland, ed. Duke Ellington Studies Anthology . New York: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)

·       "Scoresof Scores: Einige Anmerkungen zu Manuskripten der Billy Strayhorn und Duke Ellington Sammlungen in den USA."In: Duke Ellington und die Folgen . Darmstadt: Jazz-Institut Darmstadt and Wolke Verlag, 2000

·       "Billy Strayhorn." In: The International Dictionary of Black Composers , Vol. 2. Chicago: Columbia College of Chicago Press, 1999

Articles

·       "Clichémachines versus Improvisatoren: Jazzwereld 1967-1973." Jazzbulletin 82 ( March 2012; article is in Dutch)

·       "'Zuivere Jazz' and 'Charlatanisme': De Jazzwereld 1931-1940." Liber Plurium Vocum voor Rokus de Groot. Amsterdam University Press, May 2012; article is in Dutch )

·       "'Pure Jazz' and 'Charlatanry': A History of De Jazzwereld Magazine, 1931-1940." Dan Morgenstern Commemorative Festschrift . Current Research in Jazz Vol. 4, (in press, 2012)

·       Introduction as guest-editor to Jazz Perspectives' Theme Issue on Duke Ellington (forthcoming 2012)

·       "Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, The River and Chief Natoma." DEMS Bulletin, Vol. 32 (August-November 2010) www.depanorama.net/dems

·       "A Jungle at Duke's Place? Titles, Credits, and the Secondary Literature." Blue Light (Winter 2003): 14-15

·       "The 'American Impressionists' and the 'Birth of the Cool'." Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie (February 2001): 18-26

·        " A Warehouse Full of Paper: The Duke Ellington Collection." Jazz-Nu (March 1995): 14-15     

Invited reviews

·       "Swingende geschiedschrijving: Mythen van de jazzgeschiedenis ontzenuwd." Academische Boekengids (Amsterdam University Press, May 2010): 21-23

·       "The Oxford Companion to Jaz z." Tijdschrift voor Muziektheorie (February 2003): 83-85

·       "Annual Review of Jazz Studies." Jazz Research News (February 2001): 56-57

• Conservatorium van Amsterdam
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