Dr Walter van de Leur is the first Professor of Jazz and Improvised Music in the Netherlands at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on behalf of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA). His work focuses on jazz reception history and historiography and is deeply involved with interdisciplinary and practice-based research.

His new book Jazz and Death: Reception, Rituals, and Representations critically examines the myriad and complex interactions between jazz and death, from the New Orleans "jazz funeral" to jazz in heaven or hell, final recordings, jazz monuments, and the music’s own presumed death. It looks at how fans, critics, journalists, historians, writers, the media, and musicians have narrated, mythologized, and relayed those stories, including those of Chet Baker and Ben Webster (both of whom died here in Amsterdam).

Forthcoming publication by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, May 12, 2023. You can read more about the book and pre-order it here.